The John-Henry Westen Show - St. Padre Pio ｜ Divine Intervention Launches a Pro-Life Movement

00:00:00.000 We know that evil is diabolic, separates.

00:00:03.400 We know that our Lord unites into our wholeness, into healing.

00:00:08.820 So the first question to be able to tap into the Holy Spirit for the courage is to say,

00:00:16.040 this is what I signed up for.

00:00:18.840 So this discomfort I feel walking out of my house with a shirt with a big cross on the front,

00:00:24.280 and remember the unborn, this is what I signed up for.

00:00:27.680 I said, I will follow you, Lord.

00:00:30.720 I will do what you asked me to do.

00:00:33.180 You asked me to do what you did.

00:00:34.580 You asked me to pick up my cross and follow you. 0.95

00:00:37.600 You said that there'll be wonderful, joyful times,

00:00:40.360 but you also said that there'll be beautiful sacrifices.

00:00:50.240 So a number of weeks ago now, I was asked to go and speak for a group called Life Runners.

00:00:57.180 They're a pro-life group.

00:00:58.420 I was speaking at their banquet.

00:01:00.460 Now, I don't often get to do that, but this is a phenomenal group.

00:01:05.460 Do you know at LifeSite we have the Mother Miriam show?

00:01:08.140 Mother Miriam, as many of you know, was formerly Rosalind Moss, who was Jewish.

00:01:12.740 She converted, became a Protestant.

00:01:14.600 And then after about a decade of trying to convert Catholics, she became a Catholic.

00:01:18.480 Not only did she become a Catholic, she became a Catholic and then formed,

00:01:22.800 became a nun and under Cardinal Burke formed a religious order.

00:01:27.800 Now, it was very interesting because her calling, her charism, if you will,

00:01:32.960 is to go out on the street dressed in her traditional habit and be a witness.

00:01:39.580 And that's been stellarly successful.

00:01:41.680 In fact, there's a story about a guy walking on the street seeing Mother Miriam

00:01:45.740 and with tears in her eyes asking, hey, where have you been for the last 50 years?

00:01:51.900 Because that witness of Christ is so powerful that just by walking around in her full habit,

00:01:59.420 she was that witness.

00:02:00.300 Now, Life Runners has a very similar MO, if you will.

00:02:05.740 They are, as the name says, runners.

00:02:09.780 They run through the streets, but they wear a beautiful jersey.

00:02:15.620 Remember the unborn with a scripture verse on it, Jeremiah 1.5.

00:02:21.440 And it's that verse is all about how our Lord created us in the womb.

00:02:27.100 He knew us before we were in the womb.

00:02:29.380 But Life Runners was a group that LifeSite interviewed, wow, many, many years ago now.

00:02:36.660 It was 2011, if memory serves.

00:02:39.060 And it was neat because there was a bishop running.

00:02:42.160 It was Bishop Paprocki, actually.

00:02:43.640 He was running a race with this Life Runners jersey.

00:02:49.620 And incredible because it was a neat story.

00:02:52.360 There's a bishop running for pro-life.

00:02:54.860 What a great story.

00:02:55.820 But this is a stunning group because that's what they do.

00:02:59.740 They're witnesses for Christ.

00:03:01.380 In fact, one of their chants is all in Christ.

00:03:05.380 And the response is for pro-life.

00:03:08.060 And so, what an incredible witness these folks are.

00:03:12.900 Do you know when we first interviewed Life Runners in 2011,

00:03:16.300 there was, I think, under 200 of them around the world.

00:03:20.740 Now, that number is over 20,000.

00:03:25.820 We're going to bring in the founder of Life Runners, Dr. Pat Castle,

00:03:31.780 and talk to him about how this amazing witness for life started.

00:03:38.380 Believe it or not, it started with a miraculous run.

00:03:42.920 With a saint, no less.

00:03:46.340 You're going to want to stay tuned for this episode of The John Henry Weston Show.

00:03:49.460 As you know, LifeSite News has been at the forefront of exposing the Great Reset

00:03:56.060 and the globalist forces that seek to subvert our world,

00:03:59.400 from the Vatican to the highest halls of government to the local Planned Parenthood.

00:04:04.500 And that's why LifeSite News is sponsoring the 2023 Crusader Night Congress

00:04:09.640 to fight back against the anti-life cabal that seeks to control all of our lives.

00:04:15.360 This event has a theme that the world desperately needs.

00:04:20.040 The theme is for altar, culture, and trade.

00:04:23.520 And what does that mean?

00:04:24.640 Well, it means making the social kingship of Christ

00:04:28.040 the center of family and individual life to restore Christendom.

00:04:33.580 It means making deeper connections between Catholic families.

00:04:37.080 It means restoring and rebuilding Christendom in all sectors of society.

00:04:43.780 It means reclaiming North America for the culture of life.

00:04:48.500 The 2023 Crusader Night Congress is being held

00:04:52.000 by American patriot and faithful Catholic Mike Church.

00:04:56.940 The dates are May 5th, 6th, and 7th in the heart of Louisiana's Cajun country.

00:05:02.600 To learn all the details and register to attend, head on over to upontheserocks.co,

00:05:07.940 not .com, by the way, that's upontheserocks.co,

00:05:12.400 or give them a call at 844-527-8723.

00:05:18.100 LifeSite News is proud to sponsor this event, and I sincerely hope you can attend.

00:05:25.240 Pat Castle, welcome to the program.

00:05:27.860 Hey, John Henry, all in Christ.

00:05:30.300 For pro-life.

00:05:31.120 Yeah, you know it.

00:05:32.340 It was so good having you in Omaha a couple weeks ago.

00:05:37.180 And praise God, we got to do the Catholic circuit with you and, you know,

00:05:42.940 start by sacrifice and going down and stand in front of the abortion facility

00:05:48.420 you led us in the rosary.

00:05:50.200 And then we went up to that retreat center and walked the stations of the cross,

00:05:55.600 stood in that Marian grotto, stood beneath that big crucifix there,

00:06:00.580 all just overlooking that abortion facility, giving us that real strong sense that that

00:06:06.960 spiritual war is tangible there at Carhartt's abortion facility in Bellevue.

00:06:12.640 And then we went to the Holy Family Shrine, where they have the largest Holy Family etched glass

00:06:20.220 image in the world at that Holy Family Shrine.

00:06:23.640 We made it to the Ablaze House of Prayer, where we ran into that men's group that were also incidentally

00:06:31.200 a running group that we collided and we blessed and invited them into mission, the mission of the

00:06:37.900 Life Runners, which is a messaging ministry, a ministry to, as you described in the intro,

00:06:43.700 we have that jersey with the message that you mentioned that has Remember the Unborn.

00:06:49.780 Here's a little baby onesie.

00:06:51.840 So we have, you know, all ages, all speeds, all sizes on the team.

00:06:57.080 I think the real little Life Runners really penetrate the heart when you see that message on a

00:07:01.920 little baby or a child.

00:07:04.120 About a third of the Life Runners in the world are students, kindergarten to college.

00:07:08.900 But I also like when you get a good wide-shouldered Life Runner, a good three or four XL, where 0.99

00:07:15.300 they're like a billboard walking down the street.

00:07:17.620 And we love our slow Life Runners.

00:07:19.720 Half the Life Runners, John Henry, they never run.

00:07:22.680 There's 10,000 runners and about 11,000 walkers.

00:07:27.060 So the walkers outnumber the runners now.

00:07:29.820 And we say, awesome, because people can read their Remember the Unborn shirts and have a

00:07:35.040 conversation easier with them than if the Life Runner was running.

00:07:39.260 So praise God.

00:07:40.140 Thank you for having me join you to witness today to all things life.

00:07:45.380 Absolutely.

00:07:46.240 Well, let's begin, as we always do, at the sign of the cross.

00:07:49.560 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

00:07:54.040 Amen.

00:07:55.260 You know, as you were saying about taking me around, I wanted to say one thing.

00:08:01.000 This is really stunning.

00:08:01.740 You know, I know you're a very busy man.

00:08:04.840 And especially when you lead an apostolate, when you lead a work for life, you're always 0.95

00:08:09.620 extremely busy.

00:08:11.120 And you and your family were so gracious to take me around after the speaking engagement.

00:08:16.980 I thought, oh, wow.

00:08:19.380 This is a whole day, quote unquote, wasted.

00:08:21.280 Now, it wasn't wasted because we went and prayed.

00:08:23.660 We witnessed for life.

00:08:24.720 We did all this.

00:08:26.600 But I honestly witnessed a miracle.

00:08:30.280 So here we are.

00:08:31.420 We're spending literally the whole day, from morning to night, with a very busy man, going

00:08:37.840 around to pray at different places, visit shrines and so on, attending, of course, the

00:08:42.220 Holy Sacrifice to the Mass.

00:08:44.560 And what happened?

00:08:48.120 Well, our Lord, not to be outdone, does this incredible miracle.

00:08:52.820 As you were describing, we're at the Ablai's House of Prayer, and we're there doing this

00:08:58.680 same kind of touring around, witnessing, praying, and doing all that, which everybody

00:09:04.200 might think, that's the nice stuff, the kind of stuff you have to do because, you know,

00:09:07.600 a guest came all the way over and, oh, well, it's a wasted day.

00:09:11.980 Well, not really.

00:09:13.380 Not at all.

00:09:14.440 The miracle of that meeting.

00:09:17.120 So here's what happens.

00:09:17.980 It's, we're there, and like 20 guys walk out of an adoration chapel, and they're there.

00:09:25.080 They've been praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and kid you not, like, you couldn't

00:09:29.840 have staged this.

00:09:31.480 We get to talking, and they're like, yeah, we're a running group.

00:09:39.040 And I was like, do you know who you're talking to?

00:09:43.000 You're talking to the head of Life Runners.

00:09:45.840 The Lord floated a holy softball to us.

00:09:48.800 Oh, my gosh.

00:09:50.400 And then the kid, the kid, young adult, but he's a kid in our terms, says, you know what?

00:09:57.180 We run right through the busiest street in Omaha.

00:10:01.680 There's like 20 guys.

00:10:03.400 We need a jersey.

00:10:04.640 I'm like, oh, my God.

00:10:06.120 And you know that feeling when you know there's a miracle happening?

00:10:09.560 I'm, I always get this kind of shrinking feeling, like I'm so small compared to the divine reality

00:10:16.360 going on in front of me.

00:10:17.600 And I'm watching this play out going, wow, God.

00:10:21.440 This is amazing.

00:10:23.480 Holy appointment.

00:10:24.280 And so that wasted day turns into this fruit, which I don't know.

00:10:35.080 Could you have got like 20 guys to run through town with your jersey all in one day?

00:10:40.720 I don't know.

00:10:41.280 That's even possible.

00:10:42.960 Our Lord's amazing.

00:10:44.240 And, you know, we've already had about half of that men's group.

00:10:46.700 So 10 of them that have already registered and want a Remember the Unborn running singlet.

00:10:52.060 So we'll, we'll slowly, you know, get that whole group of 20 John Henry and, and you can

00:10:59.360 visualize the power, as we mentioned in our intro, the power of the, the pro-life messaging

00:11:06.160 that, you know, they had mentioned that people say, yeah, we saw you running, but now they're

00:11:10.680 going to see them running and they're going to not just see one Remember the Unborn message,

00:11:14.840 but they're going to be messaged by 10 to 20 men all in unity.

00:11:20.420 And you know, that that's going to be a penetrating image for the culture to see these young men

00:11:26.600 wearing their witness, standing up for life as intended by God for the real meaning of

00:11:36.180 manhood.

00:11:36.960 They will be demonstrating it as protectors and providers for, you know, for the unborn

00:11:44.080 for, for life.

00:11:45.240 I, I bet you that has huge ramifications for life runners.

00:11:49.580 Agreed.

00:11:50.160 In fact, I would, I would bet that, uh, very soon you're going to get a call from like,

00:11:54.880 um, the Omaha newspaper or, or media television media.

00:11:59.060 They're going, what's going on with these guys running through downtown.

00:12:03.220 Praise God.

00:12:05.680 Beautiful.

00:12:06.200 A lot of folks are going to want to know how this group got started and your story is so

00:12:15.660 fascinating.

00:12:16.560 I want to hear it from you, but the story of the running with a saint is really going to

00:12:23.600 take people.

00:12:24.720 Pat, can you take us through that?

00:12:27.080 Absolutely.

00:12:27.840 And I want to lead that off as, as we describe that origin of life runners.

00:12:32.340 I want to offer viewers and listeners, the life runners creed.

00:12:37.000 So I'm going to pray this creed. 0.94

00:12:38.980 And if everyone could just kind of listen into who are the life runners, what is the

00:12:43.520 life runners apostolate?

00:12:44.740 And then I'll pick up with that first encounter with St.

00:12:48.080 Padre Pio, um, that inspired the first life runner, that being me.

00:12:53.240 Um, and hopefully there's people listening that will want to put on a shirt with a big

00:12:57.740 cross on the front, uh, and a Holy spirit dove to pick up your cross and follow me, pick

00:13:03.500 up our four ounce shirt cross.

00:13:05.400 And then in that message, that life-saving message, remember the unborn as we know, whatever

00:13:09.920 we do for the least of our brothers and sisters we do for our Lord.

00:13:13.340 So it really is a great way to wear our witness, to live our faith.

00:13:17.640 So who are the life runners?

00:13:19.380 Well, in the name of the father and the son, the Holy spirit.

00:13:22.280 Amen.

00:13:22.420 We believe in the dignity of all human life from conception to natural death.

00:13:29.000 We run as a prayer to defend children, the womb, so that they may be born and united with

00:13:34.980 our Christian community.

00:13:36.380 We run to build endurance for the race is long and we must keep our eyes fixed on you, Lord.

00:13:42.680 We run for awareness.

00:13:44.000 So our cultural view, all human life as a reflection of your glory, Lord, we run for charity to provide

00:13:51.980 support for mothers and fathers tempted to abort their child and healing support for post-abortion

00:13:58.500 women, men, and families.

00:14:01.380 We run to end abortion for Christ died so that all may live guard us all born and unborn with 0.98

00:14:08.280 your peace, Lord, for in you life is victorious.

00:14:12.800 We pray and run in your name, Jesus Christ.

00:14:16.060 Amen.

00:14:16.740 Our lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

00:14:19.560 St. Padre Pio, pray for us in the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit.

00:14:25.540 Amen.

00:14:26.400 So Life Runners was founded, John Henry, in prayer and devotion.

00:14:32.400 So my running partner and I, we would meet in the morning at the United States Air Force

00:14:39.120 Academy and we would pray for an end to abortion. 1.00

00:14:44.840 We would break open the word, we'd read the daily mass readings for that day, and we just

00:14:49.840 would set the tone for teaching cadets at the Air Force Academy chemistry.

00:14:54.240 But we began each morning with this huddle.

00:14:58.140 And that prayer and devotion, we brought into training for the Pikes Peak Ascent.

00:15:03.820 And so in this training, there was a lot of just great conversion, deeper, closer to Christ

00:15:11.860 in our sacrifice.

00:15:13.160 I mean, we'd go on these four-hour training runs up a mountain.

00:15:16.960 I mean, this was challenging training, but we made it holy.

00:15:21.140 And praise God, we had faith, John Henry, because I don't know how people could do it

00:15:25.100 without it.

00:15:26.080 You know, we'd pray the rosary, just really edifying conversations.

00:15:29.540 So that really set the scene.

00:15:32.960 Like God had prepared the ground, the air, all the elements for the story of the meeting

00:15:41.060 of the saint.

00:15:41.720 Because people ask me like, wow, was it just like being knocked off a horse?

00:15:45.260 I'm like, huh-uh.

00:15:46.940 It was like a plowed field that had gotten planted and was about to start growing.

00:15:53.620 So, and people don't hear that part of the story.

00:15:56.040 So the morning we've done our training, it's, you know, 12 August, 2006.

00:16:03.560 And I remember thinking that if it was a perfect day, that maybe it'd be possible for this grand

00:16:09.580 goal, this desire of my heart of breaking three hours, racing up a 14,000 foot mountain, 13.1

00:16:17.940 miles.

00:16:18.660 And about, you know, 50 or less people break three hours in it.

00:16:24.180 And so this is my goal.

00:16:25.240 And I lined up and I was like, wow, the Lord gave us the perfect day.

00:16:30.760 Temperature wise, there's kind of a mist in the air.

00:16:33.260 It was just this ideal running conditions.

00:16:36.320 It made me smile.

00:16:37.580 Like I'm lined up with my shoes on the starting line.

00:16:41.380 So this is, you know, holy ambition.

00:16:44.120 Like, Lord, okay, let's, let's do this.

00:16:47.040 You know, you didn't make us for comfort.

00:16:48.920 You made us for greatness.

00:16:50.140 Let's go do something great in your name and proclaim your name through this.

00:16:54.360 So my first prayer, I'm going to, as I tell this story of this encounter with St.

00:16:58.760 Pio, John Henry, I'm going to tell it with six prayers.

00:17:02.140 So in those prayers, I'm going to line up with the six wounds of Christ that were on St.

00:17:08.720 Pio's body.

00:17:10.020 Many listeners will have never heard of the sixth wound.

00:17:13.660 I will finish with telling about the sixth wound.

00:17:16.920 And many people will have never heard about St.

00:17:20.180 Pio's sixth wound.

00:17:21.040 So the first prayer was a prayer of gratitude.

00:17:23.600 I just said, thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to chase this desire of my heart.

00:17:28.920 The second prayer was above tree line.

00:17:32.380 So tree line is 11,000 feet.

00:17:34.640 Those that have been above tree line on a mountain, it's like being on the moon.

00:17:38.900 It's just all rocks.

00:17:40.080 There's, you know, very little vegetation.

00:17:41.980 But this prayer up there was, I was socked in a thick fog and I didn't have any orientation

00:17:49.460 to all the milestones that I had trained on for what time I should be at.

00:17:55.400 So I'm basically lost on the mountain because I have no reference points.

00:18:02.060 So my second prayer is I said, Lord, I'm lost and I need your help.

00:18:08.040 So it was an ask prayer, you know, and I remember John Henry, I looked at my watch after that

00:18:13.420 prayer and my watch said two hours and 50 minutes.

00:18:17.660 So mind you, my goal is three hours.

00:18:19.680 I'm within 10 minutes.

00:18:21.520 So imagine even the building frustration of I'm so close, but I don't know how close.

00:18:27.080 So right after finishing that prayer, someone behind me said, we are 10 minutes from the

00:18:33.820 top and we're going to break three hours.

00:18:36.400 Just like that.

00:18:37.400 And I remember thinking how peculiar, first of all, this person's so close.

00:18:42.480 Second of all, it was a very dangerous scene on the side of this mountain and they sounded

00:18:47.320 really good.

00:18:49.000 Like, you know, up where we were at, we were on 13,000 feet.

00:18:52.180 I would have had to labor to greet you, John Henry.

00:18:55.000 Just even be like, I mean, oxygen deprived.

00:18:58.400 And this person sounded just perfect.

00:19:01.740 So the journey continues, but you know, I'm a little encouraged by this person kind of knowing

00:19:06.880 where we're at.

00:19:08.260 So third prayer.

00:19:10.240 The third prayer is I can hear people at the top and it frustrates me because I cannot see

00:19:17.760 where I'm at.

00:19:18.480 So my third prayer was a surrender prayer.

00:19:21.620 Lord, I surrender this desire of my heart to you and your glory.

00:19:26.980 If you do not want me to break three hours, racing up this, this little small desire in

00:19:32.660 my heart, no problem.

00:19:34.340 May you be glorified.

00:19:35.540 But I paused John Henry in my prayer.

00:19:37.860 And I said, but Lord, you know, I'm going to do whatever you need me to.

00:19:42.540 If you need me to break three hours.

00:19:44.420 So I looked at my watch, my watch, which said two 55, this person behind me on cue, we are

00:19:52.200 five minutes from the top.

00:19:54.700 We are going to break three hours.

00:19:56.640 Just like that.

00:19:57.860 It was odd.

00:19:59.880 You know, I didn't see the person.

00:20:01.480 It was as if the person was standing right next to me.

00:20:05.800 It was peculiar.

00:20:07.500 It was mystical.

00:20:08.820 It was mysterious.

00:20:09.600 It felt like otherworldly.

00:20:13.260 So prayer number four, I look up the mountain, John Henry, through a boulder field, and I

00:20:19.580 can see the finish line.

00:20:21.480 I looked down on my watch and my watch said two 59, two 59 flat.

00:20:27.440 And I remember thinking there is no way in one minute that I can make it through those

00:20:33.240 16 switchbacks to the finish.

00:20:35.140 It's, it absolutely was an impossibility based on my training at the top of the mountain

00:20:40.140 through the summer, but I knew who could help me get there.

00:20:43.260 So my fourth prayer was come Holy spirit, carry me forth.

00:20:48.600 I'm like, God can do anything.

00:20:51.060 It's all his, he can turn the earth on its, on its axis.

00:20:55.840 He can, he can regrow a limb.

00:20:58.140 A blind person can see this isn't, God doesn't have a problem with problems.

00:21:02.920 I'm like, this isn't a burden to him.

00:21:05.200 Why not ask in faith?

00:21:07.060 And it was, and I was so close to him.

00:21:09.420 It was such, it was such a deep sacrifice.

00:21:11.780 It was so painful, so hard.

00:21:14.320 I just entered into that.

00:21:16.120 I have no recollection of going over that boulder field zero.

00:21:20.340 So the story I'll tell you with prayer four was all eyewitness accounts.

00:21:24.500 And the eyewitness account said I was the only person they saw run over a boulder field.

00:21:31.020 So imagine someone racing over boulders.

00:21:34.120 Everyone else kind of hiked over it because it was treacherous.

00:21:37.580 So I ran over the boulder field.

00:21:39.780 My first memory is seeing the finish line and the finish line clock said two 59 49.

00:21:47.740 And then I came across the finish in two 59 51.

00:21:52.580 Remember we're only on prayer four.

00:21:53.820 We got two to go.

00:21:54.820 I crossed the finish line.

00:21:56.680 I grabbed two volunteers.

00:21:58.920 I put my weight on them.

00:22:00.580 One of the volunteers collapsed under my weight.

00:22:04.140 So now we're all go down at the finish line.

00:22:06.780 A journalist reports to me after, you know, visiting with her after this, the story I'm sharing

00:22:13.020 that she could hear the commotion at the finish line.

00:22:17.340 Like there was something happening.

00:22:18.820 So people saw that there was something awesome that the Lord was doing cheering.

00:22:25.840 And in the pictures from the journalists, people's arms are up.

00:22:28.440 They're clapping.

00:22:29.420 If you go to liferunners.org slash creed, you can see that beautiful creed, that prayer that

00:22:34.940 we prayed before the story.

00:22:36.560 And there's a picture of me collapsed at the finish line of that.

00:22:41.400 And you remember what I said in that prayer?

00:22:43.700 I said, but Lord, if, if you do this through me, you know, I'm going to proclaim your name

00:22:48.760 from the top of this mountain.

00:22:50.500 So sure enough, I'm laying at the finish line.

00:22:53.180 That journalist came up with a pen and paper and stood over me and said, that was the most

00:22:59.000 exciting finish of the day.

00:23:01.000 Can you give me a statement?

00:23:02.900 And I said, yes, with one minute to go, which was like about a minute ago, I had just finished

00:23:08.700 and collapsed.

00:23:09.640 I prayed, come Holy spirit, carry me forth.

00:23:13.120 On the front of the sports section, circulation, Colorado Springs, 430,000 newspapers for the

00:23:23.020 most famous event in the city, the Pikes Peak Ascent, isn't the winner's picture.

00:23:28.580 It's a picture that you'll see at liferunners.org slash creed of me collapsed, looking up with

00:23:34.380 a drool on my face, looking up.

00:23:37.080 It looks like I'm looking to St. Peter going, Hey, St. Peter, you know, you're ready to greet

00:23:41.940 me like looking at the pearly gates and the caption read, um, Air Force Academy chemistry

00:23:49.840 professor, Pat Castle collapsed at the finish.

00:23:52.540 Well, kind of claps.

00:23:53.600 Remember that volunteer collapse quote with one minute to go.

00:23:58.260 I prayed, come Holy spirit, carry me forth.

00:24:01.180 So they, they have that.

00:24:02.940 So that witnesses to the whole city, people that were interested in America's ultimate

00:24:08.560 challenge.

00:24:09.040 That's the title of that race, America's ultimate challenge, running a race up a 14,000 foot

00:24:14.980 mountain.

00:24:15.460 And that's what the front page news was.

00:24:17.980 God got the glory.

00:24:19.240 And we got, we have two prayers to go prayer.

00:24:21.840 Number five, I'm sitting there on a rock minutes after the finish minutes after the statement

00:24:27.140 to the journalist and I asked someone to borrow their phone, to call my mom.

00:24:31.640 How pro-life is that?

00:24:33.040 Let your mom know you're okay.

00:24:34.200 She said, Patrick, please tell me when you know that you're okay.

00:24:37.760 You know, moms know their sons and daughters. 0.52

00:24:40.580 So I called my mom, mom, Patrick, before you tell me anything, I need to share something

00:24:47.420 with you.

00:24:48.160 I'm like, okay, what did anything unusual happen at two hours and 50 minutes into the race?

00:24:54.960 You right expression, John Henry.

00:24:57.960 And I said, yes, why?

00:25:00.220 She said, okay, at two hours and 50 minutes into the race, I sensed that you were in trouble.

00:25:06.680 Something was wrong.

00:25:07.920 And I asked my friend, St. Padre Pio, to finish the race with you.

00:25:14.420 I could have dropped the phone, John Henry.

00:25:17.220 And she said, so?

00:25:18.960 And I said, mom, let me, let me call you back.

00:25:21.900 But yes, something happened.

00:25:23.060 And short conversation, I reflected on it going down the mountain on that bus.

00:25:28.620 And I'll tell you my reflection.

00:25:30.520 This is weird.

00:25:32.140 Like, this is really weird.

00:25:34.220 This precision of God that I remembered, 250-00.

00:25:39.120 And my mom told me on the phone that she wrote 250-00 on a piece of paper, knowing in faith

00:25:46.120 that something significant was going to happen.

00:25:47.980 That Padre Pio was going to do exactly what he promised.

00:25:51.280 One of my favorite Padre Pio quotes is, Lord, please don't allow me into the kingdom until

00:25:56.680 I've been allowed to help all my friends into the kingdom.

00:25:59.380 I think the Lord gave him an answer to that prayer.

00:26:03.540 Think of all the stories, John Henry, of how St. Padre Pio continues to have encounters with

00:26:09.960 people and meet with people and miraculous encounters.

00:26:12.760 I'm just another story to go along with all the other stories.

00:26:17.720 And I didn't know that at first, John Henry.

00:26:19.800 I knew Padre Pio's name, but obviously I dug in and read on him.

00:26:24.180 So we still haven't gotten to prayer six.

00:26:25.960 I went home.

00:26:27.520 I didn't tell my spouse.

00:26:29.320 I didn't tell my family about it.

00:26:31.060 My mom, obviously, and I had this little encounter because I wanted to look in the newspaper the

00:26:35.780 next day and see who the guy was behind me.

00:26:38.720 I still, it still hasn't gotten, hadn't gotten through my head that maybe St.

00:26:44.080 Pio really was with me for real with me in the mystical body of Christ.

00:26:50.780 So I looked in the newspaper, John Henry, there wasn't another person behind me for a minute

00:26:56.540 and 47 seconds, a minute and 47 seconds.

00:26:59.940 If you go out your front door and time that and just walk down the street, that'll get you

00:27:04.360 a couple blocks down the street.

00:27:06.040 That doesn't answer the guy that was quite literally right off my shoulder.

00:27:12.340 So I resolved that, wow, a saint, a dead saint who's fully alive is really still doing God's

00:27:23.980 glory, still being used by God in this very real community of saints and is as real as

00:27:30.980 we are, maybe more real in capacity, you know, in the glorified sense.

00:27:37.100 And so this encounter, obviously, John Henry, as you can imagine, it honed and sharpened my

00:27:45.260 Catholic focus.

00:27:46.660 The next step was forming a men's group that studied a book called Unbound by Neil Lozano.

00:27:52.280 And we learned about evil in the modern world.

00:27:55.020 That group of men at the end of that six-month weekly study, we said, what are we going to

00:28:00.560 do?

00:28:01.180 And someone in the group said, well, let's go after the crown jewel of Satan, abortion.

00:28:06.280 Let's go stand in front of an abortion facility once a month to defend life from conception. 1.00

00:28:11.100 And once a month, let's go to a nursing home and just be with the elderly to bless them,

00:28:16.460 to defend life through natural death.

00:28:19.400 So that humble beginning of Life Runners, 2006, 2007, then we started a devotions group

00:28:27.220 from that men's group.

00:28:28.800 Talk about aligning men's groups from your story you shared, John Henry.

00:28:32.480 And we bound, we went through 3,000 Life Runners devotions that we wrote over 10 years based

00:28:39.120 on the daily mass readings.

00:28:40.780 A year and a half ago, we bound the best 366.

00:28:45.180 Bernadette Costello, the director of operations for Life Runners, read them all.

00:28:49.400 Made notes on all of them, racked and stacked.

00:28:53.020 And there's 108 authors reviewed by Bishop Paprocki, who was in your opening story, the

00:28:59.500 bishop running the marathon, one of the first LifeSite news stories about Life Runners back

00:29:04.020 in 2011.

00:29:05.280 He reviewed it and has his review comment.

00:29:07.920 Also, Bishop Joe Coffey, auxiliary bishop to the military archdiocese.

00:29:13.200 You know, another heroically pro-life bishop.

00:29:15.780 The two of them reviewed it.

00:29:17.260 And then we've got lots of pro-life friends in here, Abby Johnson, and lots of just ordinary,

00:29:23.800 everyday pro-life heroes.

00:29:26.140 The kind of heroes that stand in prayer in front of abortion facilities and are willing

00:29:30.880 to put on a shirt that says, remember the unborn on the back and a big cross with Jeremiah

00:29:37.820 1-5 on the front.

00:29:39.860 Amen.

00:29:40.540 That's the beginning of Life Runners.

00:29:42.520 Absolutely beautiful.

00:29:45.140 Now, I know a lot of people are going to be intimidated because the whole running thing,

00:29:50.480 let alone running up a mountain, sounds totally impossible.

00:29:55.880 But like I like to say, I'm unworthy but proud to call myself a life runner.

00:30:01.280 But the kind of running that I do is mostly to run into people.

00:30:06.500 And I'm very happy.

00:30:07.200 Well, that's good evangelization, John Henry.

00:30:09.480 You bump into them and then you just, hey, you go from there.

00:30:14.160 Absolutely.

00:30:15.860 So you were going to tell us also about the wounds and how they apply.

00:30:21.380 Please do.

00:30:21.700 Okay.

00:30:21.940 So there were six prayers and I'm also going to share the sixth prayer if people are keeping

00:30:26.920 the, we've done five.

00:30:28.240 The fifth prayer was the intercessory prayer that my mom prayed.

00:30:33.600 Intercessory prayer, asked St. Padre Pio to help me.

00:30:36.480 The sixth prayer, I say, is the prayer where we put our prayer into action in the same spirit

00:30:44.580 of James 1-22 to be doers of the word.

00:30:48.620 So when you are wearing a shirt that we call our jersey with a big cross on the front and

00:30:55.800 we're literally wearing God's word, Jeremiah 1-5 and standing up for the least of our brothers

00:31:01.880 and sisters, guess what? 0.99

00:31:03.920 We are being the prayer.

00:31:06.440 We're walking as a prayer.

00:31:07.880 We're running as, we're bumping into people as a prayer.

00:31:10.780 I mean, that sixth prayer is the prayer of doing, being, being the prayer.

00:31:16.680 And so the six wounds, we know the first five wounds, the five wounds of Christ, but that

00:31:23.080 sixth wound of Christ that some saints have spoken about is the shoulder wound.

00:31:30.040 And so the shoulder wound, a lot of people don't know that St. Padre Pio had the shoulder

00:31:35.780 wound.

00:31:36.720 And what makes it really interesting, John Henry, is how we discovered it.

00:31:41.000 So Bishop Carol Vojteva, some viewers and listeners might recognize that name, St.

00:31:49.420 John Paul II, went to visit St. Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo to ask him for a prayer

00:31:59.580 request.

00:32:00.780 And that prayer request is one of the miracles, one of the two miracles of his canonization.

00:32:06.220 He went and visited Padre Pio and asked him to pray for a friend of his that had cancer

00:32:11.680 and she was healed.

00:32:14.420 But while he was meeting with St. Padre Pio, St. Padre Pio confided in him, the sixth wound.

00:32:23.620 So in discussing the stigmata, he said, oh yeah, there's one other wound I have on my

00:32:29.020 body and it's the shoulder wound.

00:32:31.020 So isn't it awesome that the Pope, so this is Bishop at the time, then become Pope, that

00:32:38.600 is going to canonize, had the knowledge of this sixth wound, delivered this prayer request

00:32:45.500 that would be one of the two miracles that led to his canonization, and later disclosed

00:32:52.020 the sixth wound.

00:32:53.020 So there's one other person that knew about the sixth wound that confirmed it.

00:32:56.440 And that was one of his brothers who was his caretaker, did his laundry.

00:33:01.680 So that brother said, yes, on his t-shirts, the largest wound on his body was a bloody stain

00:33:09.920 across the shoulder of his t-shirts.

00:33:12.160 And we did not know about this wound until long after Padre Pio had passed John Henry.

00:33:17.840 And again, I bet a lot of viewers and listeners have never heard about Padre Pio's sixth wound.

00:33:23.080 So that is a great insight.

00:33:26.340 And I like to say, John Henry, that that sixth wound is beautiful in the sense that it was

00:33:33.300 carried quietly.

00:33:35.640 No one knew of this extra weight.

00:33:37.940 And so when I present on this, I always say, what's your sixth wound?

00:33:42.540 What's the wound?

00:33:43.520 Is it an alcoholic son or daughter or an alcoholic spouse?

00:33:46.880 Is it, you know, one of your loved one is imprisoned and no one knows it?

00:33:52.600 What are you carrying that is a wound that's heavy, that no one knows that you are counting

00:33:58.220 on our Lord who can relate to your sixth wound that, and St. Pio can relate to that sixth wound

00:34:03.780 that no one knows about.

00:34:05.680 But the Lord does.

00:34:06.860 The Lord does.

00:34:08.280 And St. Pio and that community of saints, they do.

00:34:11.280 Um, I just think it's beautiful that we carry these six wounds, but we don't carry them

00:34:17.660 alone.

00:34:18.080 We don't carry them alone.

00:34:19.700 Our Lord carries them with us.

00:34:21.820 Now, Pat, you are a colonel in the Air Force, if I'm not mistaken.

00:34:28.440 A retired, yeah, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Medical Squadron Commander.

00:34:35.540 So I commanded an Air Force clinic.

00:34:38.640 So I do have the lens of, please, let's not clinic about an abortion clinic.

00:34:45.340 They're abortion facilities in the most neutral way, a place where abortions happen.

00:34:49.600 But my goodness, there's nothing medical about an abortion facility other than an ambulance 0.69

00:34:56.520 oftentimes needs to be called, or those people that go there end up in a clinic because they

00:35:02.260 went there.

00:35:02.700 So one of the things that people might be taken aback by, you run up mountains for three

00:35:12.840 hours at a time, in three hours when nobody else can do that.

00:35:15.640 You were a colonel in the Air Force, but your witness is stunning.

00:35:20.720 Uh, I read one of your Facebook posts recently and it talked about praying with different people

00:35:26.500 at the airport, just random people here and there and miracles happen.

00:35:32.640 Sure.

00:35:32.860 But the very act of doing that might seem daunting to some people.

00:35:38.240 So I want your advice.

00:35:40.460 Okay.

00:35:40.900 You've given us the advice of not running, but walking, which is great because a lot of

00:35:46.020 us want to take baby steps.

00:35:46.940 How do we take baby steps to witnessing when it's intimidating?

00:35:52.360 You're walking around with a hat or a t-shirt or a jersey or a, or a whatever sweater that

00:35:57.740 says on it, remember the unborn.

00:36:00.000 That's kind of uncomfortable in our woke culture where you might think, Ooh, somebody might,

00:36:04.400 you know, key my car or something.

00:36:07.600 What's the baby steps?

00:36:08.760 So we get there.

00:36:09.660 Um, great, great question.

00:36:13.340 And I think I'm going to, I'm going to open the answer with what did we sign up for?

00:36:19.880 So I say that, and I'm going to blend it from a military perspective and from a Christianity

00:36:26.220 perspective, you know, sometimes in the military, someone will be surprised that they're being

00:36:31.620 deployed into harm's way.

00:36:34.400 And, you know, I feel compassion.

00:36:36.380 Like, I feel that suffering of, uh, the sacrifice they're about to make, they're going to leave

00:36:42.020 their family.

00:36:43.020 They're going to be in harm's way, but you know, I, I'm always a little remiss when I

00:36:50.180 hear from someone in uniform, basically give an answer.

00:36:53.580 I didn't expect this or to be surprised by it.

00:36:58.280 And then, and the idea in my head is always, well, what, what did you think you signed up

00:37:03.780 for, like that you're in uniform to defend, uh, to defend life quite literally to protect

00:37:11.920 life against evil who wants to kill, uh, maim, um, uh, uh, you know, dismember, you know,

00:37:21.180 just a perspective on our, on our Jersey, John Henry, I think that you'll like this philosophical

00:37:26.000 look that our Jersey says to re-member the unborn while the world is working to dismember.

00:37:34.700 We know that evil is diabolic, separates.

00:37:37.940 We know that our Lord unites into our wholeness and to healing.

00:37:43.080 So the first question to be able to, to be able to tap into the Holy Spirit for the courage

00:37:48.940 is to say, this is what I signed up for.

00:37:53.440 So this discomfort, I feel walking out of my house with a shirt, with a big cross on

00:37:58.060 the front and remember the unborn, this is what I signed.

00:38:02.320 I said, I will follow you, Lord.

00:38:05.140 I will do what you asked me to do.

00:38:07.740 You asked me to do what you did.

00:38:09.460 You asked me to pick up my cross and follow you. 0.95

00:38:12.160 You said that there'll be wonderful, joyful times, but you also said that there'll be beautiful

00:38:16.520 sacrifices and that we won't be alone, but you're going to need me to go with you into

00:38:21.080 these places.

00:38:22.040 You're going to need me to go into harm's way of the culture. 1.00

00:38:26.680 Now here's the good news, everybody.

00:38:29.300 99.9% of comments that I get wearing that Jersey, which of course, as you can figure,

00:38:35.800 John Henry, all my clothes, remember the unborn, a jacket or shirt.

00:38:40.280 That's what I'm wearing out in public are encouraging.

00:38:45.080 Thank you for wearing that.

00:38:46.380 They're affirming.

00:38:47.180 Yes, sometimes you do get the year number one with the middle finger or a horrible comment

00:38:53.580 while you're standing in front of an abortion facility, but it's such a compassionate, loving

00:38:59.560 message.

00:39:00.260 Remember the unborn that even evildoers are, have a hard time saying anything horrible.

00:39:08.580 If anything, John Henry, it just mutes them.

00:39:12.060 You know, what do they say to that?

00:39:14.700 Like it's because we didn't say that you're, you know, you're a terrible person if abortion

00:39:21.480 is in your life.

00:39:22.420 No, we feel horrible that you got duped and we want to bring you back into union through

00:39:28.320 the saving grace of our Lord, through the reconciling blood of the lamb.

00:39:33.320 I mean, that's our invitation.

00:39:35.580 You know, we're all St. Paul.

00:39:36.960 We're all St. Peter.

00:39:38.100 We're, we're all, you know, Mary Magdalene.

00:39:40.540 We all have moved from sin into life and are re-washing daily in the sacraments.

00:39:47.200 So, you know, it's hard for evildoers, people that are, and the spirit of the Antichrist

00:39:52.520 has a hard time.

00:39:53.740 Like, what are they, how do I even tactically say something horrible?

00:39:57.860 So that's the good news.

00:39:58.960 It actually, when you wear it, what you're going to find out, which you thought, and

00:40:02.660 it is a little uncomfortable your first time walking out, is you're going to move from

00:40:06.520 that feeling, John Henry, into the awesome power of the supernatural.

00:40:11.780 And what, how that's going to affect you is by the time you get home that day, you're

00:40:16.640 going to feel like you have a superhero cape on.

00:40:19.680 Not that you, oh my, oh, I'm going to go out there with this burden of this shirt.

00:40:25.780 You're going to come home like, dun, dun, dun, I'm a Christian.

00:40:30.520 And today I did what Jesus asked.

00:40:33.220 You are going to be encouraged to wear it again the next day.

00:40:37.460 The more you go to mass, the more you want to go to mass.

00:40:40.180 The more you go to the Sacrament Reconciliation, the more you want the Sacrament Reconciliation.

00:40:43.760 The more you wear a shirt with a cross on the front and the remember the unborn, that's 0.98

00:40:48.500 all you want to wear.

00:40:49.640 Because you know that you are blessing the world and encouraging moms.

00:40:54.420 When one in five pregnancies end in abortion, one in four women in their childbearing ages 0.94

00:41:01.540 have had an abortion.

00:41:03.260 Imagine the high probability that somebody is really going to see your shirt at the movie

00:41:10.340 theater, the grocery store, walking around the park, wherever you're at, going to see

00:41:15.880 you.

00:41:16.740 And really, it's going to have an impact that really could result in saving that mother,

00:41:21.920 that family from abortion, that little baby from being dismembered.

00:41:26.320 That motivates life runners.

00:41:28.260 And that's how we get courage.

00:41:29.980 And I'll go back to the beginning of my answer.

00:41:32.120 What did we sign up for?

00:41:33.760 That's what we signed up for.

00:41:36.060 Exactly.

00:41:36.400 Now, what is that stat on the number of women who say that if they had seen a pro-life sign, 1.00

00:41:43.240 it would have affected them?

00:41:44.140 Yeah.

00:41:44.820 So that stat, so the Students for Life of America did a survey of post-abortion women, 0.85

00:41:51.340 and they asked them, what would it have taken for you to not have gone into an abortion facility?

00:41:58.920 And it was interesting.

00:42:00.540 They found that 78% of them said one encouraging person, encouraging them to choose life,

00:42:09.100 or an encouraging sign.

00:42:12.180 So I always say, like, wow, life runners, we're double down.

00:42:15.440 We're an encouraging person with an encouraging sign.

00:42:18.900 We're, like, doubly encouraging.

00:42:21.280 And so it brings that sign to life.

00:42:23.600 Imagine a bumper sticker or a billboard, which they said, just seeing a billboard, a bumper sticker.

00:42:29.380 That could have been enough to give them that little just inject of encouragement.

00:42:35.900 But how about when you bring it to life with a person that's compassionate, that is willing to wear that witness?

00:42:44.280 And then you know that mother in crisis is looking at that person and going, wow, they know the reality of my womb.

00:42:52.760 They know that life is good, and they are encouraging me to stop and do exactly what that message says, just to remember the unborn.

00:43:03.120 And that pause, John Henry, that was a moment.

00:43:06.080 The Lord created the universe, you know, speaking as a PhD nano analytical chemist that taught biochemistry for 10 years,

00:43:14.820 seven years at the Air Force Academy, and brought these spiritual, holy realities to the classroom, that, yeah, there was an energy that created the universe.

00:43:25.100 We have a name for that energy, God.

00:43:28.540 But it was a moment.

00:43:30.340 You know, when we talk about the Big Bang, God created the universe in a moment.

00:43:33.080 We were conceived in a moment.

00:43:35.000 And isn't it true, everybody, that a mother in crisis, a mother in an unexpected pregnancy in a grocery store that would glance over at someone's shirt that says, remember the unborn, that moment is life-saving for her.

00:43:52.360 What are, what did you expect?

00:43:55.940 What did you sign up for?

00:43:58.380 That is so powerful.

00:44:00.240 That is true of all of us.

00:44:03.020 It's amazing to have that filtered down from, from the Army, from the Air Force, from those out to defend the people of their country, to apply that to the real war, for which we're all soldiers.

00:44:20.280 This is what we signed up for.

00:44:22.480 And what do we expect?

00:44:23.740 Amazing.

00:44:24.400 I love that.

00:44:25.100 This is what we signed up for, John Henry, you know?

00:44:28.100 So when we have, when there is any kind of persecution or any pushback or a snarky look, or you put a remember the unborn yard sign in front of your yard, and then my two neighbors have one, and you see people walk by with that look like, oh, brother.

00:44:46.620 You know, praise God.

00:44:49.340 You know, there might've been an old brother, but they had to reflect on, think about that message.

00:44:56.080 And I remember a life runner describing over here and a couple walking by in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and overheard their conversation about their remember the unborn yard sign.

00:45:07.380 And they said basically the following.

00:45:09.240 I can't believe these neighbors have the audacity to have such a sign in their yard.

00:45:16.820 But listen to the next part.

00:45:19.440 She turns to him and says, but you know what?

00:45:23.020 It really is a statement of how important they believe this issue is.

00:45:29.700 So just that it brought them to contemplate, reflect, why would someone stand up for the unborn?

00:45:40.240 And they had a conversation about it.

00:45:43.260 So yeah, that bold witness, it matters.

00:45:46.840 And that is what we signed up for.

00:45:48.480 We signed up to be Christ bearers, to carry our cross, to, you know, Luke chapter nine, verse two, proclaim the kingdom of God, Jeremiah 1.5, heal the wounded.

00:46:00.360 We're reaching out and healing.

00:46:01.880 We know that if we can reach a mother, a post-abortion mother with healing, giving her an opportunity to memorialize her child wearing such a jersey, that we know that's healing for her.

00:46:12.400 We know that she's not going to be going back to an abortion facility after receiving healing, and then finally to help people be delivered from evil.

00:46:21.880 I mean, the basic sense to begin delivering people from evil, can't we shine the power of God's truth their way?

00:46:31.600 Can't we elicit a response to move from the lukewarm to someone even cursing us?

00:46:39.880 Can't we at least be able to get someone to the point where they have to resolve that there is an oppression in their life that we can then compassionately give the word of God and love to that person?

00:46:55.320 So if it elicits a response, praise God, it moves our murky, moderate, mushy culture trying to be everything.

00:47:06.040 I mean, how weird is it, John Henry, even this notion of the pro-choice movement, which we know is a losing proposition, but even with Christians that will identify as pro-choice out of, I'll call it false compassion, and say things like this. 0.59

00:47:23.460 Well, I'm not for abortion, but I feel so bad for mothers in those situations, and then to be able to explain to them, well, if you're not for abortion, then you can't be pro-choice, because one of the choices is abortion.

00:47:38.160 You know, don't identify that way.

00:47:39.640 Identify as who you are.

00:47:41.460 You're for life, and encourage those mothers to choose life so they're not duped in those circumstances.

00:47:47.940 You know, what I find truly beautiful about Life Runners is that you recognize what the real battle is.

00:47:57.640 So many people think of the pro-life movement as a movement around, you know, just, it's about trying to get people convinced that abortion is a bad thing and harmful, all of which is true. 1.00

00:48:11.180 Yeah.

00:48:11.700 But the reality is that this is not a battle of flesh and blood.

00:48:18.280 It's about spiritualities and powers.

00:48:20.880 This is the sacrament of the devil.

00:48:25.200 Yeah.

00:48:25.380 And you guys, by acknowledging all in for Christ, are all in Christ for pro-life, get that reality unashamed, unabashed, and out front, the way so many people won't do, the way so many people hide from doing.

00:48:44.400 But that is the only way.

00:48:47.860 This is not one of those battles that can become just, you know, hard work will get us there.

00:48:53.600 No, it won't.

00:48:55.560 Christ and a witness to Christ will get us there.

00:48:58.680 And you, my friend, do exactly that.

00:49:02.380 Well, praise God.

00:49:02.700 Where can people get a hold of you?

00:49:04.760 How can they learn more about runners?

00:49:06.360 Where do they get a jersey, t-shirt, or whatever?

00:49:08.640 Even if they're not runners, but walkers.

00:49:10.460 That's right.

00:49:10.800 And will run into people like I do.

00:49:14.040 How can we find out more?

00:49:15.640 Yeah.

00:49:16.240 So, one beautiful thing.

00:49:18.480 There's so many wonderful pro-life apostolates and ways to help push back on the crown jewel of Satan abortion, to regain territory in the Lord's name. 0.66

00:49:29.220 Especially at such a time as this, when, praise God, the abortion facilities are being dissolved away in this post-row reality.

00:49:37.720 But once those abortion facilities are being dissolved away, guess what?

00:49:42.320 There needs to be a way to reach mothers in unexpected pregnancies. 0.81

00:49:47.680 And so, we are little walking pregnancy help centers, identified with a shirt that says, remember the unborn.

00:49:54.700 Really doing some of those similar duties of a pregnancy help center.

00:50:00.360 And we also, our little satellite pregnancy help centers, pointing them to those local pregnancy help centers.

00:50:08.220 79% of post-abortion women, John Henry, said they didn't even know there was such a thing as a pregnancy help center.

00:50:14.760 So, when we encounter someone that needs help, you alluded to praying with people in the airport a couple weeks ago when I was traveling back from speaking at the Bella Medical Clinic Gala in San Francisco.

00:50:30.260 And traveling back, we were sitting there, you know, and going, wow, we've got an hour.

00:50:35.740 Let's go pray with people.

00:50:38.080 Let's encourage people.

00:50:39.200 One of those people, you can't make this up, you know, Holy Spirit highlighting, one of those people was a young lady in a crisis pregnancy.

00:50:47.960 And, you know, she was contemplating the abortion pill and received some very good information in that supernatural encounter of just stepping out in faith.

00:50:58.260 And so, as Life Runners were that, and, you know, those Life Runners I had mentioned earlier, about a third of Life Runners, 9,000 of the 21,000 Life Runners are in schools.

00:51:09.620 So, if you have students, you have children, grandchildren, you can go to our website, liferunners.org slash chapters, and we've got 100 chapters of Life Runners in schools.

00:51:20.300 It could be everything from a club to every kid in the school, every staff member has a Life Runners shirt that they wear on the first Wednesday of the month.

00:51:29.160 That's the drumbeat for the Life Runners apostolate, first Wednesday of the month.

00:51:33.360 So, and Life Runners provides those shirts to schools.

00:51:35.860 So, if you get the green light from your principal at your school, Life Runners will ship every student and faculty member a free Remember the Unborn shirt to wear at their school on the first Wednesday of the month.

00:51:51.980 Moving from identifying as pro-life John Henry to being pro-life, wearing their pro-life, going out into the world as pro-life.

00:52:01.500 Like, talk about really reinforcing into a child being, and they feel like little superheroes, like I mentioned.

00:52:08.260 The children, they love wearing that shirt.

00:52:11.280 They love defending life.

00:52:13.400 So, that's something for listeners and viewers to think about.

00:52:16.340 Like, oh, yeah, okay, I have a school.

00:52:18.180 Yeah, I'd like to do that.

00:52:19.900 Kindergarten to college, we're in schools.

00:52:22.080 And then you yourself, you and your family.

00:52:24.220 You know how powerful it is when you see a family show up to the movie theater or a restaurant or mass, all wearing a shirt that says, Remember the Unborn, a big cross on the front?

00:52:36.460 You want to talk about witness.

00:52:38.080 And do we need to witness in our own churches?

00:52:40.460 Yes.

00:52:41.460 You know, there's stats, John Henry, you and I have talked about this.

00:52:44.320 Upwards to half the people in any given church aren't pro-life, as weird, that's the word, as weird as that is, as peculiar as that is.

00:52:56.520 John chapter 10, verse 10, Christ came to give us life and life abundant.

00:53:00.880 I mean, it's a very basic reality, whether it's political or religious, we know that God gave us the gift of life, the greatest gift he gave us, and then Christ made that eternal.

00:53:15.100 And we also know the first duty of government is to protect life.

00:53:19.140 So, a government that has legalized abortion gets an F right out of the gate, because your first duty is to protect life.

00:53:26.520 To imagine in America alone, on average, in one year of abortion, which the average right now is probably somewhere around a million abortions per year since 1973, that one-year average is more loss of life than all combat casualties in the history of America.

00:53:46.760 And that number is 650,000.

00:53:48.960 So, these perspectives, we're able to walk in our faith.

00:53:53.080 We're able to vote, if you will, with our footsteps and where we walked with wearing the shirt.

00:53:59.680 So, if you are encouraged and inspired right now, go to liferunners.org, hit the join button, fill out that online form to get our monthly updates of, hey, what are Life Runners doing?

00:54:12.100 Well, you'll get to hear that we are getting ready for our Across America Relay.

00:54:17.540 The Across, because it forms across America, from Canada to Mexico, from San Francisco to New York City, it forms across.

00:54:27.500 For 40 days, little 5K segments, people from around the world participate, either geographically separated.

00:54:35.140 They sign up for a little segment and do it on the island of Fiji, or do it in Bavaria, Germany, or do it in Ontario, Canada.

00:54:42.460 And they do it geographically separated, or some people make a pilgrimage, and they go to the course.

00:54:48.380 Like myself and Jeff Grabowski, the co-founder of this event, who ran Across America for Pro-Life and Prayer back in 2011, and then him and I co-founded the event.

00:54:59.280 We went to the most stark segment of the Across America Relay, which is on America's loneliest highway in Nevada.

00:55:11.760 And him and myself and board member Grant Fenske, Life Runners board member, we went and did 100 miles over two days.

00:55:19.680 We ran 100 miles just to say, we are going to go to the hardest section, and we're going to go put boots on the ground and help people be motivated.

00:55:28.980 So if you're like, whoa, that event is August 26th, October 8th, about 40 days.

00:55:34.200 So you can get involved in that.

00:55:36.400 And how exciting is that?

00:55:37.940 And then lastly, we do one big race, John Henry, every year.

00:55:41.760 We go to a secular world race. 0.85

00:55:45.320 People always want to tell us, hey, you guys should organize a pro-life marathon.

00:55:52.060 And I said, what fun would that be, that we're all life runners together witnessing to each other?

00:55:57.840 That doesn't sound like evangelism.

00:56:00.360 I said, doesn't it sound like more fun that if we go to the world's race with about 75 to 250 life runners?

00:56:08.820 That's the average, John.

00:56:09.980 Yeah, you're smiling.

00:56:11.140 You're liking this better.

00:56:12.220 And we show up there, and we have really slow life runners, John Henry, like people walking the half marathon, and then we have really fast life runners, like Julia Webb, world record holder, Julia Webb, who set the world record pushing a baby stroller, a Guinness Book of World Record, pushing a baby stroller in the Tulsa, Oklahoma half marathon in 2019.

00:56:36.700 And it was the front page of Fox News online on Thanksgiving in 2019.

00:56:42.180 So we also have her husband, Alan Webb, who's the American record holder in the mile at 3 minutes, 46 seconds.

00:56:51.480 He's a life runner, and he's the coach of Ave Maria University distance team, cross country and track in Florida.

00:56:59.980 Yeah, so this is, people are like, oh, okay, right.

00:57:03.580 What I wanted everyone to hear, John Henry, is, Lord, help us to run as slow or as fast as you need us to.

00:57:12.140 Give us really slow life runners.

00:57:15.460 Give us fast life runners so that we can witness to everybody in that race.

00:57:20.780 Everyone's going to get a chance to see that message, whether you're racing or a spectator.

00:57:24.760 That event this year, and we've been to different events each year, 2008 Chicago, 2009 Sioux Falls, no, 2009 Twin Cities, Minnesota, 2010 Sioux Falls, 11 Kansas City.

00:57:39.560 That's the one that you wrote about with Bishop Paprocki, 12 St. Louis, 13, 13, where were we in 13?

00:57:48.100 Wow, it's great that we've been doing this for 15 years.

00:57:50.980 I'll go to 14, 14 was the Air Force Marathon in Dayton, Ohio, 15, Las Vegas, Nevada.

00:57:59.120 How about bringing 75 life runners to Las Vegas, Nevada?

00:58:02.480 I bet the devil hated our team.

00:58:06.260 Now we're in 16, 16, we were in Philadelphia.

00:58:12.240 We did the Philadelphia Marathon.

00:58:13.900 We tried to put a life runners, remember the unborn jersey on the Rocky Balboa statue. 0.58

00:58:19.080 We had a 5XL jersey, Velcroed, and the security guard gave us a, don't even think about it when we brought the big shirt up.

00:58:27.980 But we did save the shirt, John Henry, to bring this interview, our conversation, full circle.

00:58:34.240 We brought that shirt the next year to Petra Cina, Italy for our St. Padre Pio Relay for Life, 82 miles from Petra Cina to San Giovanni Rotondo, his birthplace to his ministry place.

00:58:52.960 And there was an eight-foot statue in Petra Cina, Italy at the place that he first received the pain of the stigmata.

00:59:01.460 And I turned to Father Joe Coffey, and I said, do you think it would be okay to put this jersey on St. Pio?

00:59:10.040 And he looked at me and said, he's your friend.

00:59:13.920 He's our teammate.

00:59:15.580 Of course it's okay.

00:59:17.400 So my daughter Paige and Father Joe Coffey, now Bishop Joe Coffey, and I put the 5XL jersey on the St. Pio statue.

00:59:25.860 It was originally meant for the Italian stallion, Rocky Balboa, but there was an even more powerful Italian stallion that ended up getting the jersey, and that was St. Padre Pio from Petra Cina.

00:59:37.740 In 18, we were in Long Beach, California.

00:59:39.020 He ran with you, after all, up the mountain.

00:59:41.560 Exactly.

00:59:42.620 In 19, we were, I think, in Florida.

00:59:46.220 No, 19 was Tulsa.

00:59:47.880 20 was canceled because of COVID.

00:59:50.380 21 was Indianapolis.

00:59:52.480 22 was Memphis.

00:59:53.700 And here we go, drumroll, everyone, that's made it all the way through.

00:59:57.620 Here we are, cut up to current events, all things Life Runners, 21,057 of us.

01:00:03.240 This year, we'll be in the Black Hills of South Dakota, under the shadow of Mount Rushmore on October 8th.

01:00:13.860 So it's like a retreat weekend.

01:00:16.020 Join us in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

01:00:17.980 And that was the one race I forgot, John Henry.

01:00:20.960 This is funny.

01:00:21.620 2013 was supposed to be there.

01:00:24.420 It was canceled in October because they got four feet of snow the night before the race.

01:00:29.480 So we're going back 10 years later.

01:00:31.840 So that's how people can get involved.

01:00:33.800 They can go to liferunners.org, hit the join button, sign up for monthly updates,

01:00:38.300 order a shirt or a jacket, and wear your witness all in Christ.

01:00:43.920 For pro-life.

01:00:44.820 Dr. Pat Castle, thank you so very much for being with us.

01:00:48.840 Thank you for your witness.

01:00:49.400 Thank you, John Henry.

01:00:50.620 And for being witness to us, to give us the courage to witness for Christ,

01:00:56.980 to give us the courage to realize what did we sign up for anyway?

01:01:02.320 Exactly.

01:01:03.040 This is what we signed up for.

01:01:05.180 Praise God.

01:01:06.440 Amen.

01:01:06.760 God bless you, Pat.

01:01:09.380 God bless you, John Henry.

01:01:11.700 And God bless all of you.

01:01:13.860 And we'll see you next time.

01:01:14.840 Hi, everyone.

01:01:26.440 This is John Henry Weston.

01:01:27.440 We hope you enjoyed this program.

01:01:29.200 To see more like it, be sure to hit the subscribe button below to get all the latest content from

01:01:33.880 LifeSite News.

01:01:34.760 Check the links in the description to read more and connect.

The John-Henry Westen Show - April 24, 2023

St. Padre Pio ｜ Divine Intervention Launches a Pro-Life Movement

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript