Just Became Catholic? Here's What To Do Your First Year

Becoming Catholic can feel like a spiritual adrenaline rush, until you hit the first real Monday morning and realize you still have to live it. We sit down with Keith Nestor, author of The Convert’s Guide to Roman Catholicism, to talk about what new Catholics actually face after OCIA: culture shock at Mass, awkward parish dynamics, and the surprisingly hard moment of telling family and friends you’ve entered the Catholic Church. 

We also get honest about “Catholic lingo” and why it matters. Words like offer it up, prayer intentions, confession, sacramental life, and liturgical year are not just insider phrases, they point to a totally different way of seeing the world. Keith shares what helped him avoid burnout and what he wishes every convert knew: celebrate your entry into the Church, go slow, set realistic goals, and stop trying to do every devotion at once. If you’re tempted to jump straight into online debates or liturgy wars, we explain why that can wreck your peace fast. 

The heart of the conversation is Keith’s family story: years of division after his conversion, followed by a shocking chain of events that brought his daughter, son-in-law, and daughter-in-law into the Church. It turns into a powerful lesson in surrender, prayer, fasting, and letting God do what arguments cannot. We also talk about suffering and why Catholic spirituality doesn’t dodge it, it puts the Cross and the Eucharist at the center, giving real meaning when life hurts. 

If you’re new to Catholicism, returning to the faith, sponsoring someone in RCIA/OCIA, or trying to bring your spouse or kids back to the sacraments, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s discerning Catholic conversion, and leave a review with the one habit you’re committing to next.

Transcript

Cold Open Download Conversion Joke

SPEAKER_00 0:11

People always ask me, Keith, how did you learn enough about the faith to write your book, The Convert's Guide to Roman Catholicism? It's easier to show you. Hold on.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

Upload begins when you press here.

SPEAKER_04 1:42

And that's how you convert people to Catholicism. That's gotta be the best one I've ever seen, I'm telling you. What is that movie? Johnny mnemonic or something? I don't I don't I don't think I haven't seen that movie. I haven't I haven't seen that one either. I'm not sure actually. Yeah, I don't know. But everybody everybody makes the joke that you look like um Keanu Reeves. Yeah, Keanu Reeves. So Keith Nestor, man, uh one of one of our one of our uh favorite people to have on. Thank you, fellas. Yeah, we uh people probably don't know, but Keith and I are like besties behind the scenes. We talk like don't tell anybody, dude.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

How many times I have to like apologize for being your friend, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:26

It happens way more than it should.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Or I was like, wait a minute, you know that guy?

SPEAKER_04 2:32

One of my favorite things about Keith is that Keith's wife will find misogynistic stuff online and send it to Keith to send me.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

That is that is a true statement.

SPEAKER_04 2:41

That's a true statement. Every once in a while, Keith Keith will just send me something about like women being bad drivers or women being dumb or something like that. Keith will go, yeah. This was for my wife. I'm like, oh, that's amazing. She's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

It's an East Coast thing, you know. She's a Philly girl, so she's got that kind of you know, that vibe.

Nine Years Catholic And Why

SPEAKER_04 2:58

Um, a lot of people don't understand like that a northeast sense of humor, is usually where I'm coming from. Like people think I'm mean or something like that. It's just we're just like a little brash, a little on the edgier side. Um, but Keith, you uh how how many years since you came into the church?

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Oh man, I think it's probably I think it's been, you know, it'll be nine years um in uh October. Nine years. So you came in under Francis, right? Yes, uh, yes, sir. I came in right before the summer of shame. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_04 3:31

Wow, wow, wow, you came in right before so wait, were you paying super close attention to the summer of shame stuff, or were you just like in your honeymoon phase of becoming Catholic? Like, no, I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it, I just want to be Catholic.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Uh, you know, I was so, I mean, think back to 2015, 2016 era is when I was really like doing all my deep dive on Catholicism. And, you know, there wasn't really a lot of the same stuff that there is out now in terms of of uh YouTube-ish kind of things, you know, it was a lot of like Steve Ray videos, Scott Han videos, I mean, kind of the the normal stuff that you would have back in the day. Um, but when I was a new Catholic, I was like, I was uh I was right there with like TNT, man, back in the old school TNT days, you know. So that's sort of where I got my explanation of all those issues. So that's kind of how I I came into all that. But to be real with you guys, like I didn't go down the rabbit hole of all of that stuff because I didn't, I just it just wasn't something that I was interested in, you know.

SPEAKER_04 4:40

Um yeah, I'll tell you, we we did it for like I don't think we were ever like obsessive on it. We would talk about like stuff if it was like a major thing, but even from the beginning of our show, we were always like, I don't know, we don't want to add to the noise of like just dunking on the hierarchy and stuff. And it, you know, the Francis era was a unique time. I think things have changed a lot under Leo, uh at least on the surface level. But I do think that people come into the church and they get kind of like a spiritual high, like you learn everything about Catholicism. You come into the church, you have this spiritual high, and you just want to proclaim the Catholic Church and the Catholic faith from the rooftops, and and then there probably comes like a sobering moment where the high wears off, and then like real life living out your faith comes into play. So you you had written a book about like what to do when you become Catholic, right?

Culture Shock At Mass And Parishes

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Yeah, I so and it's good, it's so weird. So this is the book I wrote, The Conference Guide to Roman Catholicism, your first year in the church. And we'll get into some of this, but when I when I became Catholic, the last thing on my mind was to ever do any kind of public-facing thing at all. That was that was not on my radar, you know. So, writing a book, giving talks, doing YouTube, anything like not no way. I just got a job and worked and was a Catholic. And then it was about a year later that I got the idea, and I really believe it was from God. And it's funny that intro, you know, it's him getting that download. That's literally how it happened to me. We were on a bus heading to um, we were we did a pilgrimage over to Mejigoria, and we were leaving, and on that bus, like this thing hit me where I was just like, I need to write this book. And so so I just came home and and I started working on it, but I didn't have a publisher, I still don't have a publisher, and I just I just uh cranked it out, man. And I just I didn't know what I was gonna do with it, but it was one of those things where I felt like this is what God wanted me to do. I don't have the plan, I don't have the strategy, and I didn't really care because that wasn't my goal. Um I just wanted to be obedient, so I wrote that book, and the book really is about what it's like to be a new Catholic, it's not about it's not an apologetics book on why you should be Catholic, and it's not a book on like the deep side of your faith, it's more of the practical realities that new converts face. So what are some of them?

SPEAKER_04 7:10

Like because I mean, I'm obviously a cradle Catholic, right? So some of the stuff you wouldn't have to deal with. It's in my DNA. Um, I've you know, raised as as a Catholic. So, like, there's probably some that would be obvious, like you know, dealing with family that don't understand your conversion and stuff. But is there any like huge cultural things that you're just like, man, this is gonna take so good.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

So many, are you kidding me? That's the main thing. Like, this this book is about the culture. So, so like the first the first practical thing that I get into, I do know I talk about why do people convert in the first place, but the first thing I talk about really, it's I think it's chapter three, it's called How to Not Have a Holy War, coming out as a Catholic. And it's it's how you tell people that you're Catholic. How do you tell your family and friends? Like, what are you supposed to do with that? Because that's the thing, you know, when when you're an evangelical or a Protestant or something and you become Catholic, you have to figure out how you're gonna let that cat out of the bag. And so that was really my first sort of practical tip that I gave people on how to do that was, and it was really more about what not to do than what to do. Um, so so I have a chapter on that. I have a chapter on like walking through the mass, relating to the mass as a former Protestant. What what are the things of the mass that you need to be keyed in on? How does here's another one that that most people don't think about. How do you find a parish? Like what how do you church drop as a Catholic? And what because that's the cradle cradles deal with that too, though. Yeah, they do, but they do have to deal with it differently. It's a completely different understanding because here's the thing, right? Converts, especially from evangelicalism, are used to being the most important person in the room when they go to church. Yeah, all right. That from the moment they arrive on the property, there are people who are trained to make you feel like you are a VIP, man, 100%. And so you have you have all sorts of you know, greeters and all this stuff for new visitors and everything. It's like, oh, you're catered to in so many ways, special parking lot spaces, all this, you know. Well, you guys know this as a Catholic, you show up, nobody gives a flying rip you're there.

SPEAKER_04 9:24

You know, not just that, not just that, like Catholics hog the aisle and don't let you like get in ask them. It's like it's just it's like that's a cradle thing. We like doing that. We don't like to let the converts feel welcome. So we hog the aisle step over us.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

So make sure people are very uncomfortable when they come. Yeah. So stuff, stuff like that. I mean, how do you do that? How do you prepare yourself to walk in, like, you know, because that's a that that can be shocking, but but but beneath all of that really is understanding, and this is the key to everything, really, understanding the why behind the what. Why are things the way they are? Cradle Catholics usually don't think about it. That's just how it is. It's the air you breathe, which is understandable, you know. But but converts oftentimes come in and they have to they have to figure out okay, why is it this way? Why do we do this? Why don't we do that? How how come, you know, every when you go into mass, everyone's super quiet. I'm used to going in, there's a countdown, a band playing, everybody's high-fiving each other, drinking coffee and talking about their weekend, you know, and then you go to Catholic Mass, like, oh my goodness, is our funeral going on first here? What's what's the deal? So there's cultural things like that, and then of course, there's the the cultural things of just being Catholic that are different, you know. Um, how people talk about their faith, the words we use, different things like that. So, anyway, that's what the whole book was.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

The linguage is so different, right? When you listen to man, especially being on like dealing with Protestant Twitter, you like the catchphrases that like the the the finished work of Jesus Christ, right? Like the these little catchphrases that they have that they it's like I call it, I call it catchphrase Christianity, where yeah, they think that like saying a certain phrase is is what saves you, things like that that you have to kind of break break out of it.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

I mean even even as a cradle, like uh I don't know right back, fellas.

SPEAKER_04 11:17

Okay, yeah, yeah. All right, go ahead. So Keith Keith's uh son is uh stationed in Syria, and he right before they came on the show, right before he came on, his son got like uh an emergency alert. So Keith was like, if I gotta dip out, it's just to make sure my son's okay. So let's pray his son's okay, first off. But yeah, like you Rob, you think about um our lingo, we we kind of especially with the Catholic answers like uh over the past couple of decades of them shaping us because of of being in response to the Protestants, like we have our own lingo too that that kind of settles in too, you know.

SPEAKER_03 11:55

I just I don't know what age I would have been exactly, but like as a cradle Catholic, the first time having you know, like an evangelical ask you, Are you saved? It's like well, what do you mean? Like, the heck do you have to do it?

SPEAKER_04 12:09

Okay, neighbors, everything okay? Yep, yep, everything's good. Thank you guys. I appreciate that. Yeah, I was I was just about to say Rob said like the first time he heard like the evangelical or have you been saved yet? So I I had a neighbor who lived down the block from me, and they were like super born-again evangelical. And I remember we're playing manhunt, I was like 11 years old, and the kid was like, You're Catholic, you're going to hell, you haven't been saved.

SPEAKER_03 12:36

First off, can we just appreciate the i the like kind of the irony of you know a young Italian American playing manhunt? Manhunt, dude.

SPEAKER_04 12:45

Was it training you guys? We we lived on we lived on a court, like all the kids were friends, but the the one kid's mother like programmed in their heads this anti-Catholicism from when they were little. So that was like the first time I ever came across a Protestant. I remember talking to my mom, and my mom was in like a prayer group with the mom. It was like a woman's prayer meeting that they did together, and my mom had to like set the mother straight and tell her to tell her kids not to say that was kind of bizarre, but yeah, you're getting into the lingo, right? Right, Keith?

Catholic Lingo And Everyday Differences

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Yeah. So I'll give you a couple examples. So, you know, you you talk about like the whole the finished work of Christ and things like that. Catholics are always talking about offering it up, you know, when you're going through something, offer it up. Like Protestants have no idea what that means. Okay. So when you say offer it up, they look at you like, what are you talking about? Also, when you're talking about like prayer, in the Protestant world, you don't say prayer intentions, you say prayer requests. So when you're like, hey, I got a prayer request in the Catholic Church, they're like, What's that? You know, but they're always like, Well, what are your intentions? Like, I remember when someone said, I was like, All right, let's pray. They're like, What are your intentions? I'm like, My intention is to pray. What are you talking about? You know, that is kind of funny. I wouldn't like, no, like, what are your intentions? I'm like, to like dialogue with Jesus. That's what I want to do. I mean, it so there are different lingo things, and then like other weird stuff too. You know, I tell a story in this book about the first time I I met a priest and was talking to him about the faith. I was invited to go to like the um Knights of Columbus Hall or whatever for a fish fry. And so I went and the priest comes up to the table with two pictures of beer and he puts them down on the table. He's like, All right, good to have you. And I was just like so scandalized by that. I'm like, what are you talking about, dude? Um, so just like the the um is there a bit of relief?

SPEAKER_04 14:36

Is there a bit of relief in that, right? Like you come from because the you know, the the like the cliche is that cat uh you know Protestants take their faith so seriously, and Catholics are kind of, but there is something too just like sitting and hanging with the priest and having a beer that's gotta be a bit of a relief that you're not you could kind of just like be normal a little bit, I would think.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Yeah, well, it's you know, it's interesting because I mean there are Protestants that do that. Don't get me wrong. I mean, like the Reformed guys I know all do that, you know. They're all they're all into that stuff, you know, most of them. Maybe not some of the the Reformed Baptists, but I don't know, there's just different attitudes around things, you know? Uh and some of the culture is is different, and and and not all of it is just like this, you know, weird, kind of goofy stuff, but some of it is just like amazing to to where, like, for example, I have never been asked when I first when I first became Catholic, nobody when I kind of showed up and nobody really knew who I was or what I was doing, nobody said, Hey Keith, what do you do for a job? Nobody cared. Like your vocation is is are you a father or are you religious or are you sick? Like, like what's your state in life? But there's a different understanding about that and and a different way of viewing community. And the other thing I thought that was so interesting is from a practical perspective, this is one of my favorite things about being Catholic, but I thought it was gonna drive me crazy. Was that we don't segment our worship. Like, for example, we had all these different worship services, not because we needed the room, but because, hey, some people like traditional worship, some people like contemporary worship, some people like country music. Some so there's like cowboy church, there's hipster church, there's rock and roll church, there's rap church. Every kind of subculture that you can think of, you're gonna find people in the church that put you in these little categories. Well, like the first time I went to like a men's prayer group at my parish, it was all dudes of all different ages, and that kind of thing just never happens in the Protestant world, typically. You know, it's usually like all right, the young men do this, the older men do this, they like everybody's always getting segmented up, you know. And I I I loved it. I I just am so excited that we come in, it's like we're no, we're just Catholic, that's our identity.

Testimony Culture And Quiet Faithfulness

SPEAKER_04 16:59

I want to actually point to the all right. So we're gonna get I want to get into like a couple of things for especially if there's there are new people checking this video out. I gotta list, brother. I gotta list. But um, I I am curious about this, like this because this I mean, you came on our show and like shared your testimony with us, right? Like you came on and told us your conversion story, and that's a very um Protestant thing, right? To share your testimony and talk about how Christ changed your life and stuff, and uh especially because all right, because we also have to get to the conversions in your family that have just happened too, but um, me raising my kids Catholic, it's I've talked about it on the show a little bit. It gets a little tricky if you're always hearing these testimonies about these drastic conversions to Christ, and my kids were just kind of raised in the faith and always had a sacramental life, and they didn't have some moment where they like fell deep into mortal sin, and then Christ rescues them from it. They didn't have their prodigal son moment, basically, right? Yeah, so it's it's something that's I see creeping into Catholicism where everybody comes on and shares their testimony. I understand it from a convert perspective, but I think Catholics, like cradle Catholics, are a little off, like they're like, Well, what do I do with this? I think.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Well, I think, okay, so here's my take on that. I think everybody, I mean, we all we all have a story one way or the other, okay. And one of the most effective things you can do to share your faith with people is to tell them your faith story, your journey. And and you you have one even as a cradle Catholic growing up in the faith, right? So that's totally okay. There, there, and I, you know, I grew up in the church camp world where it was like somebody grabbed the microphone, and you know, there were people that were running through jungles chased by you know gangs that found Jesus, you know, what I mean, like people had these crazy wild stories, and it almost became like this competitive thing like who's got the most dramatic, craziest testimony. And you know, I think that that's just kind of entertainment to a certain degree, right? It can be, because then it becomes all about that person. Your your testimony should never highlight you, it should be about Jesus and it and your the way that we tell our stories needs to need to be able to connect with people and point them to Christ, not to ourselves. I do think they're helpful, right?

SPEAKER_04 19:20

Like if so, especially if somebody's like a drug abuser and like they have this drastic event, like that could inspire somebody else who's into like there are like I definitely think they're useful and that they're helpful, especially for a lot of people who need to hear them for the first time. I'm I'm uh my concern is a little bit about my like my own, because my son had said it to me. He's like, Dad, I don't know, I hear all these stories, and it's like even for me, like I had a deep reversion moment where God hit me over the head with a two by four. And when I tell my kids that they're like, Well, I I don't know, I never had that, I just kind of believe in God. You know, well, I think that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Yeah. I mean, I would I would rather I would rather have kids that didn't need to be rescued because they were they were um you know brought up in the faith. I mean, that's the goal. So it's funny. So like I was at this men's retreat a couple of months ago, and this dude, we were talking about the same exact issue. This guy who's probably like 60 years old. He goes, you know, I really don't have a a any kind of dramatic conversion story. He says, I was raised Catholic, you know, I'm just a dad, I've got seven kids, and all my they're all adults and they're all still Catholic. And I was like, You are the hero. Yeah, you are the hero. Yeah, I'm not the hero. You're you're the hero. You ought to come up instead of me giving a talk, you ought to give a talk. If you can raise, and he's this guy, super simple blue-collar guy, right? And and he was just like, I don't know, I don't really have anything to share. I just raised seven kids and they're all still Catholic.

SPEAKER_04 20:48

I'm like, uh, that's yeah, that that that's just that is a yeah, and that's something I think a lot of people probably need to hear, also. Like, what did you do to keep those kids in the church and not have that time period where they fall away, right? So you back to my point, dude.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

That's see, here's the thing. Our conversion stories aren't just about the dramatic past and the crazy, you know, hook. It's about how we live our faith out. Because the reality is we're all converts and we convert every single day. It's not just the conversion I had, you know, 10 years ago when I decided to become Catholic. Every single day I have to freaking convert because my flesh wants to take me a certain place and the devil's tempting me, and I'm getting dealing with the things. So every moment there's an opportunity for for me to convert. And I think we need to tell those stories more and more about not just, hey, here's my conversion story, but how do I live out the faith? And I have learned so much from guys like you who are cradle Catholics, who don't have all that. I mean, I know you have your deal, but but who guys that are just like, okay, I I don't have this boring, I just have this boring story. No, no, no. That's huge. Everybody has something to share about that, you know. And I think that can be a huge thing. So I'm personally like I'm all about hearing the stories. I love listening to people talk about their faith journey. And that's why, like when I do my interviews on my channel, sometimes I know that it's going to be like a big conversion, right? But sometimes I'm interviewing people who who didn't convert necessarily in this traditional sense. But we'll talk, I'll just say, let's talk about your faith journey. You know, what's that looked like? And everybody's got something to share when it comes to that.

SPEAKER_04 22:29

Yeah. I'll tell you the first, so the first time we had you on was I think three years ago. And I remember uh you you didn't really want to talk because you're you you have your reversion, you have your conversion nine years ago, but your children are all adults, yeah. So it's like it was a it was a topic. I remember asking you a little bit about it, and you're like, ah, it's kind of a touchy subject, and you didn't want to dive into it too much. But now, nine years later, after your conversion, I saw you made an I mean you've talked behind the scenes obviously a little bit about it, but you had some huge announcements in your family this year, right?

Family Reunited Through Prayer And Grace

SPEAKER_01 23:02

We we did, man. So I have I have three kids, I have a daughter and then two sons. And when we converted, they were like 15, 17, and 18, like you know, ish, uh, maybe just turned 19. And they, you know, I did a terrible job explaining to them what we had done. They were in the years where it was like they had their own life that was they were sort of in the church you were a pastor at, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:28

Like they're in the church that Keith was a pastor at.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Yeah, they were in the youth group, they were in the church, they were my daughter, was an intern, my son was in the prayer, both my sons played in the worship team. Like, like they were very plugged in. And then now all of a sudden we're Catholic. And at first, we were like, Well, what do we do? You know, so we we brought them to go to to go to, you know, to mass with us, and honestly, they just they didn't connect with it at all. Yeah, and they were like, We hate this. Do we still have to do this? And and our priest had told us, you know, you can't make your kids do this, they're too old to make them do this. So they, long story short, they chose to not have anything to do with it. And it was really hard, you know. My wife would go into church and just she would just bawl every Sunday because our family's now divided. And it was really, really tough. And, you know, I was so on fire for the Catholic faith that I'm I'm out there just beating everybody over the head with it. And they were like, we don't want to hear anymore about this, dad. And they they actually literally said to me one time, you need to stop talking to us about it. So anyway, we we've kind of, you know, at the same time, our family's really close. So there's a lot of support just to what we're doing, and you know, they would kind of whatever, and there'd be moments where we would get a little glimmer of hope that maybe this is gonna be a thing. Well, about two years ago, my daughter, who had just recently got married, uh, it's very interesting. She was working as a worship leader at this Protestant church, and her new husband and her were having a conversation about some different things. Anyway, I go to I go to this first Saturday Mass, and I'm just I'm just praying to our lady. I'm just saying, hey, I need a signal grace. You know, I need, and for those of you who don't know, you Catholics, a signal grace, a little lingo here. That's just a grace that's we'll just call it little kisses from heaven for you people, okay? It's it's a little angel feather that fell down from the sky of God saying that I see what you're doing, and here's a little grace, okay? And I asked for that because it's one of the promises of praying the rosary every day, which I've been doing for years at that point in time. I I'm walking out to my car, and my daughter FaceTimes me, and I'm like, What's up? She says, Hey dad, what time is Mass tomorrow? And I said, Why? And you know, her husband's name is Brian. She's like, she's like, Brian, Brian and I, you know, we want to come. And I'm like, really? She's like, Yeah. And I said, Well, you know, we go to the Latin mass, it's at eight o'clock in the morning. And she goes, Oh, good, I like that one better anyway. And so I'm like, All right. So they came to the mass with us, and then that just opened the door to these conversations. And we found out that Brian, so get this, man. My son-in-law Brian, great dude. He's not that this matters, but he's like six foot eight, 350 pounds, giant dude. My daughter is this little itty-bitty thing. She's barely five foot tall. Brian's a very like intimidating looking guy, right?

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Um, and when he comes over to my house to ask to marry my daughter, I said to him, I'm you're five foot one, so you're like, oh, no way. Someone who's five foot three. I'm not five foot one. Anyway, um, uh, so he says to, you know, I he's like, I want to marry your daughter. And I said, okay. I said, listen, Brian, here's the deal, man. He wasn't brought up going to church. He was abandoned by his mom and his dad. Like, he was kind of on his own, you know. And I said, Dude, I said, you need to be the spiritual leader of your household. And I don't know, can you do that? I said, my daughter's got a strong faith. She was raised in the faith. She loves Jesus. If you're gonna be her husband, you're gonna have to be her leader. Can you do that? And he he was like, he said, Well, I'm not gonna pretend that I know all this stuff, but I'm gonna embrace that role and I'm gonna do the best I can, and I'm I'm I'm committed to like growing into that, you know? And I said, Okay, dude, well, it's wild, but my unchurched son-in-law is in some ways led my daughter into the Catholic Church. Because women follow their husbands. Well, yeah, and that's what my so my daughter and this is important. I know you guys talk about this a lot. My daughter, even though she was the more experienced person in the faith, she understood that her role was to submit to her husband and she and to lead to follow his leadership. So she was walking that line of okay, how do we do this? How do we do this? And basically what she did was she just said, Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna help you with this, but you're gonna have to take over, you know, and you're gonna really love this. Um, they were watching the chosen, okay. Rob, you're gonna love it, brother. You know me so well, Keith. And he doesn't know anything about these stories, he doesn't know anything about the Protestant Reformation, he doesn't know anything about Luther, he doesn't know anything about any of this. And he just asked her this very simple question. He said, Well, what denomination were the disciples? And my daughter was like, uh, well, you know, they didn't really have denominations back then, so what you know, he goes, I don't understand. And then she basically explained to him that Jesus started the Catholic Church, and eventually there was a reformation, right? So he just simply goes, He goes, Well, if Jesus started the Catholic Church, why aren't we Catholic?

SPEAKER_04 28:52

And that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

And then she was like, Well, do you want to try that? And he's like, Yes. So he wasn't connecting with their with their you know little evangelical church they were going to. He didn't, he he, you know, this is so man, men, men, men, yes, men. It was it was totally like, and I don't want to be disparaging, but let's just say this it's a pretty boomerish kind of new church start that's like, you know, it's just it didn't speak to this young man, yeah. And he came to the Latin Mass and he was blown away and he loved it, you know. Now it didn't make him an instant trad, an instant, but he could just sense that there was something powerful going on here that was bigger than himself. Yeah, and eventually that led that led them on this journey, and then it just kind of went cold for like months. And I'm like, what is going on? So I pulled my daughter aside one day and I said, What are you doing? You know, you flirt with this, you're thinking about it, you guys talk about it, but then whatever. And they got together and they're just like, you know what, we're just we're gonna go talk to father. And they began that process. And then she quit, she went in and she quit her job, which was really hard for her because they did not have they needed the money. Yeah. And she's like, she's like, I need to trust God here, and we need to trust God here. And Brian was all for it. He was like, hey, if this is what God wants us to do, let's do it, you know. So they she quit the job and they began OCIA, and um they came into the church, and I'm here to tell you guys this. You know, I have never seen my daughter more full of joy and more fired up about her faith than she has been in this process. It's been absolutely incredible to see her come alive. And you know, I mentioned this on X the other day, but she FaceTimed us on Saturday and she had her first confession, and she was like, I'm so I can't wait to receive the Eucharist tonight. I'm so excited. She's just like, This is so you know, I have so much joy, you know. Why don't you guys ever tell me about this, you know? And I and I'm like pretty smart, but um so anyway, that's their story. But my son, Jesse, the one who is over in the Middle East right now, this dude wanted nothing to do with church. He was like one of these kids that was like, I hate the church. I got burned by people there, I don't want anything to do with it. You know, super smart kid, knows a lot. Um, but he was just like uh not having it. Well, he gets married to a girl from Texas who was like Baptist-ish, you know, didn't really grow up in the faith, but would call herself like a Baptist. And the two of them, like we always have lunch on Sundays after church with our family. They would never go to church, they would just come over and we would invite them. They always say no, we don't want everything, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever. Well, he gets they get married in November of what 2024? Yeah, um, 2024. And then he knows he's gonna be deployed in the spring of 2025. So he goes overseas, and we're so we're trying to take care of uh his his you know, our daughter-in-law, her name's Alyssa. Yeah, and if we would invite her, hey Alyssa, you want to come to church with us? No, I'm good. No, I'm good. I don't want that, you know. And we don't want to push, you know, we don't want to be overbearing. And then my my wife and I, just before this, we had we had gone on our on our pilgrimage to Rome. We're in the we're in the Saint the tomb of uh at the tomb of St. Monica in St. Augustine's church. And my wife and I are praying, we're begging Saint Monica's intercession for our kids. And it was like the next day we started hearing good things about my daughter having conversations with her brother, all this kind of stuff like that. But they're still like, we're not going to church, we're not going to church. Well, then the literally Charlie Kirk gets shot on Wednesday. I had asked my daughter to go to church, my daughter-in-law to go to church with me that Sunday. She said, No. Charlie Kirk gets shot on Wednesday, on Thursday. That just rocked her world, man. Yeah. And she texted, she texted my wife, and she's like, I think I need to go to church with you guys. So we picked her up, we brought her to church, and she just balled the whole time. And we came out and we didn't want to be like, hey, all right, so what'd you think? Yeah. So we just sort of let it set. And then the next week she came with us, and then we were like, Hey, is this a thing or what? And she's like, It's a thing. And this girl, I'm not kidding you guys. She, it was like a switch flipped. She went from wanting nothing to do with church to now this girl is is coming out of her house. We're picking her up. She's got a missile, a Bible, a miraculous metal, a rosary. She's watching all my stuff. And she's like, she's going to daily mass, she's going to Eucharistic adoration. You could not stop this girl from running to the church. Like, she your son's in the middle east. Like, what the hell did you do to my wife? You freaking, what did you do? I know. We were, I was a little bit worried about that. I'm like, and she kept saying, No, Jesse and I have been having these conversations. When he gets back, we want to like get into faith. We want to do these things. And I'm like, wow, okay. So, so she joins OCIA, right? And the leader goes to the same adoration time that we go to. On the way out, she stops to listen. She says, Hey, by the way, if Jesse wants to do this overseas, we can set him up with like a remote program. And I didn't say anything. I was just like, what? And she's like, let me talk to him. And then he basically said, Yeah, I want to do this too. So, so my daughter-in-law got baptized on the Easter vigil along with my son-in-law. My daughter got confirmed. My granddaughter, okay, who's you know about a year and a half, she is going to be baptized at Pentecost. Hopefully, my son will be back by then. He will be confirmed, and then he's going to be the Godfather. Dude, this is like you talk about a miraculous story. It's just insane, man. I mean, we've got one other son that we're praying for. God bless him. But but it's been it's just been one incredible miracle at all. Because yeah, you're right, you know, Christine, that they were not in, they were less than interested. And it it's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 35:07

It goes look that because I know so many people who one spouse is in the church and the other one isn't. And it goes to like you trying to talk to your kids about it, and them just being like, we don't want to hear this, just stop. There comes a point where you have to surrender it and just recognize that God loves you and our lady loves you more than you love your spouse or your child, and prayer and fasting actually does work. And um, yeah, because the same thing happened with my wife. Like when I when I start taking my faith seriously, she thought I lost my mind. Yeah, you know, she she thought I lost my mind, and I'm I'm making her go to mass with me, and she wanted nothing to do with it. And I just had to stop trying to convince her because me trying to argue her in the faith was having the opposite effect, it was turning her off. So I had to just surrender it and just kind of do what I was doing, and she saw the change in me, and that piqued her interest. And next thing you know, she has her deep conversion, and you know, the rest is history.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

It's it's such a testament to the fact that, and this is important for people who who are saying, How do I get my kids back in the church or how do I get my spouse or whatever? You can't do that. Okay. And I think part of the reason why this went down the way it did was because I needed to recognize that that it wasn't within my power to make that happen. I had to let that go to the Lord and to our lady. And I really truly believe that that's how it went down. And we saw things along the way that were just like, wow, how like, for example, my son overseas, he he messaged me one day. He's like, send me books about philosophy and theology. And I'm like, really? So we were out at Steubenville, we went up to this really cool bookstore in Pittsburgh that I heard about. Our friend took us up there and we were praying. My wife and I were like, okay, what book should I give to Jesse? What should I get this kid? And I just was like, Holy Spirit, guide me, you know, to what I should give my son. And I just felt so led to get the confessions of St. Augustine. And so I got the that book and a few others. We put it in the mail. It takes, you know, weeks to get to where he is. And we had no idea when that would happen. The box of books showed up on St. Augustine's feast day. And I told Jesse, like when he's like, hey, the books came today. I said, you may not understand that this is significant, but let me explain to you what this means. And he just was like, whoa, that's cool. I mean, and it was just one thing like that after another, where it was like, God did this, man. And that's, I think, so important for us to remember because we can get so focused on ourselves and thinking, oh, I have to say the right thing or give them the right this, give them the right that. What you need to do is more than anything, you need to focus on you living out the faith in in front of them and trusting that to the Lord.

SPEAKER_04 38:02

There's a there's a couple of things there. Well, first of the Charlie Kirk thing, I think has an effect on the whole country because it got my in-laws to start going back to church. It got like I know so many people who started to look at the world differently after that incident, right? And um, the other thing that I was thinking about was even in the gospels, Christ talks about like unless you hate your father and mother, like you have to you have to love him first, right? So, like, I didn't come to bring peace, I came to bring the sword. And you're seeing your family cleaved through this whole process, and you're you're you're in love with the Catholic faith, you're out there telling people about it, you're you're you're evangelizing how countless numbers of Catholics on your channel, and meanwhile, you have this severance in your own family, and it's gotta just be breaking your heart. And then all of a sudden, you have like this reunification of your family coming this year. Like, I'm so I'm overjoyed for you, man. I because I know how much this has weighed on you for the past couple of years, and you started talking to me about it a couple months ago, and I was just it's just such an awesome story.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

Well, man, it's it's been it's been uh so powerful, you know, because like our prayer community that we have every day, the Rosary Crew, you know, they they know my kids, they've been praying for them, they've been sending them stuff, they've been, you know, so it's like to see this happen. There's so many people that are rejoicing over them right now. And that's one of my favorite things about being Catholic. And I know we're gonna get to this, but but the beautiful thing that there's no family like Catholic family, there's no community like Catholic community. And it's not to be disparaging. Some of our best friends in the whole world are Protestants, okay? And and and I'm I thank God for them. And I'm not saying anything negative about that, but I'm just saying, like, there's a different level of fellowship in the Catholic Church. And this is something that I hear a lot from fellow converts that they go, there's something deeper going on here than what I than than than where I came from. And there's a real a real sense of why this is important. We were talking about this at the Easter Visual when we were sitting there with some of our other convert friends. Um, and everybody is like in tears at these people that are coming into the church. It's this huge thing. It never was like that before, man. We used to just go into our office on Sunday morning with people who said they started coming to our church, they wanted to join, and we would literally go, Okay, guess what? You're a member. Yeah, you know, welcome. Yeah.

First-Year Advice For New Catholics

SPEAKER_04 40:34

And there is there is something profound about living out a liturgical life, also, and that you're all in in the communion of saints, right? Like you're joining the communion of saints, so it's not even just the people you're with. You have the cloud of witnesses at every single mass. You have you have you have the centuries upon centuries of saints that you could reach back and dive into that are you know exploring the same exact feat that you are. It's uh there is something really like profound and beautiful about coming into the Catholic family. Now, look, for the new converts that are coming in, there's also like, don't think you're coming into this perfect family that everybody agrees on everything, right? So, because I think that's that's probably a a false sense that you might have if you're a newcomer into the church. Like, we're a very dysfunctional family, don't get us wrong. Um, what what do you think are some tips for the new convert maybe to avoid? Um, and maybe maybe things to what are some good things and bad things you would give, like for advice for a new convert?

SPEAKER_01 41:36

Well, the first thing I would say for a new convert is just allow yourself to celebrate. You know, you went through a process. You probably, you know, you probably had some sacrifice, some suffering. You probably had some stuff you had to deal with, especially if you had marriage things you had to sort through and annulments and all that stuff. I mean, a lot of people sacrifice a lot to become Catholic. And when you finally get to that point where you where you are receiving the sacraments, just take some time and thank God and be joyful and celebrate and have fun with it. Okay. Catholics are too freaking serious all the time, except for you guys. But like, and that's why I think that's why I think people like your show because because you guys have fun, right? But and but that should be part of it. So, so just celebrate it, drink it in. And I would also say this set realistic goals for what you want to do. It can it can be so tempting to jump in and be like, all right, I'm gonna pray the liturgy of the hours every day, I'm gonna do four rosaries, and I'm gonna pray the angelists, I'm gonna do divine mercy chaplet, I'm gonna do all the ember days, I'm gonna do all the things because there's an there's an endless stream of things that are being thrown at you that you should do. Countless devotions, yeah. Yes, and everybody you meet is gonna tell you what you should do. Okay, they mean well, but they're oh, well, do you do the holy face? Well, do you do the this? Do you do that?

SPEAKER_04 43:00

There's no there's no salvation outside the brown scapular, guys.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

Yeah, you you have you have to just like treat your new faith, treat your new faith like you just were served a gourmet meal, and you're gonna eat it slowly and you're gonna savor every morse. So you're not gonna just plow it down, right? Because it will last a lifetime. Exactly. You've got your whole life, so just go slow, set realistic goals, and and enter into it with kind of a like a healthy pace. Don't overdo it because you could get burned out. Yeah. And also remember, here's another thing I would tell people only look to people who are helpful to you and nobody else. You will not have a shortage of people in your life as a Catholic that are gonna that are gonna make it difficult for you to be excited about being Catholic. Obviously, the scandals, obviously, people who do bad things, but there may be even people in your parish that just get on your nerves and annoy you. Um There may be people that are just put you off or act weird or whatever. You don't need to deal with that. Find find your people, okay? And settle into that. But don't think that you have to be all things to all people in the Catholic Church right away. So I think those are some of the things, just a mindset when you come in, you know.

SPEAKER_04 44:21

I I would say, all right, I'd say a couple of things also. Like um, like like he said, like there's a million devotions out there. Find the one that actually suits you because don't overwhelm yourself. You don't need to do every single one of them, right? I would say that the the rosary is probably indispensable. I would say and a big part of the rosary is not um like you're praying a certain amount of Hail Mary's and you have to meditate on the mysteries perfectly. I wouldn't, I would because I have a hard time meditating on the mysteries a lot of times. I'm driving when I pray the rosary. Look at the rosary more as developing a relationship with the mother of God. Like that's first and foremost what the rosary is. It's how you develop a relationship with our lady. Um, that one would be indispensable. Um, the the uh other one is if you're a new convert, I would say stay out of liturgy wars right away.

SPEAKER_01 45:11

Oh, yeah, that that was on my list too. I think here's the thing. I think I think you need to, as a convert, I think you need to like be like stay quiet online, but live out loud in real life. Okay. So I don't think you should like insert yourself into all this online arguments and discourse, and I'm gonna get in debates, I'm gonna own people, I'm gonna, you know, do all this stuff. You don't need that. But what you do need to do is be on fire for your faith in real life. Yeah, so don't don't fall into the trap of you know some grumpy old Catholic person who goes, Well, you just need to calm down, you converts are too on fire, you guys need to just settle down.

unknown 45:53

No, you don't need to do that.

SPEAKER_01 45:54

Tell that person to shut up, okay? Yeah, and you should never lose that fire. You should always, always keep that. But don't, but don't feel like I mean, and we and I know you guys talk about this too, but like if if the first thing you do when you become Catholic is start arguing with people online, you're gonna be in trouble.

SPEAKER_04 46:11

So just yeah, look, there's there's there's a couple of temptations with the online stuff. One is that you think it's like you need to you need to argue about everything. The the other one is the liturgy wars you have to be super careful about, but also don't let um faith alone as a Protestant then become faith alone plus the sacraments as a Catholic, right? Like you got you have to it don't think that becoming Catholic is just an ascent to another set of beliefs. It like being Catholic is a way of life, and you kind of have to learn to live it. And the sacraments will hopefully bring stability to your faith. Because I remember before I understood all this stuff, I used to like I I mean, I probably did five or six altar calls in my car before I understood the sacraments and stuff because you you you you'll be on fire for God one minute, and then you kind of fall back into sin and you go back to your old ways, and then all of a sudden you have to give your life back to Jesus all over again. And that was kind of my my life until I really settled into a sacramental life. Sacramental life will bring stability to your faith. Um stay away from mortal sin. I'm just gonna tell you use the confessional as frequently as you can, get used to it. The longer you go without confession, the harder it is, the more frequently you go, the easier it becomes. And uh yeah, the the online discourse is dangerous, especially when you're delving into it's just it just gets crazy. Don't don't let anybody tell you that if you're not going to the like if if people are telling you you have to go to a Latin mess, don't even worry about that stuff yet. Just become Catholic, live a liturgical life, and see where God leads you from there with that.

SPEAKER_01 47:53

Yeah, I think I think living the living the liturgical life is enough for you to to to to get started in your first year. Like you need to walk through that cycle and not be focusing on what other people are doing, but you need to like be inspired and you need to like work through these things and experience at least a year of that whole liturgical life and just drink it in without any external pressures to try to argue with people or mess with other people or doing anything like that. I just I just think that that's dangerous. And I and I meet a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people who, especially people that are in that are in ministry who are gonna become Catholic, and it's like the first thing that they do is they think, okay, how do I make this a job or whatever? It's like, no, that's the last thing you should ever that should never cross your mind, right? That's that's not what you want to do. Um and and then just let God drive that ship for you. But don't don't don't feel like you are coming in and God has a job for you. Your job is to rest and be in the sacraments and be in the church and just absorb and and rest, and then let Him unveil that stuff to you as time goes on.

SPEAKER_04 49:10

I think there should be a couple of year waiting period before somebody like if you become Catholic, because the the instinct is to want to get out there and like tell your story to everybody, and but becoming a public Catholic is a it's a day, there's danger to it, right? There just is in general. You and I are, you know, all three of us are public Catholics, like and I know a lot of guys who are public Catholics, and it especially if you're gonna try to earn income from this, like becoming a professional Catholic is a scary thing because you right off the bat you're trying to get clicks and views, and it kind of takes away the joy of living out the actual faith, like just appreciate being Catholic.

SPEAKER_03 49:52

You feel like you need to have an opinion on every little thing in the church.

SPEAKER_01 49:55

Boom. That that's a great that's a great way to put it, Rob. It's and it's like if if you feel like because the thing you got to realize is, and these can be two different conversations. Like, I do think that it's okay, I think it's good for for even new Catholics to be able to explain to people why they became Catholic. Yeah, so I think it's like if someone says to you, hey, you know, we got some friends together, we want you to come over and tell us what you did, tell us why you became share your story or whatever. Or even if somebody says, Hey, you know, I have a podcast, come on and and and share your story, how you became Catholic. I think it's one thing to share your story because here's the thing you should never go out there and pretend to be an expert in something that you're not an expert in.

SPEAKER_03 50:37

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

Now you can be an expert in your own story, okay? But that doesn't make you an expert in Catholic theology or liturgy or whatever. So be very careful about what you uh what you put yourself into. So like if someone says, Hey, we just want you to share your your your your testimony or your conversion, whatever, that's one thing. But if it's like, hey, will you give us a uh, you know, tell us about this particular thing or that particular thing, I think you should, I think you should.

SPEAKER_04 51:06

Yeah, well, especially because uh you may have learned something that made total sense for you and it was part of even why you converted, and you'll think like that's the only way to see it as a Catholic, and then all of a sudden somebody else that knows the subject more than you and has more of a maybe even like understanding it from a traditional standpoint might come, and you what'll happen is it'll lead to you feeling silly because you spoke on something you don't necessarily know that well. That will happen no matter how many years you wait. That's true. Yeah, it took me years uh to to hear all the different perspectives on things, and I remember you know, I'd hear something on Catholic answers, and I thought like that's the only way to see the issue, and then all of a sudden you see something from a different perspective. You're like, Oh, okay, maybe I should have chilled out with like gunning for that specific thing, you know.

SPEAKER_03 51:59

You know, especially if you're coming in from like Protestantism, you're you're coming into a church where you know you learn that there's a magisterium, and we have all these, you know, definitive answers and think, you know, thing where things are definitely right, and you just assume that, well, that means there's a definitive answer for everything, not realizing that most things the church is pretty open as to it being kind of an open question that people get to decide for themselves.

SPEAKER_04 52:23

Yeah, so something something like the death penalty. Like you don't want to jump into the death penalty debate because you heard a John Paul sermon. Like you just you wanna, you know, these are things to just be be cautious of as you're coming in, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 52:36

100%. And and along that line, I think the other thing that you have to do is you have to develop a thick skin and a soft heart because you're you're going to run into things that are that are going to challenge you, that are gonna be tough, and you're gonna still be dealing with some fallout from your past from people questioning you and and challenging you, and you know, maybe even um criticizing you. And that's hard to deal with sometimes. Like you've been on this journey of faith because you're passionate about Jesus, and then people you were friends with for years are gonna tell other people that you're not a Christian anymore, you know. So you you have to develop a thick skin to through the constant criticism, you know, and and it it kind of can have that effect on you. We're just like, I'm sick of talking to people because I don't want to have to like explain to people that I'm still a Christian because I became Catholic for crying out loud. So you have to have that that thick skin, but you also have to have a soft heart because you have to remember that they they they just don't know. They don't know what you're experiencing and why you did what you did. They're in that place where you probably were at one time. So you have to have compassion for them and not get angry and take it out on them. But you know, that thick skin to protect your your your own emotional well-being, so you're not like falling apart every time you know you realize that some guy you were friends with for 10 years blocked you on Facebook because you're Catholic, you know. But then also reached out to people, you know.

SPEAKER_03 54:01

Screenshotted a tweet that thought was kind of funny and tweeted that out.

Thick Skin, Conversions, And Suffering

SPEAKER_04 54:05

Oh, we'll get into that on locals. We're gonna do that on locals. Yeah, for anybody that doesn't know, I got blocked by Anthony Stein today. So we'll get into that a little bit on locals. Yeah, you know, I noticed something today. It's kind of funny. Some of the people that say the most awful things about the Pope have this undying loyalty to Donald Trump, and I'm like, you know, I think there might be something a little off there. If you if you criticize the Pope, they're all for it. But as soon as you criticize Trump, they're ready to jump down your throat as if he's the holy father or something. So um let me ask you this, Keith. What do you think there is an actual surge in conversions right now? Or do you think that we live in an echo chamber and we're online? So we say, like um you you hear the you hear the public, you know, you see it on Fox News and all these people talking about this surge in Catholic conversion. Did you notice it at your parish this year?

SPEAKER_01 54:58

Or uh we we we had a pretty strong group. We had 15 people come in at the Easter Vigil, and we had a few more come in earlier than that, and a few more that are in the pipeline right now. And and I, you know, I travel a lot doing different events, and everywhere I go, I hear the same thing, you know, that there's there's record numbers of people in these programs that are coming through, and and it's it's across the board that I've seen. I know that's kind of anecdotally because I'm not like doing some big mass survey, but I've heard that from a lot of people.

SPEAKER_04 55:26

At the same time, we know parishes are closing at an astounding rate still. So it's like there's things to definitely be hopeful for, but I think that we have to keep a realistic perspective on it. And and one of the things I definitely wanted to talk about before we go over to the other side is uh like understand what you signed up for as a Catholic. And this isn't just for new commerce, yeah. Like you you you have to really understand what you signed up for, in that it's easy to say, oh, Christ transforms our suffering, and it's easy to say, oh, offer it up. And and but when those things come into action, they're a very different thing. Like we were talking in the green room about Cameron Riker. Cameron Riker lost his two and a half month-old son, right? And it's one thing to you know, say you you oh you just need to trust God, but Cameron's dealing with that in a very profound way right now, right? And I can't imagine what this good Friday must have been like for his wife watching our lady go through what she got went through losing her her son, and they just lost theirs. But there is this I watched Cameron's video today, and he it was a beautiful video. Oh, I watched it too.

SPEAKER_01 56:33

It was heartbreaking though, too.

SPEAKER_04 56:34

Talk about with with suffering and understanding this stuff. And even to Cameron, I almost wanted to say to him because I've he was like, you know, we we didn't we never doubted God's providence and all this, we understand God's love. But sometimes you're going you may come across things where you are angry at God, and sometimes those are our most heartfelt prayers to him, you know, where you're where you're angry at God and you're crying out, and it's okay to even have those moments as a Catholic, too, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 57:01

Well, here's here's where Catholicism really shines in those moments, you know, like Catholicism has such a holistic view of the human experience that where where these issues of human suffering and sorrow are not things that make you go, wait, this doesn't compute. I serve a loving, I serve God. God loves me, therefore, bad things shouldn't happen to me. In Catholicism, it's it's baked into the human experience. And not only that, it's part of how we it's part of how we express our love to God and how we accomplish his will through redemptive suffering, through offering that stuff to him and growing closer to him in and through that. Our suffering is no longer this thing that seems outside of our religious experience. It's the it's the heart of it. And Catholicism is able to really help you step into that. Whereas a lot of the you know, other traditions, you just have to kind of scrap your head and go, Welp, it's a mystery. We don't get it, you know. But like I've seen in Catholicism, it there's a beauty to it, I would even say, that is so deep and profound that makes me feel like, wow, I'm really entering into our Lord's passion, because that's the heart of Catholic spirituality is the cross, the Eucharist, his body and blood shed for us. That's really the heart of everything. And we when we enter into that, we're invited to bring our stuff too. We're not told, well, you won't have any. We're invited into to bring our stuff. Not well, if you do all the good things, God is gonna bless you and He's gonna Yeah, we're not prosperity gospel. No, so I saw that today, and I was you know, I was really inspired by Cameron with that because I thought to myself, man, praise the Lord for this guy, you know. And and because I know a lot of people who deconstructed their faith would as soon as something bad happened to them, you know.

SPEAKER_04 59:09

Yeah, yeah, look, and and even if something that tragic doesn't happen to you, you're going to come in for a lot of people and you're going to think you're on fire for this faith, and you're gonna think like, oh man, I can't wait to have the hierarchy behind me, and that isn't that isn't something you have to look forward to. I'm just telling you. And you have to remember the Judas element is part of the story. You're going to have deceptive clergy involved in here. And there's I I made a post today about how like we're kind of not in this triumphalist stage in Christianity right now, where we're going out and conquering the pagan nations and stuff. There's an there's something mysterious that God is doing right now where there's it's it's it's a little tricky. So if you're coming in and you're expecting things to just be the, you know, especially with all these news stories coming out about the massive conversions and oh, we're we're winning, we're winning. Just brace yourselves for suffering because being a Catholic, like the the defining part of being Catholic is suffering. And the other thing should be fasting and sacrifice, right? So if you're if you're coming in, don't take lightly the the church's uh uh well it's suggestions at this point because the only requirements are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. But make fasting a part of your daily Catholic life. Learn to live a life of fast, fast, fast feast. Make Sundays feast days and try to fast during the week a little bit. And Fridays don't eat meat. And because living that life of fast, fast, feast is it will make the feast day so much more important. This Lent, I mean, I freaking gave some things up this Lent that Easter Day was such a joyous event for me because I couldn't wait to have some of the stuff that I gave up, and it makes being Catholic so much more special, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:56

And again, that's that's the the holistic element of Catholicism with our human experience is such a powerful thing. It's underrated, I think, but it's it's a you it's a thing that I universally hear from converts that when they step in, and the way they describe it is they just say things like this is just deeper, there's something deeper about this and more like full. And what the what what they're saying is that Catholic, like being Catholic, isn't just kind of your religious affiliation, it becomes who you are. Now, I have to say, everybody doesn't do it that way, and that's why you have the parishes you know that are in trouble. You have, you know, whatever. There are a lot of um Catholics who don't really practice their faith. Nominal Catholics, people go to church for heaven insurance. You're gonna come across and I think that what we have to do, and again, this is where I think converts can be helpful sometimes, is a convert comes in with this red-hot fire who's given up this stuff, and the Cradle Catholics, like, what did you do? What's all this about? And then it's kind of like, look, you got to understand what you have, what you've always had. That's that's a you know, a treasure that you were born with. So take advantage of it and and and avail yourself to to the benefits of it. And so I think sometimes that fire that these converts bring of how excited they are and how much they've they've worked to come into the church, it that it that excitement can spill out to everybody else around them, which I think is a good thing.

Sponsor, Listener Questions, And Closing

SPEAKER_04 1:02:22

Um, okay. So what I want to do is two things. I want to do the knick-knack uh promo that I didn't forget, and Rob did. So knicknack.com, you're a new Catholic. We found a Catholic nicotine lozenge company, and if you don't buy these, you're not on the team. You guys, a lot of people think you got to pray the rosary to be on the team. No, you need to have knick-knack lozenges to be on the team. Knickknacks are a nicotine product. Nicotine is an addictive substance. This is not a smoking cessation device, it is a Catholic um uh sacramental.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:56

Oh my gosh, no, sacramental. How do I get myself out of here? There, we get we get rid of him. That's what we do, that's how we fix this.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:07

Best ad ever. Nicknex.com. Go to nicknack.com, use code AB25% for 25% checkoff, uh check 25% off at checkout. You will receive uh 10 years off purgatory for every pouch you buy. I'm kidding, do not take me seriously. Uh, we love Nick Next, they're an awesome supporter. The other thing I want to do is Keith, what do we have to promote? Uh uh definitely, if you're a new convert, go out and buy Keith's book.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:36

I will put that in the description after this.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:38

The converts guide, yeah, a new converts guide, what to do in your first year. Uh, if you haven't started a podcast yet, you are failing as a new convert. We established that.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:48

Um, we do have a couple questions too.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:51

Yeah, let's do the questions.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:53

Um, so Paul here, if you're giving counsel to a young man, a young man discerning God's will for his career, where would you start? Um, basically, for young men looking to earn an honest living to support a family.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:06

All right. Now, this doesn't this has nothing to do with being Catholic, but honestly, if I had a son who was a teenager or in high school or whatever, I would tell him this. I would say get into the trades. Yeah. Um, because AI is never going to replace a plumber, AI is never going to replace an electrician, AI is never going to put a roof on your house, you know. Um, so if you're a physically um able person, I would I would say do something like that, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:35

I would say do something like that also because it's more fulfilling to do something with your hands than it is to sit at a desk all day. The the couple of weeks we were shut down over the winter because we had a brutal uh winter in New York this year, and I was home. I had a harder time doing this show when I was home than the days when I'm at work. Like when I'm at work, I'm I don't know, I'm I'm I'm busy all day. I'm able to check check some stuff to see what I want to talk about. When I was home, I was like, oh man, I don't even want to get on and do this. So there's something to working with your hands that's just I don't know, you you you feel like you accomplish something each day when you go to work instead of just like sitting around. Yeah, I wouldn't suggest becoming a podcaster, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:18

He said he wanted to support a family.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:20

So yeah, there's no money in this, guys. Just so you know. There's really no money in this. And uh Mac is asking, who's your favorite drummer?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:30

Oh man. Um well, you know, I'm a rush nerd, so obviously I'm gonna go with uh with Mr. Peart. But one of my this is wild. One of my favorite drummers is actually coming to my house next week because he's a Catholic convert. Who? His name's Mike Miley. He plays drums in a band called Rival Sons, um, which is amazing. They're they're they're an incredible look them up. They're they're an incredible band. I mean, they're they're huge. And um he's uh he's a Catholic convert, and I reached out to him and and he was. Like, man, I'm a fan of your stuff. So we've been talking, and he's he's actually flying out here next week.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:04

Nice.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:05

That's got to be interesting for you, right? Like you and a guy like Matt Fratt or something. Like they like people convert and they go looking for Catholic content. And you guys are probably the you know the main ones that people are suggesting to them. So you probably get those interesting, uh, you know uh odd, you know, B list celebrities that reach out to you and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:25

Well, I had I had Austin Peck out here. I don't know if you saw that, but he's uh he was on Days of Our Lives for a bunch of years. Like he's a he was like a TV star. Um great guy, Latin mass, Catholic. I mean, he's on fire for his Catholic faith, but he uh he was in that uh that Mass of the Ages thing called Discover Tradition. That's where I saw him, and I'm like, dude. So I reached out to uh to Tony from Mass of the Ages. I was like, I was like, man, I want to talk to this guy, and he connected me with him, and now we're now we're Buzz.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:52

Told people if you start doing those those those uh uh Spanish uh parades here in America, all of all the Protestants will convert. That's what we really gotta do.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:02

And uh one of the guys uh is saying Danny Carey from Tool, yeah, he's he's uh he's an incredible drummer too. He's he's amazing.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:10

Um okay, so we're gonna go to the other side.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:12

We have oh, all right.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:14

What's your advice?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:15

Oh god.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:16

What's your advice if you become a sponsor for the first time this Easter, other than buying Keith books?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:21

If you become a sponsor, okay. So if you become a sponsor, I would say um just check in with your person, you know, throughout the first year, maybe once a month or whatever, just hey, how's it going? How you doing? You know, don't lose track of them. Don't let it just be uh uh all right, you know, I stood up there with you, I'm out of your life forever. It doesn't mean you need to babysit them every day, but just keep in touch with them and let them know that you're praying for them and and um there for them if they need any help.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:49

That's good. Um anything else, Rob? Nope. Okay, so we're gonna go over to locals. I got a few things. We have a I want to do that can that catagism of Trent video, Rob.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:00

That was pretty funny. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:03

That was funny. I want to dig into some of the numbers on the Catholic converts a little bit. We'll discuss Anthony Stein over there. We won't keep Keith too long, but uh yeah, we still we do an after show. So if you're checking us out for the first time, you guys want to check out the after show. That's where we uh we we get into some of the more fun fun topics that we can't discuss on YouTube. Uh Keith, your YouTube channel is just Keith Nestor.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:23

Yep. And then if you want to play the Rosary with us, I have a YouTube channel called Rosary Crew with Keith Nestor, and we pray every day there as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:30

I uh you gave us the idea to uh start like having people come on the show and ask questions and stuff, and they led to some pretty good episodes. So that was fun, yeah. It was all because of that Dominic kid that yeah, who uh Keith show who reached out to me Saturday and he asked me if I was going to the the vigil at St. Rocco's. I was going into Manhattan, so I didn't get to catch him, but uh he's probably watching tonight because I I sent them the link to the show. What's up, Dominic? Good to see you, buddy. But um, all right, so we're gonna go over to locals. If you guys want to join us, check us out locals uh.com slash aboarding battle, or is it a vanic avoiding battle?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:04

It's literally on the bottom of the screen.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:06

Bottom of the screen. You guys click on it, get over there. It's where we have all the fun. All right, take us out, Rob.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:11

Oh, let's see. Oh, I think I got another video with Keith in it here.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:15

Yeah, do that one. Wait, wait, wait.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:19

Not not the plain one. No, the one, the other one, the other taffy video, no? No, we're gonna do this one.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:49

Here in this place, new light is dreamy. Now is the darkness vanished away. See if this phase are fierce and are dreamy, brought near to you in the light of this day.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:07

Gather us in the forsaken, in the flight and the way all to us now and we shall awaken, we shall death.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:29

We are the victory, we are the victory.