You're up next, Christian. Your question for Tim. How are you guys doing today? Very well.
So Tim my question for you is: so my fiancée is Pentecostal, and I understand that
you were from the Assemblies of God before you came to the Church? Correct. Okay. So
whenever I try to have a discussion with her, it seems I get through all the
Church history, all the evidence for the Catholic Church, and the conversation
just immediately shuts down, where it's just...she doesn't
"feel God" at the Catholic Church whenever we go to Mass together, sure and I'm just kind
of wondering if you have any guidance or any, I guess, experience with that
particular objection, if you can call it that. Yeah, absolutely. But let me just say this at the outset: she
goes to Mass with you? Yeah, she's gone, I would say, like four or five times, I mean
she's not the type of... That's amazing right there. She doesn't really come at it with
any strong objections--you know, we could have a discussion about Real
Presence, you know, the Saints but, I mean, she's very--I would say
supportive of my faith, and she really has no objections, I guess, to me being Catholic.
The the real hiccup is she just doesn't "feel God" there. Yeah. You know, I
think you've kind of reached that point where, now, "Okay, I know where she
stands." And so, you know, I always say to folks, Christian: you have to find out
where the person itches, and they're the only one that can tell you. And then
you scratch it. It seems like you may have gotten there, because with some I
know--Christian from my family, you know, with my brother Terry and my brother
Ted, it was doctrine, man. We hit doctrine
after doctrine and we would argue and argue and argue, and they're both
Catholic now. My mom, that was much more like your fiancée--that is fiancée, am I right?
Correct. Yeah. She was much more. So I will tell you how I approached my mom:
I approached my mom by introducing her to the miracles of Lourdes and Fatima,
Padre Pio, and, you know, Eucharistic miracles, the incorruptibles; and that
really grabbed my mom. Because as a Pentecostal, you know, your fiancée knows
Mark 16:17: "These signs shall follow them that believe: they will lay hands on the
sick and they shall recover, speak with new tongues," and all that. That's a big
verse in Pentecostalism. But what really really drew my mom was the fact that in
the Catholic Church alone you have all of these hundreds of miracles, many
of which are visible to this day. You can go to Lanciano and see the Miracle of
Lanciano. It exists, I've been there, I've seen it. You know, you can see the
incorruptibles, like St. Catherine Labouré, you know, where this woman has
been dead for, what, over...gosh, over a hundred years...WELL over a hundred years,
you know, way over a hundred years, and her fingers are still pliable, her bones
are cartilaginous, her hair is perfect you can see her eye color, you know, if
you cut her she will bleed. There's no human explanation for this. And her body
is there. St. Bernadette in Lourdes as well--or her body's in Nevers--but
those sorts of things. And the Eucharistic miracles of Lanciano, Lanciano is
1,319 years old, to be exact. 1,319
years and it still exists! It's a miracle where the
Sacred Host and the Precious Blood were transformed into real human flesh and
blood. I mean, it's phenomenal it still exists. Coagulated blood, and it's
been scientifically examined to be the flesh from a human heart, actually
the myocardium of a human heart. I mean miracles like these, miracles like,
if you've ever read about Padre Pio-- forgive me, I can
forever on this--but if you've ever read any of the books on or by Padre Pio,
I've read two biographies, and it's a mind-blower, the miracles of this man who
just died in 1968. You know, it's in our lifetime, Cy. This man was walking
the planet. We're talking about--there is a woman who is still alive to this day, I
think she's about 82 now and she's still alive...what is her name again...
DiGiorgio, I think, I forget her first name. Her last name is DiGiorgio.
But...I want to say Pia but I'm not sure... she was born without the pupils in her
eyes, so she was born blind. And at seven years old, her grandmother brought
her to San Giovanni Rotondo to see Padre Pio. And Padre Pio prayed for her and she
was healed, and to this day, 75 years later--this is a mind-blower! 75 years
later, she still doesn't have any pupils in her eyes, she's technically blind, and
yet she sees perfectly. I mean she is a walking miracle. Anyway,
Christian, I would argue that's a great way to start with a Pentecostal, is the
miracles. Because the miracles of the Catholic Church--not that miracles can't
happen outside, because I believe they have, and they at least, you
know, potentially can--but there's nothing that compares with the miracles that
have happened in the Church so that's a a good first start. And from there, you
might find she'll become a lot more curious. It's because of the fact that we
are the true Church that we have such profound miracles.
Gemma DiGiorgio. Gemma, yes! Gemma DiGiorgio. What a story.
Just beautiful. And we have hundreds of them in the Church! In fact, there's a
great book by Tan Books, I think it's called "Saints That Have Raised the Dead--"
I have a copy of it, I can't, I think it is--that documents just under 400 times
in Church history where Saints have raised the dead.
Right? What? Yeah. Well over 300, close to 400 documented cases. Of course St.
Anthony, you know, famously raised the dead, we've--but we've had, just, it's incredible.
And this is one of the best-kept secrets in the Church, by the way. These are gifts.
Miracles are gifts to the Church, not for us to just, you know, say "Wow, this is cool."
They're for unbelievers! That's why God does it. And Catholics don't tell
anybody about it. It drives me crazy. Well, I'm sorry about that. Did we lose Christian?
No, I think I have one quick follow-up, though. Yes, follow-up.
So I think you either cut out or I couldn't quite hear. Did you have a book
that you could recommend that was like a compilation of these things? Oh sure, sure. I would
recommend, for example Joan Carroll Cruz wrote two books: one called
"Eucharistic Miracles," and one called "The Incorruptibles." Excellent, that recounts
just scores of Eucharistic miracles and incorruptibles, some of which, as I said,
I have seen. My wife and I have traveled to Europe and actually been able to see
some of these. "Saints Who Have Raised the Dead" is another great compilation of the
cases in history where Saints have done just that and raised the dead. Gosh,
there's another book I have at home on miracles, Jimmy Akin gave it to me and
now I can't think of a name. But I'll tell you what I could do, if you leave
your email address with our call-screener, I can send it to you. I'll send you
that title, it's sitting right in my office at my house but I can't think of
a name right now. But it's a good place to start.
Eventually, though, you're gonna need good apologetics too, because eventually it's
gonna lead her to ask the questions, "Okay, but what about this, what about that, what
about that?" But it's a good way to get her to, you know, take that first step.
Thanks, Christian, thank you very much.