Ep 83 - Unveiling the Faith with Dr. Ralph Martin: A Journey of Renewal

Ralph:
Causewell.

The Manly Catholic:
How are you sir?

Ralph:
I'm good, thank you.

The Manly Catholic:
Good, thank you for your flexibility, I appreciate it.

Ralph:
Now, are you a doctor of physical therapy? Is that what you are?

The Manly Catholic:
I am, yes.

Ralph:
Yeah, OK. I figured out your initials. Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
The PT DPT. Yeah, I you know, I put that signature in like a year ago and I forgot it's even there So people call me doctor called on like oh, I forgot I put that in there So but you can call me James that's totally fine. Now.

Ralph:
Okay.

The Manly Catholic:
Do you go by Ralph or dr. Martin, which do you

Ralph:
Ralph

The Manly Catholic:
prefer?

Ralph:
is fine, yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
excellent

Ralph:
And are you right here in Michigan?

The Manly Catholic:
I Am yeah, Grand Rapids area actually and you're in Detroit, correct or Ann Arbor

Ralph:
at Ann Arbor, yeah, I teach in Detroit.

The Manly Catholic:
Ann Arbor

Ralph:
Are you downriver? Are you in Rockville?

The Manly Catholic:
No, we live like south Grand Rapids like

Ralph:
Oh, okay.

The Manly Catholic:
Yeah, Breton Burton area. I don't know if you're from North Grand Rapids at all,

Ralph:
Yeah,

The Manly Catholic:
but

Ralph:
I have a brother-in-law there. And then Father Dom is like a priest in the area, is that it?

The Manly Catholic:
Yes, so he just got ordained two years ago and he goes to our lady of consolation Or he's I'm sorry lead pastor our lady of consolation up in Rockford, which is like 20 minutes north from where I'm at so

Ralph:
Okay.

The Manly Catholic:
Yeah, all right Well, let's see. Make sure I got everything We are recording perfect. Okay, excellent any questions before we get going. I know you have to be done by nine We'll be sure to wrap it up before then

Ralph:
fine.

The Manly Catholic:
Okay, wonderful Hello, hello, let me restart that. Hello all, welcome to another episode of The Manly Catholic. I am James, your host, and with me, we have a very special guest tonight, Dr. Ralph Martin. Ralph, welcome to The Manly Catholic.

Ralph:
Well, thank you, James. It's good to be here. And I'm intrigued by your title, the Manly Catholic. Yes.

The Manly Catholic:
Well, hey for those of you who don't know who you are Ralph go ahead and just give our audience a brief intro I'm sure everyone's heard of you. You've done so much amazing work and with the Catholic Church and for you know Evangelization in general, but just give our audience a brief background

Ralph:
Yeah, I'm sure everybody doesn't know me, which is fine.

The Manly Catholic:
No.

Ralph:
But yeah, I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and I'm married and have six children and 19 grandchildren. And I teach at Sacred Heart Seminary in the Archdiocese of Detroit. And I'm president of a Catholic lay mission organization called Renewal Ministries, we have a weekly TV program on EWTN and two daily Catholic radio programs and a YouTube channel. And We do a lot of mission work in about maybe 30 or 40 different countries depending on the year. We have an outreach to high school boys and girls and young adults. So we're just trying to help people come to Christ. That's basically it.

The Manly Catholic:
Well, that's just that's all you do, right? That's

Ralph:
What's that?

The Manly Catholic:
a lot. That's

Ralph:
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
a lot of amazing work that you guys are doing. And, you know, one of your recent books is A Church in Crisis Pathways Forward. And I've listened to interviews when you've talked about the book. And one thing I really appreciate about what you do, Ralph, is, you know, because obviously it's not turning a blind eye, right, to clearly the... the crisis in our culture and also not only in our culture but in our church, but doing it in a way with charity, right? So it's approaching and correcting people, if you will, but also recognizing that there's always hope because there's always Jesus. I know you talk about always first and foremost is that it's about Jesus and it's about turning everyone back to Jesus. So, and I know that's the heart of renewal ministries as well. So maybe touch a little bit on the mission at Renal Ministries.

Ralph:
Yeah, you know, there's so much polarization right now in the church and it's easy to get angry, discouraged, suspicious, sad, outraged, and all those emotions have some place certainly, but what we feel like a renewal of the ministry is we just got to keep our eyes on the Lord. We want to be right in the center of the faith. We want to be right in the center of what God's revealed to us about this plan for salvation. We're gonna be right in the center of what he's told us he wants us to do while we're on earth. And so we're not into an ideology. We're into the person of Christ. We're into what he's revealed to us about his plan of salvation as it comes to us in scripture, tradition, catechism of the Catholic Church. So it's not a lukewarm center. It's not a cowardly center. It's a radical center, but it's radical fidelity to Christ rather than to an ideology or to an emotion or to a reaction to what's happening in the church.

The Manly Catholic:
I love that the radical center because all we hear about you know is the radical left or the radical right? But we never hear about that radical saying and when

Ralph:
Here

The Manly Catholic:
you

Ralph:
we

The Manly Catholic:
say

Ralph:
are.

The Manly Catholic:
is yeah Raising the flag but and it's kind of you know It's a simple message really if you think about it But it's a radical center with radical faith in Christ

Ralph:
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
and it seems it seems so simple But yet, you know again what we've talked about is we have these people on one side people on the other side We're polarized more, you know more than we ever been I guess how do we stay in that center because I mean especially the social media my goodness It's you know, this priest said that Pope Francis said this and obviously it's good to be in the new You know be in tuned with what's going on But how do I guess do we do tune that out? But the same time being well informed in and making sure that we understand what's going on in the church as well

Ralph:
Yeah, well, I think we need to have a certain acquaintance of what's going on in the church, but only a limited amount to tell you the truth. We don't need to know the details of every scandal. We don't need to know the latest catastrophe or we don't need to know the latest horrible thing that somebody said or that type of thing. What we mainly need to know is Christ and his teaching. And so we need to spend more time in prayer and meditating on God's Word. than anything else. We need to really limit our media content and we need to really mainly be concerned about knowing Christ Jesus. And so I think that every man, particularly husband or father, really needs to take some time each day in personal prayer because if we don't get accustomed to the voice of the Lord, he says, my own know my voice and I know my own, we're not gonna have the grounds for discernment. you know, all the competing kind of things that are going on in the world. And if we don't know his word, we're not going to be able to discern right from wrong or truth from false because there's so many subtle deceptions of so many people using the language of the Catholic faith, but not really faithful to its content. So we really need to take responsibility now for ourselves to know Jesus, to know his teaching, to know what the Catholic church really teaches. So we actually have a foundation. So we're not. kind of like tossed about by every wind of doctrine or every rumor or every blog or whatever. And so I just think the number one priority for everybody is to take some time to take a personal prayer, meditate on God's word. My wife and I use this little Magnificat thing, this kind of thing that is very simple. It's not rocket science, but if you just kind of meditate on daily readings or the daily psalm or the saints of the day or something like that. that can kind of feed our spirit and also give us information and form our thinking so that we're actually in a position to discern, saying, you know, this doesn't sound quite right, or that's not what scripture says, or that's not what the church teaches, or this doesn't sound right, it doesn't sound like the Lord, it sounds like something funny is going on here. So there's going to be a lot of confusion. Jesus warned us it's going to be false teachers, false prophets, right from the beginning. The apostles named them by name saying this guy's making a shipwreck of the faith Don't listen to him and it's all going on today in spades But the only way we're not going to be kind of freaked out or discouraged or you know, whatever We need to know the Lord. We need to know his teaching

The Manly Catholic:
Amen, and I know you I forgot what interview I heard you on and you say it seems that every time I talk about An interview I'm on TV. I always talk about Magnificat and it's just I love that because I use that too And it really is it's so it's I don't say it's simple But it is because it has you know morning prayer and it has the daily readings for the mass It has the Saint of the day. It has evening prayer.

Ralph:
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
It really is, you know, because most people especially fathers like ourselves, we don't have time to do, you know, the liturgy of the hours. I would love to be able to do that, but with four young kids it's probably

Ralph:
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
not gonna happen. So, Magnifica is a very easy way, but it's still,

Ralph:
Right.

The Manly Catholic:
again, it centers your day and allows you to start your day

Ralph:
Yeah, right.

The Manly Catholic:
with God, which is exactly, as you said, especially for men, if you're not spending time in prayer, you know, your day is gonna be chaotic. I mean, it's so easy to be, you know, wax and weigh and things like that. So, I guess for you, Ralph, more of a personal question. How do you pray? And I know you use the Magnificat, obviously, but is there anything else, do you have a routine that you like to do? And how can you encourage the men as well

Ralph:
Yeah,

The Manly Catholic:
to start that daily habit?

Ralph:
yeah, sure. Well, I've learned that the best time for me to pray is because I actually do this first thing in the morning before I turn on my computer, before I start taking care of work stuff. I just try to take the first early time in the morning and I get a cup of coffee.

The Manly Catholic:
Amen.

Ralph:
And I just come right up here and... Let's see if the camera can pick this up. I have this little icon of Jesus over

The Manly Catholic:
Yes.

Ralph:
here. Yeah, so I just sit in this chair right over here. Well, first of all, I kneel down and I pray like the angel taught the children of Fatima to pray when he prepared them for Mary's visit in 1917. And he said, pray like this. And he bowed down with his head, forehead towards the ground and said, I believe in you, I adore you, I hope in you, and I love you. And I ask your pardon you, those who don't love, adore you, those who don't hope in you, and those who don't love you, you said it three times. So that's what I do. And it's a way of like just humbling myself before God and turning in his direction. Then I go over there and sit in the chair there and just kind of be aware of the Lord's presence. And I'll look over at the icon of Jesus periodically and just remember how real he is and how personal he is and how he really does want me be in relationship with him. And he really wants me to pay attention to him. He wants me to be faithful. to him. He wants me to love him. And then after a while as I start getting distracted, I'll pick up my Magnificat and just do morning prayer. And I won't rush it though. I really look forward to it. I want to try to savor God's Word. And so I'll, you know, just if something strikes me, I'll just kind of spend time with that. And almost every day there's something somewhere in one of the readings or the Psalms or the Epistle of the Gospel or whatever. There's something there that I notice sort of like and I'll try to let it really permeate my mind and heart and be formed by it and get the biblical worldview kind of conform my mind and heart to the revelation of God and then I'll put it down and I'll just spend some more time just being with the Lord and you know then I'll get up and go about my work. So it's not rocket science, it's simple. You know prayer is just paying attention to God. We just have to pay attention to God. You know we just have pay attention to what he's speaking to us. I don't hear voices, I don't see visions, but John the Cross says everything that the Lord has to say to us, he said to us in Jesus. So the mystery of Jesus, everything is contained there and it's inexhaustible and there's just always more. That's another thing I like to tell man is that don't just expect to maintain your relationship with the Lord, but desire to grow. There's more, desire to be more to him, more obedient to him, more delivered from the things that kind of block our relationship with him.

The Manly Catholic:
100% rough. It's either you're growing closer to Christ or you're falling further away from Him. There's none of this kind of the lie that, y'all, I'm just kind of in the middle and I'm not moving forward or against. It's one or the other. But I wanted to center on a really key point that you said is that, you know, it's almost like an expectation that something is gonna pop out to you, whether it's the morning prayer or the readings of the day at mass. And it's almost like a holy expectation.

Ralph:
Mm-hmm.

The Manly Catholic:
And it's reading, it's taking your time, because so often it's, well, I gotta get this in because I'm supposed to as a Catholic

Ralph:
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
type of thing. So it's really taking your time and sitting with what it is that God is calling to you that day. Because I think for me too, growing up Christian, I grew up Protestant, but you hear the same thing over and over again. It's so easy, like, oh yeah, I've heard the gospel

Ralph:
Mm-hmm.

The Manly Catholic:
of the day, and oh yeah, Jesus walked on water. You

Ralph:
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
know, it's like what no, whoa Jesus walked on water

Ralph:
Alright.

The Manly Catholic:
You know, so it's that holy expectation which I know you've talked about before so maybe with our audience to explain to the importance of You know asking God to reveal something to us versus just you know Okay, i'm gonna passively do my checklist and god's gonna tell me something if he feels like it But no, you have to have that holy expectation that god is gonna speak to you

Ralph:
Yeah, well that's the whole purpose of sacred scripture, you know, is God speaking to us. And so definitely I would say. I don't ask for it anymore because I just expect it. I built asking for it into my being, so to speak. When I read the Word of God, I just expect God to speak to me. I don't hear voices, but just the Word strikes me. Peter Crave wrote this book called Jesus Shock. He says if you're not shocked by what Jesus says, you're not paying attention. It really is shocking what Jesus says. I'm continually shocked. I'm continually challenged. Jesus is so radical. I mean, he's really asking for radical commitment, radical surrender, radical obedience. And I don't think most Catholics realize that the real Jesus is asking a lot. The real Jesus is asking for everything. And we're so used to kind of... lukewarm sort of mediocre Catholicism, but that's not that Jesus isn't giving us an option for that. There's only one thing Jesus is asking. He says, I want all of you because I want to heal all of you. I want all of you to be with me. I want all of you to be transformed. And so, yeah, I think most Catholics don't realize. They don't see who Jesus is and they don't hear what he's saying. You know, unless you love me more than mother and father, you're not worthy to be my disciple, you know? I've come to bring a sword, not peace. There's gonna be division in the family sometimes. Or there's gonna be persecution. People are gonna kind of oppose you, but don't just love those who love you. Love your enemies, bless those who persecute you. He's calling us to a level of love, divine love, supernatural love that is challenging, and the Lord really wants to get us there.

The Manly Catholic:
Yeah, not to mention eat my flesh and drink my blood. Like,

Ralph:
Yeah,

The Manly Catholic:
wait, what?

Ralph:
yeah, right.

The Manly Catholic:
Not to,

Ralph:
Yeah,

The Manly Catholic:
yeah,

Ralph:
like,

The Manly Catholic:
I mean.

Ralph:
yeah, what is that? Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
Yeah, I mean it goes back to your mission Ralph is you know, the radical center Jesus was a radical, you know And I think we we've gotten just this watered-down Catholicism where

Ralph:
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
you know this Jesus was oh he was such a nice teacher and

Ralph:
Yo.

The Manly Catholic:
he's just really nice to everyone like no He he was I mean he was kind of course, but to say Jesus was a nice guy is totally missing the point I mean he went to the temple and he got the the whip and he was throwing tables over that righteous

Ralph:
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
anger that he showed. I mean, that's not this just nice guy. Nice guys don't get mad like that,

Ralph:
Yeah,

The Manly Catholic:
especially

Ralph:
well, he's the

The Manly Catholic:
over.

Ralph:
Lord. He's the Lord. And he's coming in glory to judge the living and the dead. And,

The Manly Catholic:
Yeah, yeah.

Ralph:
you know, those who have paid attention to him and obeyed him and believe in him are going to live with him forever. And those who don't want, you know, and we kind of entered into a whole kind of. sort of mishmash of catholicism, but there's no more consequences. Everybody's a good person. Jesus loves everybody. Jesus does love everybody, but he's calling them out of their sin. If they don't come out of their sin, they're going to be separated forever. You know, so there's just, you know, we're in a culture where everybody gets a trophy, you know, you know, you know, I mean, everybody isn't going to get a trophy. I mean, it's those who believe Jesus and those who obey him, they're going to live with him forever. And there really is a heaven, there really is a hell, of our life, it really matters what we believe, and it really matters whether we obey Jesus. A lot of people are creating a Jesus to suit themselves, creating a Jesus that affirms them in their sin.

The Manly Catholic:
Yeah, I call that the cafeteria Catholicism,

Ralph:
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
right? Yeah, you know, it's just, I like that teaching. I don't really like that teaching. So I'm just gonna eliminate that and disagree with the Catholic church. But no, and that's the beauty of the Catholic church too. And like I said, I was a convert. So coming in and learning about the teachings of the church. Yeah, there were some things that as I was going through RCI, I didn't fully understand or grasp, but at the same time, I recognize that the church was founded by Christ.

Ralph:
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
So clearly. The church knows what they're talking about. So maybe it's something that I am doing or I'm not understanding or I'm not seeing clearly. And so I kind of want to shift gears here to you, Ralph, because I know you wrote a book, The Fulfillment of All Desires, which is a guidebook to God based on the wisdom of the saints. And again, when I was, it's funny, I was telling my wife and as we were going through RCIA and she was telling me about a saint, I forgot, I can't for the life of me remember what saint she was telling me about. I'm like, who is that? She goes, you never heard of this guy? Go no, we didn't grow up with saints

Ralph:
Thank

The Manly Catholic:
like these spiritual giants that

Ralph:
you.

The Manly Catholic:
came before us, you know 2000 1000 years ago, so I guess shifting it to you Ralph. Tell me about I mean you could dive into the book as well But some personal saints that you have found over the years that have really helped you that maybe that I've surprised you that That kind of come into your life and really helped Expand your faith and grow to love the church as well

Ralph:
Yeah. Well, when I was a senior, you know, in college, Notre Dame, I was caught up in the confusion of the 60s. I was drifting away from Christ and the church. And by the grace of God, a friend insisted I make a curcio, which is a weekend retreat type of thing. And I was sure I wasn't going to fall for it. But thanks be to God, I did. And I really met the Lord. And I really knew that. if he really is the Lord, if he really is raised from the dead, the only sensible response to make to him is unconditional surrender. And so I did it as much as I was capable of doing. I said, Lord, I want to totally turn my life over to you. And then a couple of weeks later, you know, I heard that this guy named John of the Cross has a really profound, deep wisdom about growing in the spiritual life. So I picked up a book by John of the Cross. It was the wrong book at the wrong time. And about 60 pages into it, I said, I don't know what this guy is talking about. And it's so dark. negative. I just can't relate to it. And then about 20 years later when I was working on a theology degree quite unexpectedly at Sacred Heart Seminary I had to read another book by John of the Cross and then this time all the lights went on. I just felt like I was getting it you know and it was integrating things in my life that I couldn't even put into words and so then I just began to read everything he wrote and I said who else do we have like this in the Catholic I said, who else are doctors of the church in the area of spirituality? So then I began to read everything Teresa of Avila wrote, Therese and Catherine of Siena and Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Sales. And I just sort of like, you know, I've grown up with this idea of all these separate schools of spirituality. But as I read each of these saints, I said, they're all talking about the same thing. They're all talking about the Holy Spirit kind of getting our loves in order, getting our fears in order, getting our joys in order, and making us a one mind. in one heart with the Lord healing our soul and sanctifying us. I said if you could ever put together their wisdom in an orderly clear way you'd have the most amazing guidebook, the most reliable guidebook to the journey to God. And I wrote the book with the full and all desire. It took me from start to finish about 10 years. But it's not my book, it's not my wisdom. It's the best wisdom the Catholic Church has. without watering it down. So, you know, who's your favorite child? Right.

The Manly Catholic:
Oh, I can't say my favorite child. Ha ha ha. Right?

Ralph:
Each one of them is fantastic, you know? And so, you know, since John of the Cross was the occasion for this awakening, so to speak, I find him the most challenging, but also the most helpful. But the others are fabulous. I'm glad we have them all.

The Manly Catholic:
Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah, you're and you're so right Ralph. It's you know, pick your favorite child It's like well I love them all because they're all

Ralph:
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
unique and they all have taught me so many things about life or myself or the world you know things like that and

Ralph:
Right.

The Manly Catholic:
you know, and they mentioned, you know, st. John of the cross is a doctor of the church and You know, I guess this is more a personal question for me is because obviously there's so many doctors and there's so many spiritual Giants like we mentioned, but especially the doctors of the church For those who maybe wanna get into the readings of the doctors of the church, is there one that you've come across that maybe is, I guess we'll call it easier to digest, to get into? Because like we talked about, I mean, they're beautiful, but sometimes it's hard to digest. Like for you with St. John, the first one you picked up is like, I can't do this right now.

Ralph:
Yeah. Well, Francis de Sales would be the most accessible. He wrote

The Manly Catholic:
Okay.

Ralph:
the first book of spiritual wisdom. directed towards late people called the Introduction to the Devout Life. And it's written in a little bit of flowery style, but the practical wisdom is fabulous. It's almost like he anticipated Vatican too in lots of different ways, but I would actually recommend that before anybody reads any of the doctrines of church, they read the fulfillment of all desire. Not because I want to sell books, but it really helps to have an overall view of the stages of spiritual growth and how each of these saints fit into it. get a lot of each of these saints in the book, and then they could go on. But it's very hard to figure out what's really going on a lot of times without some guide, without some orientation. I feel like that's what the book provides. But hey, if you wanna start somewhere, definitely, for instance, a sales introduction to Devout Life. But even there, it helps to have a little context, a little explanation, a little commentary. Tres of Lesoux is also very easy to read, but deceptively easy to read. conceptively simple and a lot of people are put off by her being a little girl and And the feminine dimensions of the whole thing and they don't get the incredible zeal for holiness that's at the heart of her from early childhood on and The incredible sacrifice she makes of herself to the Lord, you know, so that needs a little orientation too, you know Catherine of Siena is pretty easy to read, but she's all over the lot, you know?

The Manly Catholic:
stream of consciousness that's coming out on paper.

Ralph:
Yeah, she's praying, she's dictating to four secretaries what she's getting and, you know, it needs a little kind of collecting and organizing and, you know, that type of thing. So anyway, I feel like I'm a servant of these, these things, you know.

The Manly Catholic:
100% yeah, no st. Therese I heard for her because I listened to the audiobook of her autobiography and I Personally loved it, but I heard for a lot of people It's you know, you either kind of really love it right away or it's like oh, this is just it's just too weird I can't connect with it type of thing and again everyone has their own personalities and interests So I mean for every saint it's gonna be some people can read st. John the cross And they'll totally fine with it, even if it's their first time picking up a book on a saint. So it's kind of everyone's personality

Ralph:
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
Um, we have a few more ends here ralph so I wanted to kind of shift back to renewal ministries And I know your guys big the big mission of your Of your organization is to foster growth and holiness And also evangelization with the power of the holy spirit for the salvation of souls. I know vatican too that was

Ralph:
Oh, yes.

The Manly Catholic:
Yeah, salvation of souls. That's what we're here for, right?

Ralph:
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
And and that was Vatican II's big push was the universal call to holiness,

Ralph:
Mm-hmm.

The Manly Catholic:
right? So so maybe touch for our listeners touch on that Is is the universal call to holiness why that's so important and why that is not just a thing of the past where again We talked about the saints. We just finished talking about the saints But it is actually achievable to this day and age despite everything that is going on

Ralph:
Yeah, that is super important. You know, the only reason why God created the human race, that means the only reason why any of us are alive today, is to be one with Him. And the only way to be one with Him is to go in holiness. You know, the only people who are in heaven are saints, not necessarily can I say, but people who have allowed the Holy Spirit to purify them, to heal them, to transform them so that they are actually loving God with a whole heart and mind, soul and strength and loving their neighbors themselves. So no matter how worldly people think they are, no matter how attracted to shopping or buying shoes or sex or food or whatever they are. The only reason why they're alive is to be one with God. So every single person is called to be a saint. No question about it. And one of the things that's been a problem in the Catholic Church is sort of like this two level thing where, well, the people are really called the holiness or priest to nuns and us lay people are supposed to pray, pay and obey. You know, and, and it's just not true. And it, and it tremendously weakens the church. You know, every single person. has been created to be one with God. And what it means to be baptized, it's not just a ritual, it's not just a ceremony, it's a sacrament that brings us into communion with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit come and dwell in us. And what they wanna do in us is conform us to themselves, prepare us for heaven. So one of the big things of Attica 2 was rediscovering the universal call of holiness. And it still isn't widely known, it still isn't widely accepted. the word, but they don't know what it really means for them, that you have been created to be one with God, and you better get going.

The Manly Catholic:
Yeah, you don't know when you're going to be meeting him. So

Ralph:
Right.

The Manly Catholic:
yeah, so I guess that leads kind of the second pillar of your, as the evangelization of Saint Pope John Paul II, the new evangelization that's going on.

Ralph:
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic:
And I guess for men, we'll kind of shift this geared towards men. How can men in this day and age help in that call to that new evangelization that we are called to preach?

Ralph:
Yeah, we got to start a family, we really do. We got to really. do everything we can to help our wives grow in holiness, to help our children grow in holiness. So, evangelization, catechesis needs to start at home and needs to continue at home. But then we need to also look for opportunities in our neighborhoods, in our work environments, to look for opportunities to share the gospel with people. The culture is very toxic right now, but there's gonna come opportunities for having conversations. People are gonna guess that maybe we're living life a little differently. You know, and, oh, you must be a Catholic or, you know,

The Manly Catholic:
Right.

Ralph:
whatever, you know, or, you know, so, so we need to be ready to give a reason for the hope that's in us. We need to realize that. that everybody's going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And if people haven't turned away and repented from their sins and come to believe in Jesus, they're in grave danger of not being lost. And if we love people, if we love our family, if we love our relatives, if we love people that we work with, we're not just going to be concerned about them getting good jobs or making a lot of money or getting healed of their diseases. We're going to be concerned about their eternal salvation. So that's going to give us the motivation us to love. If we really love people we're going to be concerned not just about them improving our life in this world but making sure that they end up in heaven rather than hell. The big picture.

The Manly Catholic:
Yeah, and we have four children. So we're basically mutants here on this earth So but before I let you go Ralph last question I want to ask you is if you could just leave our men listening out there with just one piece of advice What would you give them?

Ralph:
The best thing that any man listening can do for themselves, for their families, is to go closer to the Lord. is to be more in communion with Him, is to love Him more, is to be more united to His will. Because the more united that a man is to the will of God, the more he has the mind and heart of Christ, the more he's going to be able to really love, the more he's going to be able to have wisdom, the more he's going to be able to be responsive to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit that we desperately need. We're going to run into lots of situations where we need wisdom from God. And so the best thing we can do for anybody that we love. to be closer to the Lord.

The Manly Catholic:
And that all starts with that daily prayer that Ralph was talking about earlier. Well Ralph Thank you so much for your time I really appreciate it tell our audience where we could find out more about you how we can contact you and get the more of your books as well

Ralph:
Yeah, they go to renewalministries.net. And we have a YouTube channel, which I'm really excited about. Every week, either myself or Peter Herbeck do a new YouTube video. So you just go to Renewal Ministries YouTube, whatever. The books we mentioned, you can get on Amazon. Or you can get at our renewalministries.net. So hey, James, thank you for what you're doing. And keep it up.

The Manly Catholic:
Awesome. Thank you so much, Ralph. Thank you all so much for listening. So go out there and be a saint.