Episode 81 - FOCUS on God

[00:00:10] Speaker A: Welcome to another edition of Big City Catholics. I'm your host, Bishop Robert Brennan, bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, serving in Brooklyn and Queens. And I send you greetings from St. Louis, Missouri, where I'm joined by some of our campus ministry team at Queen's College and with a whole bunch of other pilgrims as we take part in the Seek 24 conference for focus. Focus is fellowship of catholic university students. We've spent this last week with about 2020, 4000 college students from around the country and even around the world. There are some from Ireland and Cologne and from Austria and then with priests. I think there are about 1000 priests here and about 40 bishops and religious from all over the country and young religious. But I'm sitting with two of our focused missionaries at Queen's College and three of our students at Queen's College. So we can talk about the experience of this last year, this last semester, and how we've either deepened our faith, how we came to our awakening, but just to show the impact of what God is doing right in our diocese. As always, we begin with the prayer. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord God, we thank you for your many gifts. But in these days, we thank you for the gift of faith and for the gift of those who inspire us in the faith. We thank you for the people who lead us on to know friendship with your son, Jesus Christ. And we thank you for that gift of his friendship. We ask you to help us to share the gift of your love with all whom we meet and to fill our hearts with that missionary spirit to make you known and loved everywhere. In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I begin the conversation with one of our focused missionaries, Lucero. Basically, the four missionaries started just this year, but Lucero, tell me a little bit about yourself, your experience at college, and your experience as a focus missionary. [00:02:15] Speaker B: Yes. [00:02:15] Speaker C: So I am originally from the suburbs of Chicago, but I went to school at the University of Iowa, which is where I was first introduced to focus. And I loved the focus team. I loved what they stood for, and they invested very deeply in me, which is why I applied. I fell in love with the mission, and I got sent to Temple University in Philadelphia for the first two years of being a missionary. And at the end of my second year, I was asked if I would be willing to go to Queen's College, and I said yes. And here I am now. [00:02:46] Speaker A: Wow. Interesting. That's cool. And we are so glad that you are here. You're so glad. I actually met the folks as missionaries during the summer. We were down in the Brooklyn Bridge park area. We had a little pizza down over at Grimaldi's and checked out the Brooklyn Bridge and all of that. But we've been together at the college itself. We've had some good things, and you are making an impact and I'm so impressed. What are your impressions about Queen's College? [00:03:12] Speaker C: I love the fact that all the students are actually commuters and they live at home. It's a unique experience that I hadn't seen at Iowa, I hadn't seen at Temple, really. [00:03:22] Speaker A: And it's a unique experience with focus, right? [00:03:24] Speaker C: Yes, it's a unique experience with focus. I know there's a few other campuses that are in cities that also have commuters, but it wasn't something that I think they've experienced this heavily. Yeah, most of our students live at home. They commute to school every day. And it's unique in the sense of, okay, you go home and you're investing in your parents instead of you're telling your parents about Bible study, you're telling your parents about what you're experiencing at the Newman center instead of going to your apartment and telling your roommates or starting a Bible study with your roommates. So I remember one time when you, Bishop, said that the campus is actually the whole borough and that's never been truer. Getting to see the students outside of Queen's College and going out into the city and going to where they like to go has been a unique experience. They're such a gift to just want to try and hang out with us and just go out of their way for us to go where they want to go. I truly love it. [00:04:19] Speaker A: Very good. When you met some of the students. Now you've really been drawn into campus life. I mean, this campus itself is very, very different. [00:04:27] Speaker C: Yes, right. [00:04:28] Speaker A: And it's a great, very supportive campus. [00:04:30] Speaker B: Yes. [00:04:31] Speaker A: I mean, the administration and everybody at every level. [00:04:35] Speaker C: Yes. [00:04:35] Speaker A: And I think that's a credit to all of you guys and to father Diaz and to Omar because of the way you interact with him. But right. From the president himself to all the different administrators, to the people who take care of the facility, to the security people, everybody's on board with you. [00:04:50] Speaker C: Yes, yes. It's definitely a change that I don't know if anyone saw coming. At first, a lot of people were like, oh, you guys are here again. I thought you guys were just going to be here a once and done type of event. They were a little shocked that we kept coming back, that we kept being at the Neiman center, that the lights stayed on, that there was life coming out of there. But it was a change that affected not just the students coming in, but also the rest of the floor that's there in the student union itself. Getting to know the workers, even the vendors that are downstairs with the food have been getting to know us, and they've come up, and now we know them by name, and we get to chat with them. And you can see how it's bleeding into more than just the four walls of the Neiman center. [00:05:34] Speaker A: How is it being part of seek this week? How has the week been? [00:05:37] Speaker C: It has been so good. It's been very chaotic, very full. 24,000 people is a lot of people. Reminds me a lot of world, you say, in a very good way. But it also has been great to just have the little moments where we get to just be with each other and in a big sea of people, getting to see someone that, you know, getting to see someone that you can talk to and just sit down for a couple minutes has been really beautiful. And getting to just walk specifically with these students, who most of them had never heard of focus before they started coming to the Newman center. They didn't even know what Seek was until a couple months ago. It's been a privilege to see their faces light up at some of the things that are said in the talks, the ways that they're getting impacted, and even just the desire to grow in their own faith, but also to grow in friendship with other people that desire what they desire. [00:06:26] Speaker A: This is a big point. I say this all the time. The world seems to want to make us feel like we're alone in our faith, that nobody really believes this, that it's an ideal that some people in Rome came up with. And it's not the real world. To me, something like this with 24,000 students during the Christmas break, or, like, world Youth day, seeing people from all around the world, not just that we're here together, but the enthusiasm for the faith, it's just mind boggling. And it really can give you a boost in your faith. [00:06:57] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. [00:06:57] Speaker C: Even just at the beginning, we had a little competition between the men and the women, and we got to see the screen in the women's talk, we got to see the screen of the men's room, and just the energy that they have and the brotherhood that they have seeps into our room. But then also the women just encouraging each other and being there together is so beautiful. And so unique that I don't know if these students have ever experienced it anywhere else. And I know for a fact that I didn't until I started coming to these conferences. [00:07:27] Speaker A: I'm going to turn now to Andrew. Andrew is a first year focus missionary. Right. So this is your first campus? [00:07:33] Speaker D: Yes, this is first campus. [00:07:35] Speaker A: Where did you encounter focus? [00:07:37] Speaker D: Yeah, so I lived in the Maryland Baltimore area for the last ten years. I went Towson University there, which is just north of Baltimore, was a student there, worked a lot, very busy all the time. And I didn't know a Newman Center Catholic campus ministry whatsoever existed until spring semester of my junior year. I was there for two and a half years. It was just after Covid and, yeah, encountered focus there. When I first met them, I thought they were just volunteers at the nearby church that were coming to help fathers set up for mass and break things down and just kind of be around. That's how I encountered focus. [00:08:15] Speaker A: And somebody took the interest and walked with you, as it were? [00:08:18] Speaker D: Yeah, they definitely took interest. I definitely took an interest to push back. I thought that I had my life all figured out. I even graduated. They were talking to me about applying for staff, applying to be a focused missionary, and I was like, no, I got to figure it out. Why are you guys even trying to get off my game plan? You guys are messing me up right now. I graduated and I was living with the focused missionaries at Towson University. And they kind of just kept pushing. And eventually I was like, all right, fine, I'll apply. We'll see what happens. And kind of from there, had some moving experiences at these recruitment events and just had a great time in an actual moment and situation in my life. One of the first times that I could actually discern something that had more of an effect in my life, like a big decision, discerning something big in my life and actually looking and listening for God's voice of where he wants to send me. Anytime before that, which is smaller scale. So the first time I could actually discern that for something bigger in my life. [00:09:21] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah. That's pretty impressive. That's pretty impressive. Now, to get from the profound to the simple, you didn't have a huge shift in terms of, like, Baltimore to New York. You still got the east coast setting. But let's talk about quintessential New York food. [00:09:37] Speaker D: Bacon, egg and cheese. [00:09:40] Speaker A: Everybody knows Andrew with bacon, egg and cheese. But not just any bacon, egg and cheese. [00:09:44] Speaker D: Bacon, egg and cheese on a fresh bagel. If you can find a deli that makes it there that's not in Saran wrap or anything like that. It's coming out of the oven and you can see the baker right there with dough and flour all over himself. That's how you know you're going to have a good bacon, egg and Cheese. [00:10:02] Speaker A: I love it that he wasn't even here a month and he was already a New York food snob. I mean, I'm there. [00:10:08] Speaker D: Well, everybody, when I told him I was going to New York City, they're like, oh, the food's awesome. And then I'm like, I'm going to be in queens. And they're like, the food's awesome. And I was even picking up a u Haul before I moved. The guy's like, oh, you're basically living in my neighborhood because he saw where I was dropping it off and he's like, you gotta go to this and you gotta get like this sandwich with jelly and ketchup and all that. I'm like, man, you're doing too much. But I was like, I'll try to remember it. And he was like, all the food out there is awesome. [00:10:34] Speaker A: And how was it getting onto campus? It's a new experience. So you're in a place now where nobody had been before in terms of focused missionaries, basically, you talk about mission Field, you're starting something new, you're an expansion team. One thing to pick up what's already there. How is it, especially for a new guy, starting something off, it's terrifying. [00:10:55] Speaker D: But once it got started in the setup and the team and everybody's support behind us, I couldn't have asked for a better situation, at least for myself, the way that I like to kind of be on mission within focus. We have different ways of kind of going about things. And there's one of them called win, build, send. And there's kind of just different areas. [00:11:15] Speaker A: Where you kind of walk, win over, like, win over somebody, build a relationship and then send them out. Missionaries. [00:11:24] Speaker D: And I think focused missionaries and can definitely attest to this, that they have strengths in each of them. And I would say mine is heavily all in win. [00:11:34] Speaker A: Okay. [00:11:35] Speaker D: The build and send can definitely be worked. [00:11:37] Speaker A: Hand it off to somebody. [00:11:39] Speaker D: That's what your team, they'll deal with that. But, yeah, the win was there at Queen's College. [00:11:45] Speaker A: Now, you guys told me about some game. It was part of winning people over. You would just play a game. It has a horrible name, but I can't remember what it is. [00:11:53] Speaker D: Yeah, another focused Missionary taught me this back in Baltimore. It's called death Hack. Death hack sounds scary. [00:11:59] Speaker A: It does. [00:12:00] Speaker D: And especially if you're going up to a random person or a random student and you're like, hey, you want to play death hack? And they're like, it sounds awful. It's essentially a mix of dodgeball and hacky sack. It's awesome. Students love it. Usually people are like, standoffish at first because they're like, whoa. And then they start to get in and the blood gets pumping and adrenaline gets going. [00:12:23] Speaker A: And the idea is it's just something that people can float in and out. [00:12:25] Speaker D: Of for the most part. [00:12:26] Speaker A: Yeah. It's not like a baseball game where you have to play nine innings. [00:12:29] Speaker D: Correct. It's very quick. There are times you get out, but the games turn over really fast and people are just walking by. It's like, hey, you want to play? And they're either yes or no and keep going about their day. But, yeah, it's very easy to invite people into it. [00:12:42] Speaker A: And so you win. You bring people into a relationship, into a friendship, because friendship is a gift that God gives us for our relationships with one another. But obviously it's the gift that God gives us in himself. Friendship with Jesus Christ. Right. So you win. Build. How do you do some of that? Building. Yeah. [00:13:00] Speaker D: So building looks different in many ways. Building is building a relationship with Christ, building a relationship personally with the students, walking with them in that sense with Christ as well. You have things from like Bible studies, daily mass, bringing them around the newman center, helping them grow within the community. Building is essentially growing. [00:13:19] Speaker A: Bible studies basically seems to me the least know that somebody can say, okay, I don't have to commit to this. Yeah. And so people will seem to respond to that. [00:13:28] Speaker D: Yeah, Bible studies, I think we get a pretty good response. I think one of the best things that's been happening at Queen's College, specifically the Newman center, is the community as a whole. At the Newman center, everybody gets along, everybody's friends with everybody. Everybody can have a conversation with everybody. That community, then getting into a smaller, serious discussion about Jesus or scripture allows them to grow with each other as well. And we grow as a community as a whole, where it's not just the missionary and the student growing, but everybody kind of blooms together and then ten speaks for itself. [00:13:59] Speaker A: We'll talk a little more about that. But this is a great model. This is what you mean by walking with people. This is what we're called to do, all of us as just christians, as catholic Christians, to accompany one another and lead one another to good. You know, I have here a couple of the students from the student body at Queen's College, and I'd like to get their reaction to what we're doing this year and then also to the seek conference. Madeline is a senior at Queen's College and the president of the Newman club. I met Madeline soon after coming to Brooklyn. I was at a funeral for one of our priests in St. John Vianney Church. Father Zhang. And Madeline came and introduced herself to me after the mass and reminded me that we had actually met when I was in Ohio. Madeline, you've had the chance to be involved all along the way. Please tell me about your experience of campus ministry of the Newman center at Queen's College. [00:14:55] Speaker B: My name is Madeline Lou. I'm a now senior at Queen's College with a double major in anthropology and linguistics. The Newman center as a name is not really that unfamiliar to me. I first heard it back when I was a senior in high school. And we used to go to Stiverville conferences in New York. They hold them regionally, so they used to have them at St. John's University in the summers. And I remember being a senior high school, and they had, like, a little panel discussion or a little workshop for us senior students to just tell us about how we can continue our catholic faith into college. And one thing they mentioned was Newman center and a focus college. I'm sure they talked about a bunch of other things, but that was my main Takeaway was find a college that at least focus has a focus campus or has something called a Newman center. And that was something that they emphasized that most colleges do have. If they don't have a focus center, then they have a Newman center, was what they told me. So I took that with me going into college. I started college in 2020, right around the pandemic. So my first three semesters were entirely online, which is very unlike other college campuses, I'm sure. But being in New York, I was enrolled as a queen's college student right in the epicenter of the pandemic. We held off quite longer than other campuses to start in person classes. So I was a junior starting in person classes for the first time, feeling like a freshman on campus, but already with a bunch of credits in my degree. Works already, right? So that was just an OD feeling just to start off with. But I remember right from the get go trying to look for the Newman center and seeing right away, oh, there's a flyer for Paul Wood and how he's actually passed away just that past march from not Covid related issues. He was already very advanced in his age. Right. And I remember thinking, huh? Does that mean we don't have a chaplain anymore at our Newman center? And I remember coming home that week, relaying it to my mom as you normally would. Right. Being a commuter student, I lived with my family, and I still do. And then just a couple weeks after that, we had a funeral mass for one of my parish priests, and the bishop was there, Bishop Brennan. And I remember at the end of mass, we were congregating at the vestibule. My mom was, like, pushing me to go, go ask bishop. Go ask bishop. Like, what's the deal with Queen's College news center? And I'm like, no, I'm not going to ask him. It's just a small thing. She goes, no, you should ask. You should ask. She kept pushing me. She kept pushing me. So I went to go ask. I introduced myself by first saying that my brother actually used to work at Damascus, which is a group that Bishop Brennan is very fond of when he was serving at Columbus, Ohio. Right. So that was my first introduction, and he immediately knew who I was talking about. And my question to him was, oh, do you know anything about the Newman center, Queen's college? Because I heard that our chaplain recently passed away, and he told me, yes, we do have things planned in the way coming up very soon. So that did give me a lot of peace, knowing that he knew the answer to that question. But at the same time, I kind of knew that already. I kind of looked at mom like, yeah, mom, you see, Bishop already knows. So it's all right. It's going to be okay. And pretty much the next piece of news I saw was the flyers that Father Jeremy Canna had put up for Ash Wednesday. So that was the next piece of news I heard from the Newman center. And seeing that, I remember thinking to myself, oh, this is finally starting. This is what Bishop was talking about. This is the new life that's going to happen back at the center. So that was kind of my first exposure to the Newman center here at Queen's College was through Ash Wednesday, through the distribution of ashes for that year, and then just later on, getting in touch with Father Jeremy more and starting the club here, which is mostly student run. So having a club president, being myself, vice president, secretary treasurer, and working with the school to allocate funds for events and such, that all happened last spring. I can't believe it. So much has happened since then. It's, like, crazy to believe how much God and the holy spirit just kind of built this place up right seeing focus coming in this past fall semester was a beautiful thing. Like just seeing how much life they give to the center, how much people they bring in. Just a simple invitation of, hey, come to mass. Hey, come to mass. Meeting new people via focus, via those mass invitations, via those coffee offerings that they do in the morning. Yeah, it's just a really amazing thing. [00:19:12] Speaker A: So, Madeline, tell me, how has the addition of the focus missionaries impacted your own experience at Queen's College? And tell me about the Sikh conference and how that impacts your faith and the faith of the other students. [00:19:26] Speaker B: I would say that for this whole experience, being part of college campus ministry as a student, from the student perspective, it's given me a lot of more resolve in my faith, for sure. I always felt very sure of my faith. Growing up, I knew it was something that I would never let go of. Even as an anxious, insecure 1516 year old, I knew it was something I wouldn't let go of. But coming into college and seeing focus, coming to seek, coming to other conferences, seeing other young people alive with the faith, seeing other young people just coming along this journey with me to try and be a saint, it's really reassuring. And a beautiful thing that focus has done with the Bible studies that are recently new is just finally having that space and that time to just share, to just be in agreement, like how beautiful our faith is, how beautiful our traditions are. It's just like, even though I love the students here that come to the Newman center and we talk about anything and everything, right? But the beauty of having focus and the beauty of having Bible studies, it's just like, it's a specific time. Let's talk about scripture. And I love the other types, too, where we talk about Warhammer, forty K and other tv shows and comedians, I love that, too. But it's so great to also just have a time to talk about our scripture, to talk about tradition, and to just really resonate and bond with each other over that. So, yeah, I guess it's given the flesh, right? That living community part to my faith. And I think that's beautiful. Lastly, I do want to thank Bishop Brennan. I want to thank God first and foremost for somehow Bishop Brennan returned to New York and has started serving here as our bishop. And thanking all the focus missionaries, thanking Father Jose, thanking Omar for just giving what little they have and giving this place a shot like this is all so new for so many of us, and so many of us are so willing to take on whatever challenges and so open to whatever may come. And I think that's really touching for me. Yeah. And a big thank you, of course, to my mom. If it wasn't for my mom, I would not have spoken to the bishop. And a big thank you to all my family. I have many sisters and brothers that are praying for me. So thank you all again. Especially thank you so much, bishop brennan, for supporting us, supporting queen's college campus. [00:21:39] Speaker A: I turn now to pharrell. Pharrell is. What year are you in, pharrell? [00:21:43] Speaker E: I'm in my fourth year. I should be a senior, but because of my credits, I'm, like, a junior. [00:21:47] Speaker A: I took some time. Okay, good. So pharrell is a junior senior at Queen's college. And you came into campus ministry really through the invitation of focus missionaries. [00:22:02] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:22:02] Speaker A: So tell me your background. What brings you to deepen your faith? [00:22:06] Speaker E: Deep in my faith. Do you want to start from the beginning? [00:22:08] Speaker A: Whatever you want. [00:22:09] Speaker E: How much time do we have? I'll make it a quick one, and then we'll go to the more focused on queen's college. But my faith specifically is I was born into a catholic family. My parents converted from Buddhism, and we were from Indonesia. And catholicism over there is also, like, a minority. It's the largest muslim country in the world. It's funny because it's kind of like, my name is pharrell. My last name is hakeem. It's like, people think I'm muslim, but I'm asian. Right. So I have this very ambiguous background. However, my parents don't really know a lot about the faith. [00:22:41] Speaker A: Right. [00:22:41] Speaker E: My mother, she does a lot of rosaries and stuff like that. My dad is like, I just believe in God, right. And they never really imparted within me, like, kind of a strong foundation of faith. But my mom just has this kind of burning passion of, like, you can't be anything else but catholic. [00:22:54] Speaker A: Right. [00:22:55] Speaker E: But I never knew why. Because she didn't have answers. [00:22:57] Speaker A: Right. [00:22:57] Speaker E: It was just, like. Just a question. I was like, why should I? [00:23:01] Speaker A: Because you are. [00:23:02] Speaker E: Exactly. [00:23:03] Speaker A: Because you are. [00:23:03] Speaker E: Right. Exactly. However, after a long time, I fell into a lot of sin. I was in the culture of New York, in the culture of the world, right. And after a long time, I kind of realized I'm, like, everything that people are telling me that I need, that I should be obtaining. [00:23:20] Speaker A: Right. [00:23:20] Speaker E: I don't feel fulfilled. I don't feel fulfilled at all. [00:23:25] Speaker A: Right. [00:23:26] Speaker E: It's like, every time I do it, it feels good for a little bit, and then it goes away with anything, with going to parties and everything in that kind of world, right. So I was like, okay, there's something more to this. And I started seeking, I started looking at not even anything that is religious in nature, right? I was looking at more philosophy, like stoicism, right? Was something good because I had goals in life. I wanted to be successful, right, in the terms of the secular world. I wanted to have a nice car, a nice house, pay out my parents. Basically it's for the debt that I'm basically for my birth, but after a while, actually a missionary from Kayalpha, which is a queen's college kind of protestant group, he came up to me and he's like, oh, you're wearing a cross, right? Are you christian? I'm like, yeah, I'm Catholic Christian. Basically the same thing. And he's like, oh, yeah, basically the same thing. [00:24:14] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:24:14] Speaker E: You want to come to my Bible study? I'm like, okay, sure. So I went to his Bible study, and that's where I kind of started, like, okay, whoa, there's more to this. I've never read scripture before because it's like, as a Catholic, my parents didn't read scripture, right? We only read scripture in mass, right. And I never seeked to do anything. It's just like, you have to do these things because you have to do it. You have to pray because you have to pray, right? You have to do the rosary because you have to do rosary, right. There's nothing that was really impactful for me or no answers were there, right? So I went to his Bible studies a lot. We had fellowship, and it's kind of like focus now, kayalpha, but obviously a little different. And I actually had the opportunity. They asked me, hey, do you want to lead a Bible study? And I was like, I would love to, but I'm not protestant because they brought me to protestant churches, right, to evangelist churches and stuff like that. And I'm like, I went to the churches, I went to the sessions, I went to the services, and I was like, I don't feel fulfilled because they would ask me, how do you feel? Expecting an answer? That was great and amazing, right? I'm like, I don't feel fulfilled. I feel like there's something missing here. And when I went to catholic church, even though for me it was boring at the time, right? Even though that happened, I was like, okay, I'm going to still try to seek out between Protestant and Catholicism because just take your word for it. I have to figure it out myself too, right? So then I went to my catholic church, St. Bartholomews. I just started going, I just kept going and kept going and kept going. And I'm like, okay, I feel fulfilled here. I don't know why, though. And then this kind of, like, led to the seeking and everything else, and I met Shalom, which is a brazilian missionary group that came here, and I joined. [00:25:45] Speaker A: And we have the shalom mission over in Williamsburg. [00:25:48] Speaker E: Yes, exactly. It was kind of like this community. They were giving me answers that I never heard of before, right? It's like, oh, you know, God loves you. Even that I didn't know. The biggest thing for me was that God is not just a person up in heaven. It's not this big person that wants to direct you and tell you what to do all the time. It's not just about rules. It's about, he is a personal God, right? He is with you personally. And I was like, whoa, how does that even make sense? I can't see him. I can't feel him, right? And they showed me, because they're more charismatic in nature, and they show me the way. And after that, I kind of felt like I was on fire. I was telling everybody, like, oh, jesus Christ is like, my savior. I was telling everybody, like, you guys should come to Catholicism, right? But after that time, I started getting more opportunities at work, and I made the choice to have a lot of clients for work, on weekends especially. So I stopped going to Shalom, and that community was gone for me now, right? Even though they kept inviting me, they kept asking me, we have an event here. Come play volleyball with us. Come do this with us. I'm like, after a while, I was like, I don't know. And then I started deconstructing because I didn't have that supportive community with me, and I started deconstructing, talking about God isn't real. It's just a good philosophy of life. Like, stoicism and catholicism, basically the same thing. It's just like, a good way, a good life philosophy for you to follow so that you can live a good life and be a good person, right? And then after a while, I fully deconstructed. I'm like, okay, God isn't real, and I'm just going to live my life as how it is. However, when I went back to Queens, college started semester. I met my girlfriend, and we fell into sin. And it wasn't the worst things, but I just kind of felt like it was wrong. I didn't know why it was wrong, because at this time, I was deconstructing. Like, God isn't real, so why is it wrong for me to do this, right. There should be no guilt, right. Because if I was right in saying that God is not real, then my feeling now is also delusional. Then that means I'm delusional. [00:27:40] Speaker A: Okay. [00:27:40] Speaker E: So then I started looking into or thinking about, like, okay, if I look at Father Mike Schmidt's videos, I'm definitely, definitely going to stop doing all these things. Right. That's why I try to avoid it at all costs. [00:27:52] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:27:53] Speaker E: However, I kind of broke in. I kind of gave in. There was one night where I was like, this is wrong. I can't stop thinking about watching a father Mike Schmidt's video because I know he's going to make me stop. So I watched one of his videos, and I'm like, okay, wow, that makes so much sense. I shouldn't do these things. I understand why it encompassed the full explanation, the full explanation of why I shouldn't be doing it. And he says it so charitably. He says it so lovingly. He says it, like, because God loves you. It's not about you doing anything wrong. It's about the way God wants you to do these things is the best way for you because he loves you so much, and you don't know what is good for you. After that day, I was in school, I was on campus, and I was about to go to my class. Right before going to my class, I had this kind of, like, this thought in my head. I'm like, hey, maybe because I saw an email saying that Bishop Brennan was. I was in Queens college, and the focus missionaries. And I know focus missionaries because of Father Mike Schmidt and a session presents and his talks, and I love big podcasts and long videos. So I kept watching the hour that will save your life, stuff like that, how to pray the mass correctly and whatever it is. And so I was like, focus missionaries. I'm like, I swear they're not in. Know. Like, I didn't know that was a real thing. I was like, okay, cool, so they are here. Why don't I just go check out this center? Because I know we used to have a Newman center. However, reading the email, I'm like, okay, maybe I should go ahead and check it out because I thought you guys were dead. I thought you guys were just, like, not alive anymore. I was contemplating should I go to class or should I go to the center? Just for, like, ten minutes, because I have to heat up my food anyways, right? So I looked at my phone, and there was a new website that popped up. I was like, okay, wait, they are alive. They are here. Right? It's like this resurrection. All right, cool. So I'm like, you know what? It's okay. I'll go check it out for ten minutes. And then Greg, who was a focused missionary, came and talked to me after their mass for the day of the dead. And after that, yeah. The rest is history. [00:29:45] Speaker A: You've gotten fully in. Yeah, 100% in. So much so that you're giving this week up in between your two semesters, your Christmas break. How has this week been? [00:29:55] Speaker E: This has been, I would say, an eye opening experience, because I'm not one to go to conferences or anything like that. I'm like, if I have the videos already, why would I go? I don't need to. Right, exactly. [00:30:05] Speaker A: Welcome to 2024. [00:30:06] Speaker E: And the one thing that really kind of changed my whole experience here, especially, is why I'm staying at the Newman center in the first place. Like the community. Right. I was talking about how you have to have a community around you to reinforce this love for God. Right. To see other people around you. And seeing 20,000 plus Catholics here, even for the first mass, that was amazing. That was like, an eye opening experience. I showed my parents, and they're like, wow. They're like, that's amazing. I didn't know there were so many Catholics. That's so cool. But also, I think the one thing that was the most important for me here wasn't the speakers or the talking or all the talks, like, seeing Father Mike Schmidt's whatever it is. It wasn't that. It was mostly, like, the talks in our hotel room, the individual interactions that I had with the. Of the Newman center. [00:30:50] Speaker A: Right. [00:30:51] Speaker E: And also seeing how everybody's so friendly here, you'll be sitting next to somebody you don't know, and they're like, oh, what's your name? How are you? That little conversation is like, God is working. This is what God is. He's working in all of us. And I feel useful being able to interact with these people and talking with them and having a brotherhood with our men's conferences as well. And that was the one thing that stuck out for me here, is the community, seeing that there are people like me, that I'm not alone in this, and that I can be a saint, I think that's the most important part. It's like, I want to be a saint, and these are all people, 20,000 plus people that also want to be saints with me. That's what I really have this key and importance in this conference. [00:31:28] Speaker A: Wow. That's so impressive. All of you. So impressive. And we've only gone through one semester and we have another semester to go. If you look at the start that you guys, all of you have made in these just a couple of months, I can't imagine what we're going to accomplish in the next few months together and then just keep building on it and building on it. I want to thank all of you for giving me some time today, because the whole point of this podcast, I'm going to be humble here. I'm not Father Mike Schmidt's doing, and I don't think we have somewhere near a million subscribers or anything like that. But you know what it is? This is my chance to share with people in Brooklyn and Queens the amazing things that are happening in the church in Brooklyn and Queens. And you're part of that story, a very big part of that story. So thanks for giving me this opportunity to share. When I tell this story, I also have to do so with tremendous gratitude, certainly tremendous gratitude for all of the team at Queens College right now. But I have to go beyond that. I have to give thanks for all of the traditional campus ministry here in the Diocese of Brooklyn for the campus ministries. I've been putting a lot of energy into Queen's College because we had the opportunity with focus. But I'm looking forward to connecting more with our other campus ministries in the months. Know we have a great tradition and I want us to be able to build on that. I want to thank the people, as I mentioned before, who gave us this foresight to space at Queen's College. And I'd like to say thanks to our know, we had members of our catholic foundation who came out here to seek because they really helped us to get it off the ground. They provided a lot of the financial backing that we could have so that we could expand all of campus ministry there at Queens and then let that become a model for other campuses. So I'm really grateful to the catholic foundation. And also there's another foundation, Bob Planigan. I've known him when I was in Rockville center, but he's got a family foundation and they support all kinds of works like this. And they've supported me in Rockville center. They're supporting us here in so many just, you know, when I say the Catholic foundation, that's a lot of you, that's a lot of you who are listening to us. You contribute to the life of the church here in Brooklyn and queens. And I want to share with you the good things that you're doing. But thank you for helping us to do them. So with that in mind, we turn to the Lord in a spirit of thanksgiving, and we ask God's blessing upon all of you. The Lord be with you, with your spirit. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he look upon you with kindness and grant you his peace. And may the blessing of almighty God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit descend upon you and remain with you forever. And amen. Thank you for tuning in this week to big city Catholic. I look forward to being with you again next week for another edition. God bless you. Have a wonderful week.