brian_patrick

Brian Patrick, host of the Sunrise Morning Show, speaks at the Catholic Men's Fellowship in Cincinnati. He emphasizes the importance of priests and the sacraments in our lives. He shares personal stories and encourages everyone to appreciate and support priests. He also leads prayers for priests and vocations. You'll recognize Brian Patrick from the Catholic Radio 748 AM and the host of Sunrise, a morning radio program. Brian will guide us in recognizing the value of our priests and a lead, and he will lead a prayer for them. Brian Patrick. Good morning, gentlemen. It's an honor and a privilege to be with you again, the Catholic Men's Fellowship here in Cincinnati. As a member of Crossing the Goal on EWTN, I now get to go to Catholic Men's conferences throughout the country. And it all started here. It all started here. God bless this group. In fact, I have Kevin Lynch to thank for being a member of Crossing the Goal and also for our show, the Sunrise Morning Show, which originates here in Cincinnati, for being on 150 stations around the country. Is Kevin in the house today? Kevin, thank you. God is good all the time. God is good. Brian really, really moved me with his story about his son, and he talked about heaven being the goal. And that is where the name Crossing the Goal comes from, is that our goal as men is to get to heaven and, I believe, to bring as many souls as we can with us. Not exactly at the same time. Don't get me wrong. How do we get to heaven? I don't know about you, gentlemen, but I wouldn't want to face the prospect of trying to get to heaven without baptism, without confession or reconciliation, without the Holy Eucharist, without the holy sacrament of matrimony, without the sacrament of the sick. Can you imagine your life without the sacraments? Can you imagine your life without daily bread, without communion, the Eucharist, without daily mass? Can you imagine your life without those precious words of absolution? I forgive you. Your sins are all forgiven. That would be our life without our priests. So, gentlemen, today we are here to recognize and honor and pray for those men who answered the call when Jesus said, come follow me. They simply said, yes. And they knew that they weren't going to take a walk in the park. They knew it was going to be a tough road. And in today's culture, that road gets tougher and tougher. But what would our road be like without our priests? I would be lost. I would be lost. And I'm so grateful personally for the priest who God put in my life, from Father Tom Fox, who is my history teacher back at Central Catholic High School in Lafayette, Indiana, to my current pastor, Father Ray Hartman, a very special holy man, and to all the priests in between. Father Jim Willig. You remember Father Jim? Father Jim is with me every day. Every day. I always say to Father Jim, I get to daily mass. Thank God we're privileged as Catholics to be able to do that. And when the priest speaks those words, this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Happy are we. And Father Jim would get this big smile on his face. Happy are we who are called to his supper. So no offense to the priest present, but when a priest is not smiling during that prayer, I just put Father Jim's smile on your face. Works for me. Coming up in the Catholic Men's Conference today, we'll all have the opportunity for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I know there's going to be preparation for that, but I just want to say one personal thought about that. Gentlemen, if you have not been to confession recently, or in my case, it was years before I came back, please don't deny yourself this grace any longer. I call it the Sacrament of Forgiveness, the Sacrament of Freedom. I don't know about you guys, but my heart skips a beat when the priest speaks the words of absolution. Now, I can tell you, you know, your sins are forgiven. Jesus forgives you. He died on the cross. You can tell me that. I know it's true. It's very true. But where else do we get to hear Christ himself in persona Christi, the priest and the person of Christ say, I forgive you of all your sins. When I hear those words, water washes over me and I'm cleansed. And I have a chance to go out and start all over again, not start sinning again, which I eventually do, but starting again with a clean slate. Without that, I would keep digging a bigger and bigger hole. I would just keep going down and down. And so when I am, when I do sin, and I do, I am able to receive the grace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation to receive communion, to take Jesus into my own body. I wouldn't be able to do that without our priests, without the priest in persona Christi being able to speak the words, he doesn't say this is the body of Christ. He said, this is my body. That is the word. Those are the words of consecration. We get to experience Jesus on the altar. Changing, transforming that bread and wine into the body and blood, his own body and blood for us to receive. So, gentlemen, let us just honor and just for a moment, if you would just think about one priest who has made a difference in your life, just one priest. I can think of many. And let's thank God for that priest. And now I would like you to open your program toward the end of the program, just behind the ad for the Sunrise Morning Show. That was so nice of you guys to do that. I really appreciate that. By the way, six to nine every morning here on Sacred Heart Radio. And if you're from southeast Indiana, we now have an FM station, 89.5 FM, which serves southeast Indiana. But anyway, behind that, after you're finished looking at that ad, flip the page. And if you want to all stand up, let's join together and pray. And also, I want to encourage any young men who are single in this audience, if you think God is calling you, please don't be afraid to answer yes. We are praying for you. So let's start with John Paul II's prayer for vocations. We pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right, gentlemen, all together. Spirit of truth who came to us at Pentecost in order to form us in the school of the divine word. Fulfill in us the mission for which the Son has sent you. Fill every heart. Give many young people a yearning for the authentically good in life, a desire for evangelical perfection, a passion for the salvation of souls. Sustain the laborers in the harvest and grant that their efforts may bear much spiritual fruit. Make our hearts completely open and pure and help us to follow Christ more fully so that we may receive your last and greatest gift, the joy which will never end. Amen. And gentlemen, as we lift up and honor our priests and respect them for the position that they hold in our lives and in the church, let's remember that these are our brothers. They are men. They need us. We need them. Let's bring them into our lives. Let's reach out to them. Let's include them in our groups. Let's support them and allow them to support us. So let's join together now in a prayer for priests from Cardinal Cushing. Oh, almighty, eternal God, look upon the face of your son and for the love of him who is the eternal high priest, have pity on your priests. Remember, oh, most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation, which is in them by the imposition of the bishop's hands. Keep them close to you, lest the enemy prevail against them so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation. Oh, Jesus, I pray for your faithful and fervent priests, for your unfaithful and tepid priests, for your priests laboring at home and abroad in distant mission fields, for your tempted priests, for the lonely and desolate priests, for your young priests, for your dying priests, for the souls of your priests in purgatory. But above all, I commend to you the priest dearest to me, the priest who baptized me, the priest who absolved me from my sins, the priest at whose masses I assisted and who gave me your body and blood in holy communion, the priest who taught and instructed me or helped and encouraged me, all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way. Oh, Jesus, keep them close to your heart and bless them abundantly in time and eternity. Amen. And to all of our brother priests and bishops who are here in this room with us today and those who are with us in spirit. Thank you. God bless you.