The John-Henry Westen Show - Deacon provides solution to America’s civil unrest： ‘Prayer, fasting, and a lot of work’

00:00:00.000 death of George Floyd. I have with me to discuss this Deacon Cody Miller, who

00:00:05.580 you're going to love and hear all about in just a few minutes. Stay tuned.

00:00:09.520 Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

00:00:33.880 and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Deacon Cody Miller, thanks for being with me on the John Henry Weston

00:00:40.080 Show. It is a joy to be with you, Brother John Henry. I've been a fan of yours for years, and it's like

00:00:46.040 I'm a kid at Christmas, opening up his present, and in the present pops out John Henry Weston.

00:00:55.080 So, Deacon Cody Miller, I know about you, but I'd like you to explain a little bit about your

00:00:59.840 background, so that our viewers know who you are and where you came from. And I think the where

00:01:05.520 you came from is particularly interesting. Well, I've been married for, it'll be 39 years

00:01:12.400 this June, to the most wonderful woman on earth, Miss Cindy Miller, who we are partners together in

00:01:19.340 our family business. And we have one son, he's an attorney, he works for a firm in Lafayette,

00:01:24.280 Louisiana. And I've been a deacon since 1988. It'll be 31 years, come August the 27th, on the Feast of

00:01:35.480 St. Monica. And I discovered St. Louis de Montfort in 1999. And it was an absolutely life-changing

00:01:47.580 event. But before that, I was a heathen. I was a rock and roll musician with hair down to my shoulders,

00:01:54.080 and headed to hell with both barrels and loved every minute of it. And right before I, when I got

00:02:03.300 married, my wife married a heathen. And she was devoted to Our Lady ever since she was a little

00:02:10.900 girl. And she kept praying to the Blessed Mother for her husband. But when she got me, I was not in

00:02:16.180 the form I'm in today. But I guess she saw something I didn't see in myself. So after two and a half years

00:02:23.060 of running from God, and my wife praying for me, every day, I had a conversion in 1988. And that's

00:02:34.600 when I, I'm sorry, I had a conversion in 1983, when I made a really serious talk with the Lord. And I

00:02:44.260 was knocked off on my horse by like St. Paul. Miraculous conversion right in front of church. 0.98

00:02:51.600 1983. That was January of 83. January of, June of 83, I made a casillo. And that's what I call him to

00:02:59.240 be a deacon. And I went to Loyola University for almost four years. And I was a day in a deacon in

00:03:05.080 1988. And my wife and I have been in business. We believe it or not, we make air fresheners and

00:03:10.240 sanitizers for a living. I have employees that we have a factory in South Louisiana. But, you know,

00:03:16.980 I was a deacon for 12 years, and everything was going great. And then all of a sudden,

00:03:21.580 when I was introduced by St. Louis, Marie de Montfort, by quite an accident, my life was changed

00:03:27.860 forever. I was in Piggly Wiggly doing a demonstration of my air freshener. And I was selling like crazy. I

00:03:35.680 had a bunch of people around the table. And I was demonstrating. I was spraying some garlic juice

00:03:42.140 on some napkins and spraying my product on there to kill the smell. And we were like going gangbusters.

00:03:49.040 And all of a sudden, in walks an old musician friend of mine with an elderly lady. And we recognized

00:03:55.380 each other off the bat because we were in competing bands together. I played rock and roll music for

00:04:01.080 years. And we saw each other and we recognized each other. He said, Cody. I said, Bill. Yeah. He

00:04:08.280 said, what are you doing? I said, well, I'm here selling air freshener. And I said, well, are you

00:04:13.460 still working with your, he repaired automobiles? He said, no, no, I sold my business. I'm taking care

00:04:20.520 of my elderly mother. I said, oh, really? And then all of a sudden, out of the blue, he said, well,

00:04:25.540 do you love the Blessed Mother? He knew I was a deacon. I said, well, of course I love the Blessed

00:04:30.060 Mother. And then he said, well, do you pray a rosary every day? I said, well, no, not every day.

00:04:37.220 He said, well, you don't, you don't love the Blessed Mother. And he walks away. And I said,

00:04:41.880 well, I couldn't get him because I had to sell some air freshener in my table. So I said, well,

00:04:48.980 he came in that same door. He's got to go out of that same door. I'm going to get him when he comes

00:04:54.520 out. So he's going to the door. I said, hey, man, wait a minute. What do you mean? I don't love the

00:04:59.420 Blessed Mother if I don't pray a rosary every day. And he looks at me. He said, well,

00:05:03.740 you ever heard of St. Louis Marie de Montfort? I said, who? I said, you ever heard of the book

00:05:09.020 God Alone? I said, what? He gives me a card, a business card. He said, you call me. You go to

00:05:14.960 Crossroads, a Catholic bookstore, and you go get the book. Well, Brother John Henry Weston,

00:05:20.780 that was in 1999. I go get the book. And I open it up, just so happens, on St. Louis de Montfort's

00:05:32.560 most favorite work, True Devotion to Mary. And here it is. And my life was changed forever.

00:05:43.380 However, the minute I opened that book, I became mesmerized with the spirituality of St. Louis

00:05:52.000 Marie de Montfort. Now, I'm a professional recording artist and a singer. I had been praying

00:05:57.100 for years, Lord, let me use my musical talents to praise and glorify God. Well, then when I got to

00:06:04.100 studying St. Louis de Montfort, I looked in the book and I said, well, wait a minute. St. Louis was a

00:06:09.000 missionary and a singer. And I said, well, here's a number in the book, Montfort Publications,

00:06:14.220 Bayshore, New York. I said, let me call Bayshore and talk to a priest who's doing missions.

00:06:22.380 As Divine Providence would have it. That was 2002. I talked to Father Roy Tivertick, still a dear

00:06:29.440 friend of mine this day. He's an SMM, a Montfort missionary. And I told him what I wanted to do.

00:06:34.660 He said, oh, Deacon, no problem. He says, I'll send you an outline of the missions that we give

00:06:38.940 as Montfort's. So he sent me an outline of the missions that he and Father Fitzsimmons would give.

00:06:47.800 And he said, here's a skeleton, put some meat on it. And then write back and forth to me,

00:06:54.180 let me know what you got, and I'll coach you through the process. Well, March of 2003,

00:07:00.040 on St. Joseph in Laurelville, Louisiana, I gave my first Montfort mission. And my life has never

00:07:12.020 been the same. Like you, Brother John Henry, I know you have a great devotion to St. Louis and

00:07:16.760 true devotion. I began to immerse myself in his spirituality. And today I have like four missions

00:07:23.780 just on his work, like all of his works. And it's amazing how when you live this, my life would

00:07:33.640 change when I studied this too. This is the new consecration manual that was released in 2012 by

00:07:39.620 another Montfort, Father Hugo Lespe, who assimilated every consecration manual written by the SMM,

00:07:49.160 the Montfort missionaries. And in 2012, we released this updated version, which is the gold standard

00:07:55.840 of consecration. I've been teaching this work since 2012, but I've been teaching total consecration.

00:08:03.600 I've ran, I guess, about a couple of thousand people through total consecration through various

00:08:08.060 parishes in South Louisiana. So, I mean, it works. Montfort works. And of course, this book,

00:08:14.640 this is a funny story about this book. This book is my mother-in-law's book that I got from her. I

00:08:21.900 said, I will not marry your daughter unless you give me your copy of True Devotion to Mary. 0.96

00:08:26.840 This is the first copy written by Father Faber in 1862. And this is, I guess this is my favorite

00:08:34.260 copy because it's true to the original. The one in God Alone was the recent one that was done in 75.

00:08:41.120 And I actually discovered a fourth version that the Legion of Mary publishes in Ireland. It's a

00:08:47.780 paraphrase of all of them. So there's actually four translations of True Devotion to Mary. Really,

00:08:54.240 it's an answer to what's going on today with all of these riots and all these killings and the

00:08:58.920 melees of the world. This is the answer for our lay people to present an alternative way so that we

00:09:08.760 can deal with this melees and this carnage of death and destruction by becoming victim souls and

00:09:17.260 suffering and becoming victim souls and suffering and praying for the melees that's going on in our

00:09:23.040 world. Absolutely. So this is the thing. We're in the strangest time because first we were hit with

00:09:28.640 coronavirus and it seemed to do so much to people, especially people of faith, denying us the holy

00:09:35.500 sacrifice of the mass. But we, many people, Bishop Schneider, Cardinal Burke, others have said that

00:09:44.080 this looks like a chastisement. And one of the first things that we noticed was we weren't doing

00:09:52.160 what is called for in a chastisement. We weren't turning back to God, repenting of our wicked ways.

00:09:57.700 Yes. And so many people suggested that things might get worse, but that might've been hard to

00:10:04.200 imagine only a few days ago. But yet we now have this much worse situation where it seems much of

00:10:14.420 the media anyway has forgotten all about coronavirus because it's become about this unbelievable tragedy in

00:10:21.240 the United States. First of all, with the death of George Floyd, the brutal, brutal death of George

00:10:28.860 Floyd, and then followed on the heels of it, these violent demonstrations that are in turn killing more

00:10:36.180 and more people. So this is absolutely unbelievable. In what way does true devotion provide an answer to

00:10:44.620 any of this? What true devotion has done and has done and will continue to do since it was discovered

00:10:54.620 in 1842 is form Mary's army to be the answer to the violence and the hatred and the vitriol that's

00:11:04.420 ravaging our planet to actually become sanctified and glorified by Jesus through the living of true

00:11:12.400 devotion to Mary. And it's, it's, it's a, it's a gift that has been hidden for years, but now

00:11:18.740 is being discovered by so many young people in my working with young people at the collegiate level

00:11:25.040 and, and the, uh, uh, elementary school level working with them in the legion of Mary to form little

00:11:32.320 saints. I've seen a new generation that Mary is being formed, that is being formed by our lady who

00:11:39.700 ascribe to Jesus and Mary through living true devotion to Mary. I've discovered a whole new

00:11:46.900 generation who are hungry for Orthodox. They're hungry for truth. They're hungry for, for, uh, 0.75

00:11:52.820 the Latin mass. They're hungry for absolute, uh, orthodoxy that has been articulated by Holy 0.66

00:12:00.260 Mother Church for 2000 years. And these young people are not swayed by the, the satanic attacks.

00:12:10.820 They, they are focused. They're young. They have energy. They believe they can make a difference.

00:12:15.460 And working with these young people, I see, I have great hope for our world. Now it's bad. We cannot

00:12:23.460 deny that it's bad, but good is never overcome by bad. Just look at, uh, what happened at Lepanto.

00:12:31.700 I mean, by all practical purposes, they was lost and that, you know, through the intercession of our

00:12:37.140 lady and the prayer and the rosary, this has been, uh, a gift to us as an example of when the chips are

00:12:45.220 really down and our back is against the wall. Then we grab, then we go for our rosaries and we go for

00:12:52.740 our penance. You know, what, what, what did it tell us, uh, in Fatima? Penance, penance, penance.

00:12:59.220 I guess about a month ago, uh, the, the blessed mother laid upon my heart in my wife's evening

00:13:04.820 prayer that we start, we started doing a rosary of just reparation again of the outrages committed

00:13:11.220 against the immaculate heart of Mary and the sacred heart of Jesus. Because when you live the total

00:13:16.580 consecration and you live true devotion to Mary, what happens is the Holy Ghost and Jesus

00:13:22.500 and Mary anoint our everyday actions to where like you, like it's like winning the spiritual

00:13:27.220 lottery. You give Mary a dollar. Okay. Here's my ticket. I'm buying into true devotion. I'm buying

00:13:33.620 a total consecration. She said, well, great, John Henry and Deacon Cody, because you've had enough

00:13:39.140 faith in me to give me all that you have. I will blow this up a billion times. It's like winging,

00:13:46.100 winning the huge lottery. So the more people you got consecrated and you want more people you got

00:13:51.220 trusting Mary for their life, you know, is going to build an army to, to be an answer. 0.87

00:13:57.940 And it could get a lot worse, but when, when things are at its worst, that's when Jesus and Mary do their

00:14:05.940 best. And it's easy to be, uh, have despair. But when you look to the history of how our lady has brought

00:14:14.180 us out of so many, uh, consequences that seem impossible, when you, when you look at that and

00:14:20.740 you apply that to your own spiritual life course, regular confession, holy mass, uh, praying, uh,

00:14:27.860 prayers of reparation coupled with first Saturdays and first Fridays, this is the answer. Like,

00:14:33.860 I, even though it looks bad, I have more hope and more joy than I've ever had before, because I realize

00:14:40.020 that the more I give myself over to Mary, the more applicable she'll give those graces that come

00:14:46.340 from her immaculate hands come to us who are fighting the good fight of faith, where one of us

00:14:52.180 can do the work of a thousand people or 10,000 people, because we're laying, we, we, we standing

00:14:58.500 in the breach for those who do not pray for those who do not love God. So I have more hope than ever,

00:15:04.020 even though like it is dark outside, brother John Henry, the work you're doing and life side news,

00:15:09.860 you, you have no idea, not in this life, the good that you're doing. Well, because it's, it's hidden.

00:15:16.740 It's like a mustard seed. And here's an interesting thing. I think for most people,

00:15:21.540 what the, the, what of what they can do is, is really missing. Where are they supposed to get

00:15:28.180 to know what to do? So why don't you give me a kind of a prescription, if you were, about prayer,

00:15:36.660 a daily prayer? How much time should we devote to prayer? What should we do about prayer? And is that

00:15:43.860 itself a work? Is that, as you might say, enough people will say?

00:15:49.860 It is. Well, first of all, you have to do the amount of prayer that,

00:15:53.460 that gives to your state in life. Like, you know, one of the office of readings, he says a Carthusian

00:16:01.540 shouldn't spend his time outside like a worker, and a worker shouldn't spend his time inside like a 0.95

00:16:06.420 Carthusian. You have to tailor your spiritual life and your apostolic life to your state in life.

00:16:13.940 And that comes, of course, through prayer and discernment. Like for every Catholic, if you will pray

00:16:19.540 one rosary a day, just one. And you don't have to start off with one. Start off with a decade,

00:16:24.980 and add a decade. And then first thing you know, you'll be praying a whole rosary every day. That

00:16:29.460 rosary prayed with a soul that is sanctifying grace, and a soul that received the sacraments

00:16:35.700 regularly, and a soul that is attuned to their surroundings of who's out there that need to hear

00:16:43.380 the gospel. Who needs to hear the good news? Who needs to see my life in the example of one

00:16:50.260 whose radiation comes from living a sacramental life is a powerful attractant for those outside in

00:16:56.580 the world who are struggling? And of course, regular confession. For the ordinary Catholic,

00:17:03.300 confession every two weeks, every month is good, but a good confession to where you make,

00:17:08.500 you get yourself a good examination of conscience. And you go through your life through that two

00:17:14.420 weeks, a month. Or if you're a cleric, a priest or a deacon, I recommend at least once a month.

00:17:20.900 And to go through the mental inventory of how Satan is attacking you in your weaknesses. And all of us

00:17:28.820 are weak. All of us have pressure points that Satan just knows how to push. And he knows how to get the

00:17:35.860 best of us. But when you allow the sacramental life, which thankfully we're getting back into

00:17:43.940 sync again with Holy Mass, that scourge from the pandemic that was foisted upon us has done irreparable

00:17:53.220 harm to ordinary Catholics who felt their obligation of watching Sunday Mass on TV to really fulfill what 0.51

00:18:02.900 what you're supposed to do. And it still is not back to normal. Right now in our own diocese,

00:18:08.180 we can only have like 25% of the people. Some churches require Mass, some churches do not require Mass.

00:18:18.420 And some churches in other areas around the country are still locked. So we have to overcome the

00:18:24.900 the double whammy of our lady of being of the evil one who deprived of the sacraments and confession.

00:18:34.260 So it is quite a few obstacles to overcome. But if we get back, if we can pray that one rosary

00:18:42.340 with sincerity, with faith, hope and love, the rosary can be the hinge point for us to gradually come back

00:18:50.500 and get to where we can have a vibrant sacramental life again through the church. But it comes with

00:18:56.580 prayer, self-examination. It comes with study, action, and it comes with increased faith. You know,

00:19:03.380 our lady's three attributes, faith, love, faith, purity, and faith, purity, and holiness. When we use those

00:19:14.660 gifts from our lady and let her be in the driver's seat, so to speak, she can bring us out of this 1.00

00:19:21.780 malaise, not only the pandemic, but also the Satan's unleashing of his fury on our world. We can come out of this

00:19:29.540 stronger than ever. Because again, Mary will never be overdone by evil. You just have to not lose

00:19:36.500 faith, have a prayer life, trust our lady, and to do what you can, and let the grace, sanctifying grace,

00:19:44.340 do the rest. Absolutely. So what do you advise to people? So we've had all sorts of unbelievable

00:19:52.820 events happen in the last few weeks. We've seen mothers and children left at home where their

00:20:00.740 husbands are out there. They don't know what's happened to them. They're scared themselves. Their 0.77

00:20:04.420 kids are sleeping with them in their own rooms. If they have guns, they're looking for them to be

00:20:11.220 ready to defend themselves because they don't know what's coming. In those circumstances which are warlike

00:20:17.220 and just absolutely crazy, and this is the middle of America, which is normally as peaceful as peaceful

00:20:23.140 can be, is the message then still the same? Is it still just trust and hope in God? And what if

00:20:31.380 happens the unthinkable that people do attack you, then what?

00:20:36.340 Well, when you do get attacked and you do get attacked for your values and for your faith, know that

00:20:42.820 that that's an instant ticket to heaven and that God will somehow use the evil to bring about a greater

00:20:52.580 good. But it's hard to convince people of that when you're going through it. It's hard to see the

00:20:57.700 sunshine when you're surrounded by clouds and doubt and fear. But what we have to do in our role

00:21:05.060 as yourself as one of the voices on the media is always instill hope in people and myself as a deacon

00:21:17.540 who more or less have a personal one-on-one touch to share with them how God loves them in spite of

00:21:24.900 all of the pain and suffering. And to be a person that they can see that in spite of all the

00:21:31.620 the cornage and the bad stuff, that we have not lost our faith, that we still have faith.

00:21:38.740 We admit the problems, we admit what's happening, but we also present an answer to what's happening.

00:21:47.220 Prayer, sacrifice, love, kindness, generosity, care for your brother, care for your neighbor.

00:21:53.620 And when we allow that kind of attitude in a world that has lost its way, it cannot help but be a light

00:22:01.940 and unattractive for those of us who believe the gospel, trust the gospel and act upon the gospel to

00:22:08.900 actually let our life be a reference on the gospel. There are really no easy answers. It's just a lot of

00:22:17.300 prayer and a lot of prayer and a lot of work. Ora et labora, like the good monks where I go on retreat every

00:22:23.860 year, the Olivet and Benedictines. It's emblazoned everywhere. Prayer and work, that's just no substitute for

00:22:31.860 prayer, work and faith and trust in God despite of all that we see. We have to believe what is unseen

00:22:39.780 is making a difference. And the little tiny seeds that we plant here, we plant there, and the kind

00:22:48.340 word, the kind gesture, the smiling face, the trusting face that presents an answer to the poison

00:22:57.220 that's being injected into our world. And I think that that point is so important. We can't realize

00:23:05.780 realize what is going to change people's minds, what is going to touch people's hearts. The very

00:23:12.420 smallest little gesture, the very smallest little smile, the very, a certain word that you might say

00:23:18.500 that you're inspired to say because you've given your whole life over to Christ and the Holy Spirit,

00:23:24.980 you're open to him and he inspires you to say even one word or even one look or one smile

00:23:29.380 or even one admonishment, perhaps. And they can be transformative, not through our own because

00:23:37.220 Christ literally wants to work through us and with us. So that, I think, is such a valuable lesson

00:23:44.740 that we're not even called to understand what we're doing when we're working for Christ,

00:23:51.060 with Christ and through Christ to reach out to our brothers and sisters in this world who are often

00:23:56.100 very hurt and messed up and need and want Jesus. So, okay, so we've got this, this understanding of

00:24:07.380 we need to pray, we need to be in touch with our Lord, we need to be open to the gifts of the Holy

00:24:11.940 Spirit so that God might work through us. You mentioned now a couple of times is sacrifice.

00:24:18.500 And what is sacrifice? What are we to do? What are we called to do in that area?

00:24:24.500 Yeah. Fasting. Not necessarily from food, but the things that you like.

00:24:34.340 Reparation prayers. Do reparation rosary. Doing stuff you don't like to do with a smile.

00:24:42.820 And I've got a really good suggestion to your readers. And it's one of the best suggestions that

00:24:51.060 you'll ever see. And it's right here. Every Advent and Lent. This has been my guidepost for

00:25:02.500 applying myself to the life of Christ. There it is.

00:25:05.780 You can download it for free on, if you type in letters to the friends of the cross.

00:25:15.140 You can download it. Just put 16 pages in your computer. And if you do this every Advent and Lent,

00:25:23.380 your life will take a dramatic turn as one of the sacrificial souls for God to exponentially increase your own

00:25:34.820 holiness by sacrifice and living the cross. Father de Montfort spent 30 days with the Jesuits.

00:25:43.220 After he left the monastery, he says, I want to put down in pen and ink what my heart has been saying

00:25:52.100 to you. I don't have much time for writing and you don't have much time for reading.

00:25:56.980 He said, let the unction of the Holy Spirit be the engine behind this letter. Let the Holy Cross be my pen

00:26:08.580 and your heart be my book to virtually engrave his message of living the cross.

00:26:17.300 It has unleashed. It's so funny. I do ministry at the hospital. I preach a couple of days a week.

00:26:23.380 And for the last two years, I've been encouraging my people in Advent and Lent to pick up, to copy it.

00:26:30.260 And you'll be surprised. Last time I had them raise their hands at the hospital, I said, all right,

00:26:35.220 how many of you guys have read Friends of the Cross? They put their hands up and their head down

00:26:40.660 because it's so challenging that you can only get little pieces at a time. But that's all God wants

00:26:48.820 you to get. He doesn't expect you to understand this fully because there's only one St. Louis de Montfort,

00:26:53.860 okay? There's only one. And when he wrote that book, he lived it. Because if you study his life,

00:27:00.340 as you well know, he was thrown under the bus many times. He was run out of town. He was poisoned.

00:27:06.740 He was hated. He was maligned by the clergy. He looked like a bum. He had ragged clothes and would

00:27:14.340 walk everywhere. But yet, his spirituality has lighted up the world. And what he wrote in these

00:27:22.660 works is making sense. So when you take a work like that in True Devotion, and of course, Secret of the

00:27:30.340 Rosary is another profound work. I actually have a whole mission I do on Secret of the Rosary,

00:27:35.540 four nights of song and inculcation in the spirituality of Father de Montfort, going through

00:27:43.620 the greatness of the Rosary, how St. Louis will take you by the hand and guide you through the

00:27:50.660 great mysteries that are embedded in the Rosary, coupled with learning to accept your own cross and

00:27:57.060 to benefit. Believe it or not, Brother John, it's not the big crosses that are the most difficult. We can

00:28:02.820 usually accept them as the little ones that we have trouble. And what Father de Montfort teaches you

00:28:10.020 is how to benefit. He says like a shopkeeper. A shopkeeper in his business will make sure he sells

00:28:17.700 everything. Everything for profit. Well, what Father de Montfort wants to emblazen upon our hearts in

00:28:24.820 Friends of the Cross is use every tiny cross that comes to you every day, the little ones, like any

00:28:31.300 annoyances or anything that you stop and think, oh, that's a gift. Look at it as a gift and let it

00:28:37.940 shape you and form you. I have learned more about spirituality, studying Friends of the Cross and

00:28:42.900 I've studied almost any of his books. Now, True Devotion is great. Secret of the Rosary is great.

00:28:48.180 Love of Eternal Wisdom is awesome. His Prayer to Missionaries is a great gift to those of us in direct

00:28:54.500 evangelization on what to do, how to do it, and the power of an evangelist like you are. Like,

00:29:00.420 man, you got a worldwide platform. Brother John, you have been given a great gift through your worldwide

00:29:06.180 platform and plus the people that you've interviewed. My goodness. I mean, every time I look at the people

00:29:11.880 that you had on your show and I say, man, what the heck he's doing calling a Cajun deacon? I don't belong in

00:29:17.060 that bunch over here. That's way out of my league, you know. Or, you know, I say it in tongue in cheek. 0.96

00:29:23.780 Are you ready for this line, Brother John Henry? I'm the unworthy slave of the Southern Command

00:29:30.580 of the Montfort Missionaries in service to the Legion of Mary.

00:29:35.140 So, you know, if anybody would take up True Devotion to Mary and the Rosary, those two books

00:29:46.900 would enable those people who ever study it and read it and apply it, they will be so powerful in

00:29:55.540 the spiritual life that they will make eons of difference in our world. Just like, look what

00:30:04.020 the Blessed Mother's done in your life by applying True Devotion to Mary. If somebody would have told

00:30:09.700 you, John Henry Weston, that 25 years ago you'd have a worldwide ministry reaching millions of

00:30:15.620 people, you'd have said, yeah, I'm going to commit you to the nuthouse, right? Who would have thought it?

00:30:22.340 But yet, it's if you're living the total consecration and True Devotion that God uses you

00:30:28.660 and uses people like us, of course, in profound humility. Man, people in our stripe, you better

00:30:36.420 make friends with your knees and always be on your knees before God, because to whom much is given,

00:30:43.300 much is required. Particularly guys, they're good at praying, it's okay, but they pray and they think,

00:30:50.980 I want to do something. I want to be active somehow. And interestingly, although prayer is the

00:30:58.340 highest calling, there is an active life as well. And this is what I find so fascinating with what

00:31:04.580 you're doing in promotion of the Legion of Mary. And I want to stress before I say this, that it's not

00:31:11.220 the Legion of Mary that you've heard of and perhaps you've seen. Many of the folks who might be around

00:31:18.260 my age would know Legion of Mary is something where wonderful old ladies gather together to pray the 0.69

00:31:24.020 rosary together. And they go maybe to the old age home and and talk to people who were there. And

00:31:30.420 while that's all wonderful and good, it's a little bit challenging for young men. I remember going to

00:31:36.740 a Legion meeting when I was probably 20, 21 or so. And I went a couple times because I knew I was praying

00:31:44.740 the rosary. I knew it was good, but I could not sustain that. But you're doing and talking about

00:31:53.700 a wholly different kind of Legion of Mary. And what I love about it is it's very active and it has an

00:32:02.020 ability to transform the world in that way that most people think of wanting to do evangelization.

00:32:09.300 So please explain. Well, that is the heart of the Legion of Mary door to door, direct one on one

00:32:16.740 evangelization. That's the primary aim of the Legion. And of course, through the ensuing years, that has

00:32:24.500 kind of got pushed back to the the the the back instead of the front. But what what when I discovered

00:32:34.420 this word? Actually, a Montfort helped me discover this word, too. A Montfort has the pivotal

00:32:40.740 effect in my life, both in studying St. Louis the Montfort and discovering the Legion of Mary.

00:32:46.100 Matter of fact, Father Hugh, I'll tell you a quick story about how I got involved with the Legion.

00:32:50.180 Father Hugh, who wrote this book, The Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary, I had him in South

00:32:55.940 Louisiana. He was doing some retreats here in the Diocese of Lafayette and the Diocese of Alexandria.

00:33:01.140 And I had my only contact with the Legion of Mary was in 2009. They knew I had been studying St.

00:33:08.340 Louis the Montfort for years. They said, Deacon, can you come to St. Martinville and give us a talk

00:33:15.220 on St. Louis the Montfort? Because that's who's that's who we study in the Legion. I said, well,

00:33:19.700 I'd be glad to. So I go to give a give a talk in 2009 for the Legion on true devotion. And they give me

00:33:30.500 a gift, John Henry Weston. They gave me a handbook. And you know what I did with it? I went back home.

00:33:37.620 You see this? I used to have a secretary there. I went and put the Legion handbook in my secretary

00:33:46.660 and I'll never open it again. 2012, December the 12th, 2012 in Alexandria, Louisiana at Mary Hill Retreat

00:33:57.860 Center. You get it where I'm at? Mary Hill Retreat Center. Father Hugh and I are giving some talks to

00:34:04.020 the priest and the deacons. And for whatever reason, I had brought the Legion of Mary handbook. I have no

00:34:10.820 idea why. Then Father Hugh and I are talking. He said, oh, I see you got a Legion handbook. I said,

00:34:17.220 yeah. He said, well, you know anything about the Legion of Mary? I said, not really. And then he looked

00:34:22.500 at me with his quizzical look. He said, Deacon. I want two words that we deacons learn quick,

00:34:28.740 Brother John Henry, is yes, Father, as a deacon. I said, yes, Father. He said, don't you realize

00:34:34.820 realize that this book is this book embedded in it and that its ministry and its life is the engine

00:34:46.420 of the Legion of Mary? I said, you're kidding. He said, Deacon, I wouldn't kid you about something

00:34:51.940 like that. He said, why don't you read it? So, Brother Henry, I opened it up. Same thing with

00:34:59.780 true devotion. Exact same feeling. I opened up the Legion handbook and boom. That Holy Ghost took

00:35:08.420 that sword, baby, and he run it through the old deacon's heart. Boom. A whole new world opened up.

00:35:14.580 Then I said, oh, oh. Then I got to learn about this organization. I knew absolutely nothing.

00:35:21.140 Then I call up the woman who gave me the book. I said, listen, I just discovered this handbook of

00:35:27.060 the Legion of Mary. I said, who can I talk to to teach me about the Legion of Mary? She said,

00:35:31.540 look, you're going to go directly to the top, deacon. I said, what do you mean? She said,

00:35:34.660 we're going to send you to the Legion in Houston, Texas, which is a major part of the Legion. I said,

00:35:41.540 okay. So, it just so happens, Brother John Henry, boy, it's his divine providence. My son was going to

00:35:48.980 a university in Houston, St. Thomas University, to study his undergraduate for his law degree.

00:35:54.740 And it just so happens, the headquarters in Houston. Well, I was just down the street from

00:35:59.620 the headquarters. Then I started studying with the top, the president of the whole organization.

00:36:06.580 Then I started asking questions. Man, they must have thought I was crazy. I'd ask some questions.

00:36:11.220 I didn't. Okay. What about this? What about that? What'd you do about this? Then I came back to

00:36:15.940 Louisiana and started working at the local higher councils, touching base with them. Father Jason

00:36:21.540 Fredrin, who is a saint. He's our spiritual director of the whole Diocese of Lafayette.

00:36:27.140 Then I started going to the meetings and learning about how the Legion works, all the way from

00:36:33.140 Ireland, which is the headquarters, down to the various councils, up to the basic prayer group,

00:36:39.460 which is in a parish. And this took about a year and a half. And then the blessed man said, okay,

00:36:45.380 Deacon, now you've got to talk to the people at the top. You've got to go to the bottom. I said,

00:36:51.380 what do you mean? She said, well, you've got to go to the basic different units and you've got to

00:36:55.940 learn how to set this up and learn the dynamics of the meeting so you can apply what you've learned

00:37:01.700 through the years with St. Louis de Montfort and total consecration and re-infuse the Legion,

00:37:08.260 which brought them to the dance. Because this is sad, but I've got to tell you the story. Anyway,

00:37:16.740 2015, I'm in Ireland, headquarters of the Legion. I'm doing a retreat for 50 people

00:37:25.220 of the group directly attached to the headquarters of the Legion. So, man, I'm still pitching myself to

00:37:31.860 know this is real, because here in the audience is Frank Duffs, the founder of the Legion, his best friend,

00:37:37.940 and the Dunleavy, who's become a dear friend of mine. We talk all the time. And I thought I was

00:37:43.620 going to be, like, discover a great treasure trove of study. Well, I said, okay, how many of you

00:37:52.500 have read, are reading, and will continue to read True Devotion to Mary? Now, listen, this is in Ireland.

00:37:59.300 You know how many people raised their hand? No, how many? Three. I wanted to go hide like a roach in the

00:38:09.300 ground. I had opened up a can of worms. But you see, and that's endemic with all of the groups. They

00:38:18.820 got away from the basic spirituality, the door-to-door, the studying of this, this handbook,

00:38:24.980 the studying of True Devotion, and not doing this, total consecration. I discovered this was the

00:38:33.860 main defects of the Legion. Now, look, the Legion is still operating and doing well. But it was like,

00:38:40.500 okay, you have, like I explained to you before, the Legion of Mary is like a Ferrari, okay? It's a

00:38:47.060 Ferrari with 600 horsepower. You got this big race car that's ready to go run down the street at 220 miles

00:38:54.500 an hour. Well, you can take that Ferrari and go to your mailbox and back. That ain't what it's made

00:39:01.620 for. It's made to go on a road and run. That's what I discovered about the Legion. And through my

00:39:08.740 retreats throughout the country and almost every major council, I've been working with the presidents,

00:39:15.300 the vice presidents, the secretaries to get back to the basics that made us famous, just like a football

00:39:21.380 team. What does a football team do to be great? First of all, they study the opponent's moves, just

00:39:28.260 like we're studying what Satan is doing in our world. But then you go over those fundamentals over

00:39:34.740 and over and over and over, because it's the fundamentals that make the institution great.

00:39:42.500 Well, when you encourage them, you pat them on the back and you kick them where the sun don't shine

00:39:50.260 and tell them, this is what we have to do. Because the Legion of Mary was formed a hundred years ago,

00:39:56.180 brother John Henry Weston. It's the best kept secret in the church, but you have to run it according

00:40:03.380 according to this handbook. Look, that's gospel, brother. I ascribe to every principle. If you look

00:40:12.740 through this handbook, I've got six colors. I've been through this handbook 25 times.

00:40:19.700 How am I going to teach the officers of the Legion the basic fundamentals of our spirituality without

00:40:27.060 knowing it? Plus coupled with consecration, the monforsion, which is the engine of which we operate.

00:40:34.420 So I've seen a new breed of Legion members who, of course, I haven't been anywhere since this lockdown.

00:40:44.260 So I've been praying that, oh God, when we can have meetings again, that all of my folks are going to

00:40:50.100 come back so we can continue the education process to work with my people to get back to the basics that

00:40:58.420 made us great. I'll give you a perfect example of the power. Bentley Place. If your readers will

00:41:06.260 Google this and get a copy, it's called Miracles on Tap. I think I have a copy of it in my book. It's a

00:41:16.980 story of how the early years of the Legion, when they did what they're supposed to do, they cleaned

00:41:25.060 up the most horrible place on earth. It was so bad it made the Encyclopedia Britannica's worst places

00:41:33.300 in the world. Prostitution, murder, gambling, drunkenness, every vice, human vice that could be

00:41:41.540 talked about. It was there. Well, Frank Duff was working in the hotels in Ireland with the street

00:41:50.020 girls who were seeking to change their life. He worked with the street girls in different brothels 0.99

00:41:57.060 around the city, had a tremendous success with bringing them back to God by a series of retreats

00:42:03.940 that he worked. That's a whole set of miracles how that happened. But you got to get the book.

00:42:08.500 Get the book, folks. You'll never regret it. You can't put it down. It's called Miracles on Tap.

00:42:14.000 You just Google it and you can buy it. Well, Frank Duff had such success with rescuing the street girls 1.00

00:42:20.960 from a life of impurity. And what are we facing today, Brother John Henry? Impurity, licentiousness,

00:42:28.100 the degradation of women. You know, it's all there. Well, Frank Duff had such success, 1.00

00:42:34.280 Mr. Blessed Mother, patted him on the back and said, OK, Brother Duff, you've done good.

00:42:40.620 But there's a lot more work for you to do. He said, huh? He or she told him, you got to go to

00:42:46.540 Bentley Place and you got to clean that place up. No priest, no police would go there. The priest said,

00:42:54.100 listen, we ain't going there. We're scared. The police said, we ain't going there. We're scared.

00:42:58.000 Even if they had the guns, they wouldn't go in that place. So Frank Duff and 15 women, 1.00

00:43:03.960 they went in two years and cleaned that place up. It's like miracle after miracle after miracle

00:43:10.800 that happened. The only time a priest went in there was to hang a crucifix on the wall

00:43:16.780 and reclaim that place for Jesus and Mary. Now I'm thinking, now listen, if those miracles

00:43:24.660 happen, and that's only one set of miracles, I'd be, I could keep you here all day to tell

00:43:30.780 you about the other stuff, but this is just the biggest one. Miracle after miracle happened. I'm

00:43:36.080 thinking with my old Cajun mind here, well, if that kind of power was given to the Legion of Mary

00:43:42.720 with some women who, no education, just souls who trusted Jesus and Mary, if they could do those

00:43:49.280 kind of miracles, why cannot we do those same kind of miracles right now in the USA? Why?

00:43:57.400 There's no reason.

00:43:59.820 And I think this is the key because we have actually now got a Bentley place on every street corner.

00:44:07.640 Oh my God, John Henry, you hit the nail on the head, brother. And if we can get the young people, 0.92

00:44:14.040 that's why I'm so excited about working with my young people at the collegiate level and the young

00:44:19.240 families, like your friend, my mutual friend, Dylan Seymour, who I love to death. That boy is a leader

00:44:26.440 of 40 families of Latin mass people who are on fire. Well, if we can channel that fire with training in 1.00

00:44:35.120 this, and we can get a group on fire and let this spread to the whole diocese. Well, here we have

00:44:42.040 Bentley place soldiers at our command, brother. There it is. And if it worked, then it's going to

00:44:49.140 work. Because Frank Duff, when he started the Legion, it was all young people, you know, because 0.58

00:44:54.680 they have, they have, they have youth, they have looks, they have a, they think they can make a

00:45:00.360 difference. People my age, you see, brother Henry, I'm calling for forgiveness right now. It's my

00:45:06.140 generation that caused all this mess. They're hippies. I'm making a public confession on

00:45:11.960 John Henry Weston. Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault, my generation

00:45:17.880 screwed it up. But hopefully, we can train a new generation to straighten it out. And we

00:45:24.500 can. Because I see the hunger in those young people, brother John Henry. I work with those

00:45:29.280 young priests on fire. I see their zeal. I see their courage. And look, when I'm with those

00:45:35.100 young kids, brother Henry, they make the old Deacon feel 25 years old. You know, at my group

00:45:41.020 at the college at UL. Man, look, I got one girl that's so red hot, I got to follow around

00:45:45.540 with a fire extinguisher. She's a freshman. Her name is Camille. Her first name is Camille

00:45:52.800 Harrington. That young lady, every time we have that meeting, the prayer meeting at the college,

00:45:59.000 she inspires me. I mean, she is so on fire. Mary has just taken her little heart, not only

00:46:04.320 her, but all of those young people. My president, my vice president. And I'm looking at this,

00:46:09.500 and I'm looking at those people, and I'm looking at me. I said, Lord, I'm one lucky deacon to be

00:46:14.980 those kids' spiritual directors. And I'm also a spiritual director for a much larger group of six

00:46:20.200 prayer groups. And then I work with Father Vidrine in the diocesan level. And we actually had

00:46:28.080 the director of communications film us, film a meeting, and she filmed each one of those kids

00:46:36.040 sharing a testimony. And as soon as she edits it, I'm going to send it to you so you can see.

00:46:41.600 Look, I'm an old deacon. Say, ah, deacon, you're old. You're old for the dirty. But if they hear the

00:46:45.300 young people giving those testimonies about how Mary has changed their life, I think we can reach

00:46:50.940 a whole new generation, Brother John Henry.

00:46:52.820 Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, I think we have our marching orders.

00:46:58.080 We do.

00:46:58.940 You know, we have a real opportunity here, since we have a Bentley Place now on every street corner,

00:47:05.420 we have a real opportunity to evangelize. And so we have a book, or a, what would you call it,

00:47:13.080 a guidebook, if you will, to reach people for Christ through His Most Holy Mother, the most effective

00:47:18.480 way ever discovered to bring Christ to people through Our Lady. So, Deacon Cody, as we're

00:47:26.040 closing off, let us know how people can get in touch with you. Where can they read about you and

00:47:31.380 find out about you?

00:47:32.820 Yes. They can email me, dcncody at gmail.com. Or they can call me. Can I give my phone number?

00:47:44.660 I wouldn't do that. But definitely give us a website or something like that.

00:47:49.440 They can email me because, you know, like I said, I'm a recording artist. I have six albums

00:47:54.560 recorded. I'm working on the seven. Actually, I'm working on an album using some songs written by

00:48:02.740 Bill Peffley, who, amazing story. Bill Peffley, he and his wife were commissioned by Frank Duff,

00:48:09.560 the founder of the Legion, to spread the Legion of Mary in Philadelphia. He was a prolific songwriter.

00:48:16.020 He had a bookstore in Norristown, had tons of conversions, tons of priests that, because of

00:48:23.720 the Legion, became priests. And his wife, Mary Peffley, actually worked for Bishop Sheen. She was

00:48:29.940 his secretary. And they have a son who's the number one Legion priest in the country. His name is

00:48:35.300 Father Francis Peffley. If they type in Father Francis Peffley, he has a website with all kinds

00:48:42.080 of material that they can download for free about the Legion of Mary, about the greatness,

00:48:48.360 about stories, about miracles. I just gave y'all just like a tiny tip of the iceberg of what the

00:48:54.180 Legion has done through the years. That's a whole new world that's going to be opened up because Mary

00:48:59.680 needs more soldiers. But if they contact me, dcncody, c-o-d-y, gmail.com. We have a bunch of

00:49:09.100 Montfort books. I'm a Montfort distributor. We have a bunch of albums and retreats. And I'm

00:49:13.880 available for retreats and missions throughout the country, too. I have six complete missions.

00:49:20.320 My latest one, I didn't get a chance to give it. The COVID-19 killed my mission,

00:49:25.160 but it's the four last things, Brother John Henry. Death, judgment, hell, or heaven. I got four

00:49:31.820 source materials and put it together. Man, look, I was scaring myself putting it together. So I had a

00:49:38.840 good priest friend of mine. I was going to give it in his parish, but we got canceled. So right now,

00:49:44.360 that's the old-fashioned Holy Ghost revival that was done in the missions in churches years ago.

00:49:49.820 So instead of scaring the hell out of you, it scares the heaven into you.

00:49:57.560 Excellent. Excellent. Deacon Cody, I want to thank you for being with us on John Henry Weston's show.

00:50:03.140 And if you wouldn't mind, as we depart, if you wouldn't mind giving us all your blessing,

00:50:06.800 that would be awesome.

00:50:07.600 Oh, definitely. We're going to get with St. Louis. We got him here with us there, Brother John Henry.

00:50:12.460 Dear St. Louis, we thank you for this wonderful conversation with such a wonderful and holy man.

00:50:19.640 And Brother John Henry Weston and his family of correspondents and his worldwide outreach.

00:50:25.380 Lord, we're going to be greedy for Brother John Henry. We're not going to ask for a double.

00:50:29.440 We're not going to ask for a triple. We're going to ask for a quadruple blessing of the unction of

00:50:35.380 your supernatural grace on Brother John Henry and his family. Bless his wife and children and help him

00:50:41.320 to articulate what it means to be Catholic, what it means to be on fire with the love of Jesus and Mary.

00:50:47.120 And may the spirit of St. Louis Marie de Montfort emblaze himself in you, Brother John Henry,

00:50:53.460 and your ministry and your mission and your life. And may we all who are fighting the good fight of faith

00:50:58.420 be ever filled with hope and joy, even despite of all of the troubles, all of the attacks of the evil one,

00:51:05.980 that in the end, my immaculate heart will triumph. Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,

00:51:13.220 that ever was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, employed thy help,

00:51:19.360 or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, we fly to thee,

00:51:25.180 O virgins of virgins, my mother. To thee do I come before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful.

00:51:32.380 O mother of the world incarnate, despise not our petition, but in thy mercy hear and answer us.

00:51:37.740 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

00:51:43.080 Brother John Henry, it was a joy. Thank you for being you and your wonderful ministry. I'm so honored

00:51:49.800 to have been a part of our outreach to our good folks, Brother John.

00:51:55.360 Excellent. Thank you, Deacon Cody. Thank all of you for watching. We'll see you next time right here

00:51:59.900 on the John Henry Weston Show. May God bless you.

00:52:01.880 Hello, this is John Henry Weston. I'd like to invite you to subscribe to the John Henry Weston Show

00:52:07.720 YouTube channel if you haven't already done so. There you will find all the past episodes and much

00:52:13.180 more. Thanks again for watching, and may God bless you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - June 10, 2020

Deacon provides solution to America’s civil unrest： ‘Prayer, fasting, and a lot of work’

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