The John-Henry Westen Show - October 26, 2023


New Knights Of St. John Paul II Seek To Reclaim World For Christ


Episode Stats

Length

39 minutes

Words per Minute

151.45294

Word Count

5,926

Sentence Count

402

Misogynist Sentences

4

Hate Speech Sentences

3


Summary

The Knights of John Paul II is a group of Catholic men who pray the rosary for their town. They believe that the Rosary is a tool that can be used to drive evil and demons out of their community. John Henry Weston, the group s founder, explains how the idea for the movement came about.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 We're calling on St. Michael with all nine choirs of angels. We're calling on all the saints in
00:00:05.500 heaven. We're calling on all the souls in purgatory to join us physically, to go out on the streets
00:00:13.120 and to drive evil and demons from our town. Hey, my friends, do you know, very often we're left
00:00:25.820 wondering what to do? There's so much going on and politics is such a dirty business, but we need
00:00:31.120 to be involved somehow. It's very frustrating sometimes to know when. In towns all across
00:00:37.200 America, we're having, you know, painted sidewalks or the pride flag being flown from your town hall
00:00:45.120 or things like that. Drag queen story hours and even in libraries for children. It seems to be
00:00:52.220 a big mess everywhere. We've got Planned Parenthood clinics opening up in smaller venues as well.
00:00:58.820 What are we to do? Well, believe it or not, I was, you know, facing this issue myself and I got in the
00:01:05.880 mail some pamphlets and things for an idea, an idea of men getting together to pray, to pray for their
00:01:16.100 town, to take their town back for Jesus and Mary. And it was awesomely simple. All they do is they get
00:01:24.180 together. They say some prayers of deliverance and things like that. And then the men walk out in twos and
00:01:30.580 pray the rosary all over town. I called one of my friends up and told him about the idea. And he said,
00:01:35.180 oh, that's awesome. That's open carry. Well, open carry, if you don't know, is when you're talking about
00:01:40.560 weapons and we're talking about, of course, our weapon of choice, the Most Holy Rosary. And
00:01:47.200 fascinating idea. And it's a movement that's just started. We're going to talk to the founders.
00:01:53.860 They call themselves the Knights of John Paul II. This is the John Henry Weston Show. Stay tuned.
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00:02:42.280 May God bless you.
00:02:43.820 Dan Potvin and Deacon Bruce Sider, so good to be with you.
00:02:46.900 Good to be with you, John Henry.
00:02:49.720 Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father,
00:02:53.540 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. Okay, so first of all, let's get into the
00:03:03.580 specifics a little bit, then we'll go back to its founding. So tell us a little bit about these
00:03:08.880 prayers. What are we praying here? So the men get together, it takes about an hour on Saturday
00:03:13.900 mornings, you suggest, but it could be another day. But what are they praying to start with?
00:03:17.860 Well, the opening prayer we do, and usually when we meet, we're in a church parking lot,
00:03:24.120 and then we go out from there. But this prayer, which took about four or five months to formulate,
00:03:31.220 we're claiming the town by name for our king and our queen. We're entrusting the town to the sacred
00:03:41.240 heart of Jesus and the immaculate heart of Mary. And then the prayer is called the prayer before the
00:03:49.100 rosary to summon the army. And then we're summoning, we're calling on St. Michael with all nine choirs
00:03:55.100 of angels. We're calling on all the saints in heaven. We're calling on all the souls in purgatory
00:04:00.860 to join us physically to go out on the streets and to drive evil and demons from our town. And then we
00:04:14.320 begin the rosary with a lot of prayers for the town, local leaders, local shepherd, intercessory prayers
00:04:25.280 for our nation, police officers, firemen, veterans. And then we split up in pairs of two, like the Lord
00:04:34.820 sends a 72 out. And we pray the rosary through the streets. And that's, that's in a nutshell,
00:04:42.140 what we do every week.
00:04:43.460 Um, we try to walk around, uh, places, um, city hall and we pray, especially for our public officials,
00:04:52.480 the police department, the fire department. And, uh, in our, in our North Adams, we have this modern
00:04:59.340 museum, which quite frankly is evil. And so one of our routes is to walk around that museum and pray
00:05:08.840 the rosary and, and, you know, ask St. Michael to intercede. So our routes are selected for that
00:05:17.100 purpose as well.
00:05:19.640 Great. Okay. So I love how it's so incredibly simple. I'd like to also learn a bit of your
00:05:27.040 experience. How does this go? You guys have done this. Um, tell us about any experiences you may have
00:05:33.140 had, how this has gone, any stories that might've come from it. So, you know, a lot during winter
00:05:40.940 time, it's pretty quiet out on the streets during COVID was very quiet. Um, one of the big things
00:05:47.820 that happened during COVID I found interesting is the local church was a vaccine center. So every
00:05:58.420 Saturday morning, when we were there, there were 10, 15 police officers and security people
00:06:05.820 guarding the building. And we'd show up in the parking lot right next to them, eight, 10,
00:06:12.780 12 guys would show up, no masks, you know, and they saw what we were doing. And, and, you
00:06:19.300 know, the first couple of weeks, you know, they just look at us from their masks out, you know,
00:06:24.940 we're all outside. And then I noticed little by little guys pulling their masks down,
00:06:32.300 smiling at us, saying hi. And over time, you could tell they like to see us out there
00:06:40.180 because that's our, was our starting point. Um, you know, out on the streets,
00:06:45.880 you don't, I mean, once in a while, people will come up and actually ask us what we're
00:06:55.000 doing or talk to us, but you know, you're walking two people. Um, we try to carry rosary
00:07:01.320 beads that, that are long and people know what we're doing. You know, the summer months we have
00:07:06.540 our shirts on, which are our beautiful shirts and that attracts attention. Um, right. It's not
00:07:13.160 like you have shirts off the other time you're talking about this t-shirt that you're wearing.
00:07:17.100 Yes. Yes. This is, this is, and, and, and on the back, you know, with the back of these t-shirts,
00:07:23.960 that's that quote from Luke, um, Luke's gospel where our Lord, when the 72 come back, the Lord tells them
00:07:32.320 they're all bragging and, you know, all excited about the miracles, the demons are driving out this
00:07:38.000 and that. And he's like, I have given you the power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and the full
00:07:46.020 force of the enemy and no harm will befall you. And, and, you know, we don't necessarily, I don't,
00:07:58.280 I don't know any of the guys that see the, the angels and the demons battling and stuff, but,
00:08:03.100 but the fact that we step into that power and I, and I think that's what it is. It's a stepping into
00:08:10.260 that power that God's given us and, and then calling on, right. I mean, we have access to all
00:08:22.540 the angels. We have access to, we just got to ask. And so that's got to be a force to be reckoned with
00:08:31.400 when we're out on the streets, even if just Deacon and I show up on a Saturday morning,
00:08:35.540 because everybody's off doing something else. You've got the, you've got billions of warriors
00:08:41.160 with you. You might just be the two of us. The experience that, um, you know, it's, it's hard,
00:08:49.020 in a sense, because it's eight o'clock on a Saturday morning. So we don't really see a lot of people as
00:08:55.220 we're walking. But for me personally, as Dan said, just carrying that rosary around the streets
00:09:03.180 and praying the rosary, um, gives me a sense of, of, uh, I'm not sure of the word, but I just feel
00:09:13.640 so good about being a public witness to our faith. Because oftentimes when people think of church,
00:09:21.180 it's a building and what happens inside the building, but by us taking that rosary with us
00:09:27.660 and walking around the streets every week, uh, is a good feeling for me, I guess, is what I'm trying
00:09:34.160 to say that we are bringing a public witness of our faith out into the community. So others can see it
00:09:42.300 with the t-shirt and that sort of thing. I personally haven't had anybody stop me
00:09:48.000 in the year or so that two years, right? No, I think three. Wow. Four. Four. May 1st, 2020. Wow.
00:09:56.600 That's three then. But anyway, um, that's my personal experience. Uh, it's, it's empowering, I guess.
00:10:04.560 Um, it's, it's just a beautiful way to witness to our faith in public. Beautiful. Beautiful. So, um,
00:10:13.780 tell us about the founding. Like, how did this idea come up? Where, where did this come from?
00:10:18.840 You know, and, and, uh, why, why did it come? Um, it's been a long time in the works. Uh,
00:10:28.880 you know, I could go back to my childhood watching, uh, Joan of Arc with Ingrid Bergman. Um,
00:10:36.740 and, and, and always wanting to be a knight, always wanted to be, you know, in, in battle with,
00:10:43.600 with, uh, you know, a bunch of good, holy men. Um, and over the years, I'll be honest. I mean,
00:10:55.480 I, I procrastinated for years. I would write stuff down. I'd get these thoughts. I'd write them down.
00:11:01.000 Um, and I had a whole pile of them. Um, and then Deacon and I, and another group from the parish,
00:11:07.780 we all went to Medjugorje. And, and one of the things I prayed for while I was there
00:11:12.980 is I said, you know, blessed mother, most of my kids are grown up now. And what's my mission going
00:11:23.240 forward? That was one of the things I, and when we got back, uh, Deacon and I were meeting,
00:11:30.980 almost every week, having coffee and this topic would come up and, and Deacon just started like
00:11:38.520 really railing on me. He's, he's like, when are you going to stop talking about this
00:11:44.900 and make it happen? And so it was during that summer, 2019. And I guess we hit August, September
00:11:56.800 when that reading in Luke's gospel came and it just hit me like so hard at mass. I walked
00:12:03.400 out to church and I was like, did you hear that? Did you hear that? Everybody thought I
00:12:07.400 was nuts. I'm like, do you know? And that really kicked it off. And then what was the reading?
00:12:13.000 It was that from Luke's gospel chapter 10, I'd given you the power. Um, and knowing the times
00:12:21.940 were in, um, knowing the times we're in right. John Paul, the second's, uh, great prophecy from
00:12:32.100 Philadelphia. Um, that week at work, you know, and I, a lot of times I'm running excavator when I'm not
00:12:39.680 cutting trees and you can think a lot when you're running an excavator up in the mountains,
00:12:43.760 building roads for the logging jobs. And I pondered all week, what's the full force of the enemy?
00:12:51.460 If you had to look at the entire Bible from Genesis to the end, and you had to pick out what's the full
00:13:00.000 force of the enemy. This is what I came up with. Um, this is lumberjack theology. Bear with me. Um,
00:13:07.380 the full force of the enemy would be the time of the antichrist system. That's what I came up with.
00:13:17.680 And we have the power to tread on that.
00:13:23.840 So then, you know, us meeting every week, I started getting serious, writing stuff down,
00:13:29.860 finally had everything together to get to the printers, the end of April. And we made it to
00:13:34.600 the divine mercy shrine on May 1st, 2020. Um, and it was all put together. Now this prayer wasn't put
00:13:42.260 together yet. We were out on the streets every week for four months as this took shape. Okay. And
00:13:49.600 we're, we're waiting for an imprimatur on this because guys down at the divine mercy shrine want
00:13:55.440 to be able to give this out, this prayer. Um, but they can't do it the way their congregation is set
00:14:03.580 up, right? They need all, everything's got to be canonical. Um, but I, yeah, I mean, you know,
00:14:12.100 that's a big question, you know, three world use days with JP too. This certainly was an influence. Um,
00:14:20.580 he's my hero. Uh, what can I say? Um,
00:14:28.600 Well, I, I, I've known Dan for 30 years and, uh, it definitely, no doubt in my mind, it's a work of
00:14:35.780 the Holy spirit because Dan is his charism, if you will, is a warrior. He's a fighter. That's what Dan
00:14:44.560 is. And, and this, this John Paul, the second, the Knights of, um, is, is just an extension,
00:14:52.580 I think of his personality, his being. Um, and so maybe if I'm getting ahead of myself, but let me
00:15:02.600 know, but we, we actually have petitioned our Bishop and August of last year, he, uh, has given us
00:15:13.140 permission, if you will. Uh, we, we've, uh, applied to, if you will, or petitioned to become a public
00:15:20.220 association of the faithful where we're now considered a private association. So on August
00:15:27.140 23rd of last year, he sent us a letter, um, giving us permission to go forward. And he's given us three
00:15:35.700 years, uh, to, to continue, and then he'll reassess at three years and, and go from there. But each year
00:15:45.280 we have to, um, meet annually and submit like our, our progress. So, um, that's where we're at with,
00:15:54.380 with regard to our association, if you will. Beautiful. Now, um, the, so you've, you've already
00:16:04.680 given some reports to him or, or when, when is year one for you to give a report to the Bishop?
00:16:10.840 Um, we just sent in our first. Oh, just send it now. Okay. Yeah. So we're one year into the,
00:16:18.020 into the three-year process. And we just, just recently sent down our, um, our update,
00:16:23.760 you know, what, what progress have we made of the first year ago. Okay. I haven't, we haven't heard
00:16:31.260 back yet. If I could, if I could interject here, John Henry, the, the reason we're going through
00:16:39.180 this process, when we got a meeting with the Bishop, and to be honest, I bumped into Sister
00:16:46.600 Didi at a, uh, conference in the diocese, and I hadn't been able to get a, uh, meeting with the
00:16:53.740 Bishop yet for the Knights to meet with them and introduce ourselves and went to the conference,
00:16:59.740 Providence, Providence, as it worked. She called me over. She noticed the t-shirt. She wanted to
00:17:05.640 know about it. And a week later, two weeks later, we were meeting with the Bishop. All I really wanted
00:17:12.680 at that time, cause I had envisioned, I don't know if you've ever seen the picture, the famous picture,
00:17:18.320 it's called the knighting. I always wanted to be knighted by a queen. It's a beautiful picture.
00:17:24.180 It's on our website. All I wanted to do was ask the Bishop, can the guys come down and
00:17:30.080 our, our cathedral in the diocese is named after St. Michael, the archangel. And I wanted us to go
00:17:36.400 down the aisle two by two, kneel in front of the Bishop and him knight us with the first class relic
00:17:42.040 of JP too. And he's like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. I'm telling him this. He's like, you're getting way ahead of
00:17:48.620 yourself. And he said, no, he said, I want you guys to have canonical approval. He said, you know,
00:18:00.800 I had told them, you know, it was six or eight of us there at the meeting. I said, I said, Bishop,
00:18:06.880 I said, you know, the demons have taken over our towns. They've taken over our schools. They've taken
00:18:11.840 over our financial institutions. I said, they've even taken over some of our parishes.
00:18:17.680 He said, I know. He said, I know. And I said, you know, we're going out there pushing back.
00:18:30.980 You know, father Armory mentioned, you know, one of the demons told him every hail Mary is like a
00:18:36.360 sledgehammer on our head. Hmm. Well, let's go out and let's beat on some demons and cause them some
00:18:42.760 uncomfortable, you know, at least show up, show up to the fight, um, and beat on demons. A lot of
00:18:52.820 times I'll say that to the guys, you know, just when we're getting ready to break up and go out,
00:18:56.580 it's like, all right, let's go beat on some demons. Cause every hail Mary. Right.
00:19:00.680 So really, it was, so really it was the Bishop, Bishop Byrne, um, that pushed us in this direction.
00:19:13.960 I'll be honest. He looked right at us and he said, listen, he said, this is God's work,
00:19:22.100 which he had never met us. I'm sure his sister put in a good word for us, but she hardly knew us.
00:19:29.300 For him to say that I was like blown away. I'm like, I, if I was a Bishop, I was like,
00:19:37.840 all right, I'm going to watch you knuckleheads and see, see where this goes. Yeah.
00:19:47.580 Yeah. I think the idea is totally striking, especially in its simplicity. Uh, it is,
00:19:53.700 it's the first program that I've ever seen that I was like, yes, that's it. Because it's a,
00:20:00.740 it's a beautiful, uh, it's, I hesitate to say perfect cause nothing's perfect, but you know what
00:20:07.640 I mean? It's, it's actually an action that we can all take that men need to step up and it gives us
00:20:15.220 something to do. Uh, very few are called to, uh, politics and all sorts of things. We're all called
00:20:21.140 to do politics in some way to, to support good candidates and so on. But you know, who's called
00:20:26.700 to run some are called perhaps to do more, you know, lobbying and whatnot, but this, this, I think
00:20:33.600 everyone's called to do those who are able-bodied that is. So, uh, fantastic stuff. Have you noticed,
00:20:40.880 and maybe not yet, but have you noticed you've been doing this now for, for a few years? Have
00:20:45.680 you noticed any effects in your town? Uh, yeah. Um, things are getting worse in our area.
00:20:53.780 No, no, I'm serious. My little town of 800 people, um, the whole transgender thing has moved right into
00:21:01.360 the school. Um, so no, it's not, it's, it's, uh, uh, it's not like our little towns, the triumph of
00:21:13.160 Mary's Immaculate Heart has happened and we're in a new era. Um, the battle just keeps getting
00:21:19.440 fiercer. Um, but I know it's having effect. Um, I know in my little town, I was on the select board
00:21:30.140 for 10 years up until recently, I lost the seat by three boats. Um, and if there was a big issue
00:21:37.360 going on, like during COVID, cause we, we had a lawsuit against the governor, we were fighting back
00:21:43.500 on every level. And then because of my background in the military, I was making the people aware of
00:21:51.120 the dangers of the shots, mask wearing, all this stuff. And we had huge opposition.
00:22:00.140 Against us. And what I would do before the meeting is I'd get some of the nights out there in the
00:22:07.400 parking lot and we do what we do. Then I go into the meeting. I will say all those meetings.
00:22:16.900 We did just huge victories. We destroyed the opposition and you could feel God's power working.
00:22:24.080 Um, so I would say this can be used on a lot of level. It's like your nights in the town,
00:22:30.260 find out when an important school board meeting or, you know, and show up outside, do this. You're,
00:22:37.280 you're, I like to think of us as the big guns that can affect battles that are going on. Um,
00:22:46.700 it's almost English. You're absolutely right. Anybody can do this. You can be a bishop and do
00:22:52.880 this, get men together with you. Um, a priest be awesome. If the shepherds were going out with a
00:22:59.200 group of men in their town. Um, but you can be a Knight of Columbus and not, you can just incorporate
00:23:05.200 this. A lot of the, a lot of other groups, you know, the men tell me, they say, we're just not doing
00:23:12.380 anything. You know, and you get bored going to meetings and talking about something you're going
00:23:20.500 to do six months from now, get out there and boots on the ground. And it's great too. Plus,
00:23:26.280 you know, there's so many, you're walking through your town that you don't walk through. Hey,
00:23:32.180 there's an occult shop. What's going on with that? I didn't know that was here. Hey, there's a porn
00:23:36.980 shop and you, you start recognizing your town. And because when you entrust your town, you're naming
00:23:45.740 your town, there's that ownership and people should think this is my town, you know, and there's no room
00:23:55.560 for this stuff here. That's the beginning of a change of thinking. This, this is, this is my town.
00:24:01.260 I still live in the town I grew up in. Okay. And, and, you know, as long as I'm a second air,
00:24:09.280 I'm going to battle against this some way, shape or form. And this is a great way to battle.
00:24:16.600 Yeah. It's similar North Adams where I live. It's, it's, it's down. It's, we, we were a hardworking
00:24:24.680 mill town. Faithful town, five Catholic churches at one point in my lifetime, my adult life. We had
00:24:34.740 five that were full. And when the factory started to close and the mill started to close,
00:24:42.000 even now we're down to one church and it's not full. And as I said earlier, this, this museum that
00:24:53.000 came in, this mass mocha it's called is, it just brought in in all honesty, all kinds of evil.
00:25:01.280 And so it's not getting any better in North Adams either. I wish I could say it was, but again,
00:25:09.460 for me, it's, it's, it's the personal, uh, that I get out of doing what I do each, each Saturday that
00:25:18.180 I can is to just be a, be a public witness for our faith. And, um, you don't know what's going to
00:25:25.720 happen really. Like Dan said, we call upon a lot of spiritual help and, um, have any other men joined
00:25:35.260 you, or is it just you two for now? Um, go ahead. Yeah, no, we, we started out basically, uh, with
00:25:42.240 just Dan and I in a small group, but now we have men in, in neighboring communities, Cheshire, Adams,
00:25:50.700 uh, towns, um, nearby who are, are nights now. And, um, they pray in their respective towns,
00:25:59.360 not big, there's not a lot, but, um, yeah, yeah. Great. I'm finding that this work, this, this
00:26:10.120 association, what we do is not going to attract wishy-washy Catholics. It's just not going to be
00:26:19.680 attractive to them. It, it's attracting solid, devout, faithful Catholics. And another benefit
00:26:27.980 for me is the fellowship that we share, you know, being together with like-minded people
00:26:34.240 that we can speak about our faith, share our faith and get inspired. I mean, I get inspired
00:26:40.120 just listening to Dan talk. He inspires me because of his warrior personality. He does really.
00:26:48.880 I get inspired when vegan Bruce sings.
00:26:51.200 So you've got basically a thing where you, you're one hour every Saturday together in
00:27:02.460 the morning. I like to tell my friends here, you know, we have a mass that's a little bit
00:27:06.340 later on Saturdays. So we'd go like eight to nine or something, then go home and help get
00:27:11.600 the kids to mass because otherwise that's a real chore. But then you guys actually suggest
00:27:17.160 doing something beyond that on the first Saturdays of the month. What's that?
00:27:22.080 Well, that's, uh, to take part in first Saturday devotion. Um, and we did it for a whole summer
00:27:31.720 two years ago at Camp Holy Cross. Um, we had a priest that came with us. We tried to make
00:27:39.040 it an all day event with families and we'd have mass, do the rosary, do the 15 minutes of
00:27:45.920 meditation, confessions. Um, and it was a lake there, you know, right now that got shut down
00:27:55.400 for us. So we're just coming to father Paul's church for Saturday of the month because right.
00:28:02.640 That's, that's again, something to bless the mother assets to do. I mean, you could argue
00:28:09.460 that we're in the trouble we're in because a lot of stuff wasn't done a hundred years ago.
00:28:13.400 Um, and we're the lucky ones that get to fight in the times we're in now because that wasn't
00:28:23.100 done. Um, so yeah, that organizing processions, there's already a huge procession here in Bishop
00:28:33.680 Burns diocese and going on for 20 years and I'll get it some of the nights together and we'll
00:28:41.620 go down and we're kind of like undercover security. So we'll be on either sides. And these are huge.
00:28:48.180 It's a huge procession. And we're just like head on a swivel watching. If there's any trouble,
00:28:54.180 you got to protect the priests and the Eucharist. Um, the Bishop was with us two years ago.
00:28:59.700 Now that's again, it's public and it's on the streets and that's an awesome thing to do. Bruce and
00:29:05.620 I, we organized Eucharistic procession for probably five, six years. Yeah. And, uh, now that he's moved
00:29:13.700 to this new church, we're going to hit the priest up to do one in October. Um, again, we, the minute we
00:29:21.880 give up the public square, which, you know, I was, I was so excited you guys out there in LA and to see
00:29:29.580 John Paul II out in front. I was just like, Oh, it was an amazing thing. It was, uh, it's certainly,
00:29:37.760 uh, it is certainly a sign of something and you're right. It is kind of a sign for you. I could see
00:29:44.080 that, um, being, being assigned to do something in the streets with John Paul II. Um, I remember that
00:29:50.940 on an organizing level, um, John Yep called me up and we were looking for a relic of John Paul II and I
00:29:59.120 tried, then I couldn't find one. He got one finally. And, uh, so that was great. Um, and, uh, it was,
00:30:06.340 um, is an incredible thing, but it is true. The prayers, the deliverance prayers that Bishop Strickland
00:30:14.180 said are by the way, very similar to the prayers that you have in here as well. Um, but they are one
00:30:20.280 said by a Bishop and it was stunningly powerful. In fact, for me, that was the most powerful thing
00:30:27.200 was actually, I was kneeling down and Bishop Strickland was praying deliverance prayers over
00:30:32.760 all of us, over America, over, over Los Angeles, over all of us there. It was, it was actually
00:30:38.960 just amazing. Just amazing. Um, so yeah, we, you had, um, um, you very much that same spirit of,
00:30:49.960 uh, your Knights of John Paul II. So just, uh, great stuff. Any, any parting thoughts for us? How,
00:30:56.800 how do people, um, get involved, get in trust with you if they want to do this in their town? Where do
00:31:01.920 they get the program from? How can they get involved? Absolutely. Okay. We have a website and it's
00:31:07.880 knightsofstjohnpaul2.org. Um, and it's pretty rough right now, but it gives you a general idea.
00:31:22.880 Um, you can email us there. We can mail you materials. Um, it was specifically designed to
00:31:31.260 be easy to start. And, uh, I understand there's a rumor that there might be a chapter starting up
00:31:37.320 in Canada. There is indeed. I'm starting one locally here. Um, yeah, I'm, I'm away a lot. So
00:31:45.500 a lot of other people who I've approached will, will probably take up the leadership of it, but it's,
00:31:50.180 um, that I, I think we're going to start with a few guys anyway, uh, and see where it goes from
00:31:55.060 there. This, uh, first Saturday, we, we do something at our parish anyway. And there's another,
00:32:00.920 there was another idea that congeals with it. So I think it, I think it'd be really good. Um,
00:32:05.520 it was funny because when I first sent out the email about it to my local friends, uh, one showed
00:32:10.860 up the next Saturday and I was like, Oh wait, um, I was, first of all, I was gone. And so, um,
00:32:16.000 but it's, it's really great. There are, um, a bunch of good guys here who really do see in this
00:32:21.740 just every, not everyone, but a lot of the guys who I approach were like, Oh, that's great. Cause
00:32:26.180 it's brilliantly simple. Um, and I think that's, that's really the key. Our Lord and our lady want
00:32:34.860 us to fight like knights, but unlike the knights of old, our enemies today are so powerful. That's
00:32:42.200 almost, it almost seems omnipotent, all powerful because they have everything. They have all the
00:32:47.420 money. They have all the people, they have all of the, um, uh, Intel, like to think that everything
00:32:55.960 you're doing is being watched, monitored and controlled as we now know, thanks to, uh, what
00:33:02.280 COVID the lockdowns and our phones have showed us. Um, and the ideas that they've come up with
00:33:08.100 of tracking people and stuff, it's like, we're, there's no fighting. Well, there is fighting.
00:33:14.340 There's fighting in the most simple ways. Um, one of my friends here is a famous Canadian author
00:33:21.000 and his name is Michael O'Brien. He was actually the one who showed up at the, uh, at the church
00:33:26.620 parking lot saying, Hey, where are you guys? Um, and, uh, he, he wrote a book called Father Elijah.
00:33:33.020 If you haven't read it yet, you should, it's incredible, but it's an apocalyptic novel. He's
00:33:38.040 Canada's most famous Catholic novelist. He's a, as faithful as you can be. He's a real hero of mine.
00:33:46.000 Anyway, he, uh, in his book, Father Elijah, the most famous book, he's written many, many books,
00:33:51.320 but, um, it's an apocalyptic story about Antichrist and about the time of Antichrist.
00:33:57.300 And you get the feeling that there's no way to fight this. And then he talks about these two,
00:34:05.140 um, people who fight and, um, Father Elijah, a priest, and then, um, a brother who really is not
00:34:15.820 smart or anything, but he goes around and they are led to fight against Antichrist,
00:34:23.100 the most powerful enemy the church will ever have. Um, because it'll be directed solely by,
00:34:28.840 you know, really by Satan. And they do so, so simply. They're asked to do simple things.
00:34:34.300 They carry them out as they're told to by our Lord. And that's it. And that's why I think this
00:34:40.200 is so brilliant. It's a very simple thing we're called to do anyway. And it's doing it in a way
00:34:46.060 like, very much like, as you said, the Christ sent out the apostles two by two. And here are these men
00:34:52.200 going out two by two, praying the most holy rosary around their towns, which, which goes back to the
00:34:57.360 church's teaching on subsidiarity, which is act where you are. It's all about local activism.
00:35:03.300 And it's not activism for activism sake. It's activism for heaven's sake with the real weapon.
00:35:08.780 Um, and as my friend said, open carry, I just love it. Uh, any final thoughts for us,
00:35:14.180 either from you, Deacon or Dan? Um, if you're, if you're going to start a chapter,
00:35:19.840 I thought about this the last week leading up to this, um, of how, cause, cause Bishop Byrne
00:35:26.900 does want us to keep track and this and that. So I don't like numbers. So because you're entrusting
00:35:35.120 your town, claiming your town, how we're going to do this going forward is like my town, Stanford,
00:35:44.720 Vermont chapter, Bruce's town, North Adams, Massachusetts. You're going to name your
00:35:50.900 town. Names are important. Um, and so that, that's how, you know, if, if you're going to
00:36:01.520 start a chapter, I mean, if you're just going to, you're Knights of Columbus and you want,
00:36:06.740 you know, 20 of these cards and we figure out how to have it on the website so you can just
00:36:11.240 print them off. We, we're, we're not that savvy. We, Bruce and I have never even done one of these
00:36:16.520 things. Um, but you can just download these and take them out and go, you know, um, closing thoughts.
00:36:28.780 I do had, I had a few things written down. A lot of the warrior women around here wanted to join us
00:36:35.480 early on and, you know, I had to dig my heels in. One of them was my sister and she is a Joan of
00:36:43.680 art. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. The men, we need our time. But if you can pray one hail Mary
00:36:51.060 a day for the Knights, you'd be doing us a great service. So to the women out there that happen to
00:36:57.120 watch this, you know, a hail Mary a day, I'm asking for, for the Knights of JP too. Um, to the priests
00:37:06.340 who see this, get out with your men. You'd be surprised how much us knuckleheads can encourage you
00:37:17.420 and give you support. Um, and, and priests need that men time too. And if you're a bishop out there,
00:37:25.360 my goodness, invite all the men in the diocese once a month to come down the cathedral and walk
00:37:30.720 the streets of your city. Um, I guess that that's it for me. What? Yeah. I just think that, um,
00:37:41.560 we were, Dan and I were talking earlier. This is really the found we're laying a foundation
00:37:45.780 and, um, part of what we have to do to become a public association is to have, uh, a bylaws or a
00:37:55.460 rules kind of thing, a constitution. And so we, we have put that together and again, we've submitted
00:38:01.220 it to the bishop and, um, something like this can only grow. Uh, the foundation is what we do on
00:38:10.820 Saturday morning, but, um, I envision and I hope, and I pray that it can become more, um, something
00:38:19.260 more where we can do more together as Knights, pray more together as Knights, learn more about our faith
00:38:25.940 as Knights, uh, together and grow spiritually for us as well as to, to call upon our spiritual warriors to
00:38:35.660 help us. But I, I, I envision this as a way for us to grow in our faith and our spiritual life as well
00:38:43.540 going forward. Beautiful. Well, Deacon Bruce and Dan, it's so good being with you. Thank you for doing
00:38:52.760 this. Uh, and I'm, I'm happy to be part of a Canadian, your first Canadian chapter, perhaps.
00:38:57.940 God bless you both. Thank you. Thank you so much, John Henry. Thank you. And God bless all of you.
00:39:06.500 And we'll see you next time.