The Future of the Priesthood w/ Fr. David Michael Moses | Fr. Gregory Pine, Fr. Joseph-Anthony Kress
February 17, 2025
Fr. Gregory: This is Father Gregory Pine.
Fr. Joseph-Anthony: This is Father Joseph-Anthony Kress.
Fr. Gregory: And welcome to Godsplaining. Thanks to all those who support us. If you enjoy the show, please consider making a monthly donation on Patreon. Be sure to like and subscribe to Godsplaining wherever you listen to your podcasts. So for this episode of Guestsplaining, we are pumped. We are excited. We are pumped-cited. Never mind. We are delighted to have with us Father David Michael Moses. Thanks for joining.
Fr. David Michael: Thank you so much. I’ve been really looking forward to this.
Fr. Gregory: Hey. So have we! Alright, you are probably better known to most of our audience than we are. So introductions become somewhat, you know, tenuous or unnecessary at that point. Nevertheless, there are reasons for which we preserve traditions here on the surface of the Earth. Because otherwise, how are we as human beings going to relate and interact? It becomes impossible! So for those who don’t know you, would you say a word of introduction?
Fr. David Michael: Yes. My name is Father David Michael Moses. I’m a priest of the Archdiocese of Galveston Houston, been ordained for about five and a half years now. I’m the parochial vicar of the assistant priest at Christ, the Good Shepherd Parish here. And I absolutely just am so thankful to be a priest and be in ministry.
Fr. Gregory: Boom! Okay. Well, I’m glad you mentioned your excitement about being a priest ministering to the people of God, because that leads us seamlessly into the topic of conversation, which is the future of the priesthood. Sometimes, you know, like people titled books or blogs, I don’t know, people start blogs, substack the future of the US and such. And that usually portends ill for whatever institution. It’s like the future of MySpace, but in this case, it seems like the future’s bright insofar as Jesus said, Yeah, the Church, you’re going to have that until the end of time. Also, the Church seems like priests are necessary component thereof, so you’re golden. Nevertheless, I think here we are in the 21st century, and it can be a tough row to hoe for many priests.So like sometimes discouraging things in the news, sometimes difficult pastoral responsibilities that have you driving here, there and everywhere. And yeah, sometimes there’s like a kind of loneliness to contend with. So there’s all kinds of things that make it difficult to be a priest or difficult for the Church to kind of sustain the life of priests. What do you see out there? Boots on the ground in the parish, Archdiocese of Galveston Houston. What do you take to be like the current temperature if you were to check the temperature of the priesthood?
Fr. David Michael: Yeah. So when I entered the seminary, I kind of I was 18 and I went in and I kind of felt like I was being dropped by myself behind enemy lines in enemy territory. And I was very grateful to quickly find out that there were a lot of good men that the Lord was calling and that Lord never neglects to provide for the flock. And so I was immediately encouraged by that, and it continued to be encouraged. And I think a lot of it is that, you know, we’ve had some tough times in the Church last 40, 50, 60 years. But a lot of ways that’s led to a lot of purification that the guys, the young guys now who are choosing priesthood are doing it because they really believe in this stuff, that they really are taking this seriously in many ways, like they’re willing to die for this. And so I think even though there aren’t boatloads of guys coming in the seminary or getting ordained, the guys who are choosing it are just really good men who I just find super, super inspiring. And, you know, different places have different challenges for us down here for several different reasons. But we just have a lot of people in our churches. So the first parish I got assigned to straight out of the gate, 25, got ordained, got sent to be just the second priest at a parish that had 5000 families and had only been a parish for maybe eight or nine years. Like literally the bishop just sent a priest out to a piece of land and said, start a church. They started having mass in an elementary school gym. That’s all they had was Mass at an elementary school gym. And within a year, one year later, they had a thousand registered families. It’s just crazy. Like five weekend Masses is thousand crazy. So by the time I got there, they had ten, 12, 13,000 parishioners. We had 2200 kids and faith formation. We had an Easter mass that had 3000 people at it. It was just kind of while it was just wild. And, you know, I remember the first day walking into Mass, you know, you kind of expect somebody else is going to be walking in behind you to take care of this. And you realize, like, now I’m the guy, it’s me. And just to be I need to be a father for all of these souls is like a very, very real challenge down here. So in some places, yeah, you’ve got guys who, you know, fresh out of the gate, they’ve got five or six smaller parishes and they’re traveling around. For us, it’s a different dynamic we just have tons of people, but it’s difficult to make sure that number of people are categorized and engaged and really living it. And you’re not losing the substance of the faith. And like the radical call to holiness in just the multitude of people.
Fr. Joseph-Anthony: You kind of talked about there and you just threw out there that kind of aspect of like the younger guys that are entering in seminary and going to priesthood have this experience of being like just radically committed out of the gate. And that kind of reminds me of something that Monsignor Shea talks about in his book From Christendom to Apostolic Succession. He says, like in an age, an apostolic age, which is what we’re in right now, in an apostolic age, it’s kind of easier to be a cleric or to be a priest because the lines are so distinct.
It’s so radically clear in the culture that we live that what it takes to be a disciple of the Christ or disciple of the Lord is very, very clear. And so, you know, I see a lot of guys that enter the seminary. It’s it’s there’s it’s not in a it’s not an experience where it’s like, okay, I kind of feel this or experience that, maybe a call and then that fire grows stronger through formation or through those early years of priesthood to kind of solidify it. But like they have this experience of very distinct lines with the society and the faith. And so, like, there’s this early commitment in the fire’s almost raging from the very get go. And part of that, too, is that they see the great hunger and the need from the people that you experience at your early parishes. But you know, from your experience in your own priesthood and those around you like what does it take to kind of keep that fire raging and instead of just getting it extinguished by the extreme need and the overwhelming hunger for the people, when you see that, it’s like, okay, it’s very clear, but now let’s keep this rolling and keep it moving in the right direction?
Fr. David Michael: Yeah, well, definitely like a human level, right? You guys know when you get a day like, you are super excited, you’re ready to go. I mean, I remember thinking to myself, like, you know, being a priest, like, I can’t even believe this exists. Like, I can’t even believe, you know, God thought this was a good idea to let me be a part of this, confession, the Eucharist and all of that. You know, you’re really just just pumped. And actually, I remember at my ordination thinking, man, I’m like, so excited to to be a part of this. And I remember thinking like, there were probably be a day in the future when I’m on a human level, I’m not as excited for this. But at that moment, my feelings will be misaligned with the reality. Like my excitement right now is actually properly ordered and aligned with the reality of how insane the priesthood is like right now is when I’m thinking the most clearly actually is. The day you get ordained is probably, I think when you get married, the marriage day may not be the day you’re thinking the most clearly about everything. It might take some time to get there. I think as a priest, the excitement about it in some ways is actually very well aligned. But you do want to keep that. You want to keep that going and one thing for me that I think about is especially as like a young man, I appreciate that I’m in a vocation where people are expecting me to show up, you know, like I appreciate that I have a mass time, that it’ll be super awkward if I don’t show up to say Mass, Like if I didn’t show up to, say, the noon Mass today, it would have been weird. 150 people would have wondered where I was. If I don’t show up for confessions tomorrow, that would be awkward because I think like in many ways, the practice of the priesthood is naturally kind of rejuvenating. Like when you hear confessions, like if you’re allowing yourself to be present at all to hear, like to witness what God is doing in the penitent in His mercy. Like you just leave thinking like, Man, this is extraordinary to be a part of this. You know, some confessions this past week that were just so beautiful. And I was just so thankful to be a priest. And so I think part of it is kind of just keeping your heart open to ministry and to that beautiful moments that are that are available in the sacraments. I think that’s naturally very rejuvenating. Reminding me of a quote. I think it was a cardinal who said this. He said, it’s the job of the young people in the church to set the world on fire. And it’s the job of the older people to keep them from burning the place down. And I think there’s a there is a kind of nice interplay there that I think as young priests, we bring some passion. But it’s also good that there’s a hierarchy that’s kind of keeping keeping things in check. I think ultimately that’s very, very healthy. So yeah, that’s what I would say is like the practice of the sacraments. If we open our hearts, that I think can be very naturally rejuvenating in a lot of ways.
Fr. Gregory: All right. 21st century, we like to talk about renewal, renewal of institutions, renewal of communities, renewal of individuals. And certainly, you know, in the years since the Second Vatican Council, it’s been common to talk about renewal of religious life. And when we describe these things in our own ranks, we think about it as, you know, investing with a renewed appreciation for the beauty at stake or like the goods at stake so of the common life, of our common fraternity, of our practice, of prayer and the recitation or the singing of the choral office and the celebration of the sacred liturgy. So like, I think we often enough think about renewal in terms of religious life, but for us, our like our priesthood is kind of carried along in a certain sense by our religious life. It’s all about worship, you know, like worship of the Most High God as religious as a priest. And that in offering worship to the Most High God, then it redounds to the edification of the people for whom your sentence service. But my suspicion is that you have other kinds of conversations among diocesan priests, like whether in your own archdiocese or, more broadly speaking, about renewal of the priesthood. And sometimes you hear like whispers of projects that are afoot in this or that diocese where it’s like I was with the priests in Tulsa recently and they’re living in common habitation, you know, common dwellings, common directories and serving various kind of ministries, apostolates, parishes from a central location or, you know, like you hear about the seminary set up in Denver where they have, you know, seminarians themselves living in smaller habitations amongst themselves and with the priests with whom they will eventually certain things like that. So like it seems like there’s some focus there on fraternity, but I suspect there are other cool rumblings or whisperings of renewal as you hear them spoken abroad. But where do you see renewal in or among priests or kind of like in the priesthood? Like what gives you hope or what gives you encouragement in that regard?
Fr. David Michael: Yeah, well, there’s a there’s a group of us like five young priests who go to we go to breakfast together at 6 a.m. once a month on a monday. You know, most of us aren’t pastors yet, so it’s like the only time you can probably get away from the parish and not have anything is 6 a.m. on a Monday. And I remember the first time we went again, it was 6 a.m. at this. Do you guys have IHOP where you’re at International House of Pancakes? Yeah.
Fr. Gregory: It’s international. It’s literally everywhere. [laughing]
Fr. David Michale: [laughing] Well said, exactly, it’s not just the State House of Pancakes, International. So we’re there at this IHOP and there weren’t even that many people at the IHOP at 6 a.m. on a Monday. Right. But we finished the meal and the waitress comes up and she was like, Hey, somebody’s already paid for y’all, you know? And I was like, Oh, well, thanks. And she was like, And then somebody else offered to pay. Then somebody else offered to pay. Said I had five people who tried to pay for you guys. Like, she’s like, I’ve never seen this before. So. So as you can imagine, we always go back to that IHOP at that time. Yeah, I was like, Yeah, that’s correct. We got to milk that, milk that. That’s it, That’s it.
Fr. Joseph-Anthony: She got a really, good tip out of that too.
Fr. David Michael: Yeah, of course.
Fr. Joseph-Anthony: Smart on her end.
Fr. David Michael: That’s it. That’s it. And so a couple of things kind of came from this, that little moment. And just the extreme nature of it. Five people offering to pay was one, you know, gratefulness for my for my brother priests you know and like but also that the the world was was very drawn to priests as an outward sign together like there was something like I think if I’d been by myself in the IHOP, it might have been a different reaction from the people there that like the young priest together was like a real sign of of hope for them in the fraternity, and that it’s probably good for us as priest and religious to like, lean into that as a witness to even I mean, I doubt all those people were even Catholic. I mean, statistically, you know, they probably weren’t all Catholic, but they were drawn and they wanted to be a part of it in some way, you know. So I do think that priestly fraternity is just a huge aspect of it. As much as we can, we can foster it. I will say in terms of the like the communal housing and that kind of stuff, I would love that. That would be amazing. I do think my general kind of approach is, you know, as shepherds, the shepherds can’t always hang out together all the time. You know, sometimes shepherds have to go take their flock somewhere where there is not another flock or there’s not another shepherd.
And as a diocesan priest, you kind of have to sign up for at least a willingness to live alone and be able to live that in a healthy way. That solitude, even if hopefully in the future we would be able to arrange things that you’d have. You have guys. But I also, on a personal level, I kind of like the challenge of the Bishop being able to send me wherever he wants by myself to like, carry out the mission and like being able to trust me with that. You know, I like the fact that he doesn’t think, Oh, I need to put him here with these guys for him to be able to be, you know, effective in ministry or whatever. I kind of like to be able to be a catch all for whatever he he might need, even if I personally would really like to be able to be at parishes closer to my closer to my buddies. But one thing I see with the younger priests in terms of like renewal especially, you know, I look to the patron saint of parish priests, Saint John Vianney, you know, he was known for the confessions and man, all the young guys I know, which is very much this is very much been paid by the older generation of priests. It’s just a real love for the sacrament of confession and a real availability there. And I think that, we know we talk so much about the stats with the Eucharist and what percentage. There’s been a lot of there’s been called into question. Now, it’s hard to know how accurate it is, What percentage really do men don’t. But it was a fruitful conversation to make sure that people really believe in what the Church teaches.
I think the next wave is going to be with the confession statistics. It’s something like I think only 43% of people who identify as Catholics have been to confession in the last year. That means like 57% of Catholics haven’t been in confession last year, which is one of the foundations of being Catholic, is a regular confession. So I think that’s the renewal we’re going to kind of see.
And the reason I think it’s important for the priesthood, one, obviously it’s good for the people and our job is to sanctify the people. But I also think it’s so good for priests to hear a lot of confessions because. Well, I was reflecting on this recently like one of the clearly Jesus comes sent by God for the forgiveness of sinners, like it came that the mission was the Salvation Sinners was redemption. So God is a God who obviously is forgiving all the time. Like he’s a very forgiving God. That’s like part of who He is in terms of like his love. His love. When it hits us like it’s our sins becomes mercy, right? We say. And so I think for us as priests, if we’re called to be like, Christ, you should be forgiving a lot in some way. Like, I think there’s something very conforming to Christ of being a constant vessel, of the flow of mercy and of grace. And so it wasn’t just that John Vianney was a saint, so he heard a bunch of confessions. Part of the reason he became a saint was because he heard so many confessions like that was formative and sanctifying for him, too. So that’s the next kind of renewal I see happening, I think, in ministries. I think we’ll see a lot of priests being extra available for confessions, and I think we’ll see a lot of fruit from the people in that as well, because what we’re doing right now with the Eucharist is we’ll just where we are, we’ll just building bigger and bigger churches. So more people come to the Eucharist, but we can’t just build a bigger confession like it needs to be a one on one thing. So that’s what I see happening next. And I think that’s going to bear a lot of fruit.
Fr. Joseph-Anthony: I think in in your experience to you kind of bring up a lot of these really, really important spiritual and kind of divine elements of the priesthood, you know, the great gift as priests to sit there. The amount of times that I’ve been humbled in the confessional hearing the confessions of my students. So I’m like, oh my gosh, you’re so radically holier than anything I’ve ever experienced or could even think of. And it does keep a certain level of humility and encouragement to our priesthood and seeing, you know, having the kind of courtside seats towards mercy within the confessional. But can you speak to a little bit of the kind of experience like we’re talking about all these divine elements, but that takes place within the context of human relationships. And so in our priesthood, we we do have to have an experience of our own humanity in kind of either embracing that in its own brokenness, but also in its own kind of sanctification through the Lord’s mercy in recognizing that the Lord does calls us in our own humanity to be a priest, right? He calls the priests out of among men in order to be priests. And we kind of bring our own humanity to bear in that as a sacrifice, as an oblation. But the Lord doesn’t necessarily annihilate that, and form us into a caricature, but he uses each of us in our island. So can you maybe speak on the kind of like that, that grace filled experience of humanity within the priesthood and how that kind of, you know, can help be a leading or shepherding presence with the people?
Fr. David Michael: Well, one, you’re so right. I mean, we’ve all felt this is priest, right? When like you’re in confessions and like, people are confessing things and you’re like, man, I should probably confess that too, you know, like they’re giving you ideas for your own spiritual life. You’re like, Yeah, yeah, I should probably work on that and that and that. So it is in some ways, like you hear a lot of confessions. It’s like a constant, you know, real life exam and examination of conscience for yourself, you know, like, Oh, am I letting the enemy kind of get in on this or whatever? So I think, yeah, that that point is, is an important one. No, but the humanity, it makes me think of, you know, I’m sure you all have the same experience. People will sometimes be like, Oh, father, I, I want to go to confession with you because you know me. And I always think like, Hey, you are free to go to confession to whoever you want. Zero pressure. You know, we have plenty of people in line. I don’t need you to come to make this okay, but as long as you’re going to confession, it’s fine. But, like, because I know you, and yes, you’re going to tell me some of your sins. I know some of the bad things about you, but because I know you, I also love you. Like if you go to some priest you don’t know at all. Yeah, I mean, he can. He can sit there and he can certainly give you absolution, and there’s a real goodness to that. But if you go to a priest that, you know, in his humanity, there’s also a love there, too. He knows your good qualities, like he has more of a complete picture, like the humanity, the human aspect of the sacrament is not like the thing we’re trying to constantly cut out. You know, there’s a grace there, too. Like if God wanted the sacrament to be devoid of all you know, humanity, he could have done it in different ways. He clearly wanted to do it through Broken Man. I think for the reason that you point out that in many ways, like through our brokenness, we can really be of service to the to the people. And also I tell people, like, if I know you, you know me, you know, some of my faults too. Like, you have probably seen moments, that I don’t respond to things perfectly, which means in many ways we’re coming at this as two as two broken people. You know, I’m not coming at it from a perfect person myself. But I want to, you know, be a vessel of God’s mercy for you. So I think there’s just so much wisdom in the way the Church does it as revealed by God and so much goodness if we’re willing to just really enter into it.
Fr. Gregory: So maybe to follow up on that, I’m thinking about one of the ways in which you’ll hear priests referred to is as wounded healers. So there’s a sense in which you mediate the mercy of God while yourself receiving it, profiting from it. And I’m just thinking of like, yeah, I mean, priesthood it’s awesome, but it places certain demands or it lays a certain claim to a man which can be can be burdensome, you know, it can be heavy, sad at times. And I think that you got guys coming to the seminary and guys being ordained who are coming from broken backgrounds, you know, like broken families, broken poverty, broken culture. And, you know, there’s this kind of expectation that as a priest, you all be put back together again. You know, like you’ll be in good shape. You’ll be able to administer the sacraments with a modicum of competence and preach and teach with a modicum of insight, and you’ll send it, you know, but we’re finding is that like a lot of guys suffer in the priesthood and some break down. And so something sweet, I think, or something beautiful that we’ve seen in the last ten, 20, 30 years has a greater recognition of that and responsiveness to it. So like in part with like the mental health crisis and the kind of de-stigmatization of like kind of therapy and counseling and things like that, there’s been more widely available in the seminary setting. But then also, just like other helps, like you just hear a lot of guys doing healing the whole person with Dr. Bob Schuetz and his team and you just hear a lot of guys just profiting from sweet resources, which may not have always been available. So I’m thinking like in terms of that wounded healer, I would say, you know, the percentage of listeners podcast who are priests is pretty low, but you know, like still you have laypeople who are thinking about how do I support, you know, like how do I encourage can you testify a little bit to like what you’ve kind of seen boots on the ground and yeah, like where, where, where priests might look or where lay people might pray?
Fr. David Michael: Yeah. No, it’s definitely true that the priest there’s I mean, you’re expected to be Christ in the world. Like the expectations are almost insane. Like there couldn’t even be higher. And so the amount of work that’s expected of you and yeah, can definitely be a very lonely vocation to be in. And there’s a good to that. But it’s also difficult. I sometimes joke with people like one of the best Christmas gifts you can give me is like, make an appointment with me on a busy day and then cancel it at the last minute. So I just have a free hour. Like, that’s would be a great gift, actually. But you know, I would say like, I am glad there’s been a lot of, you know, things have been de-stigmatized. And I think it’s good for the priest to know that it’s okay to not feel it all the time. Like that doesn’t mean anything’s wrong. Like I remember telling a buddy of mine because it was 2 hours of confessions every Saturday at my last parish. And when he got assigned there, I remember telling him, Dude, sometimes Saturdays are crazy.
You have a morning mass, you have a wedding, quinceanera, funeral, baptisms, whatever, you have two hours of Confession. Then you have a vigil mass like it’s exhausting. And I just told him, like, Dude, when you leave the confessional or you’re, you know, the beginning of hour two and confession after a long Saturday and you’re just not feeling it anymore. Don’t like judge yourself in that moment that you think you’re a bad priest. Just say no, I’m faithful and just keep hearing confessions. And he told me like six months in this time, he said, Dude, that was so helpful because I could see how the devil could tempt me in that moment to kind of because then you’re dealing with the difficulty of ministry and you’re dealing with like this huge judgment of self that you don’t feel the perfect thing all the time about ministry. And then the devil just like keep stack and stuff after that. And just to stop it and say, I don’t feel it, that’s okay. I’m faithful is like such a freeing thing. Actually, I think now I’m showing up. I’m here. I think can go can go a really long can can go. It can go a really long way. But in terms of what the the the people can do, obviously I sometimes joke like the best thing that people can do is be holy because I’m trying to make them holy. So if they get there faster, that definitely makes my my job easier. But in most cases I’ve just been blown away by the really the goodness of the people. Like if we they used to say in seminary, we used to joke about it all the time, but it actually ended up being pretty true. It just just let the people love you. You know, we say that just let the people love you like they do want to root for their priest. They do want to love their priest. So, you know, it doesn’t cost any extra to be kind. I think that goes a long way with the people and just receiving them. But I also think there’s a value and I was reading this thing from a was like a big business man, and he was saying like whenever things get really, really hard in his work with his big companies and like, he’s kind of tempted to quit. He always like, likes that moment because that means that’s the moment where most people will will quit, and that’s the moment that if he keeps going, like, then he’s going to be really successful. And I’ve kind of tried to apply that to the priesthood, like the moment when things are really, really hard. It’s like, Oh yeah, like this is probably what holiness feels like. Like this is probably what being a good priest feels like is like this. This difficult moment. So you want to do that in a healthy way. Good priest, friends, if it’s therapy, yeah. Obviously prayer is going to be the foundation of all of that. But I think it’s okay those moments to say like, Oh, maybe this is what being a good priest feels like. And if I keep going, that’s what holiness feels like. And I don’t need to despair that I’m not all my feelings aren’t happy all the time, that there’s a goodness to just being faithful and just keep showing up for the people and the feelings will come back. So that’s been that’s been really helpful and freeing for me. For me personally.
Fr. Joseph-Anthony: I think one of the fun things about being a priest, I’ll I’ll claim it, I’ll say it and if you disagree, let me know. But I think one of the things I love about being a priest is actually just saying Mass, and it’s beautiful. But where has been the most unique place that you’ve said Mass in the last six years? Because that’s what I have coworkers and missionaries I work with and they’re like, You’re so lucky. You can just say Mass, wherever, whenever. And yeah, like there have been nights I’ve been super busy and get back to the priority nine 10:00 It’s like I want to say mass at 10:00. It doesn’t matter. I’ll just say it whenever I’m free, which is like, awesome. But yeah, where’s the most unique place that you’ve been able to kind of offer to the sacrifice?
Fr. David Michael: Yeah, Most new place. Just my parents. I don’t have anything too crazy. It’s my parents hunting property. I’ve been out there, celebrated there and in the cabin, but I’ve definitely had trips because, like, the way flights are now, things get canceled. You know, I definitely keep my Mass kit with me now. And if I have to wake up for an early flight and I think I’ll have mass later, I am like ready to go and try to find some kind of ecumenical chapel at the airport if I have to, just to get a Mass in. So I’m locked and loaded. If that happens. But I try to not risk it too much. Do you all have interesting, interesting locations?
Fr. Joseph-Anthony: Yeah. I mean, similar things I’ve said Mass in airports and things like that, but I think I’ve done a lot of major events and large scale events and some of the things I love is just same as like in the locker rooms of the arenas where we’re playing and thinking like, Oh, this is weird NFL teams locker room. And here I’m going to say Mass because you can’t always join in on the big liturgies that these events have when you’re working them behind the scenes. So kind of having those little private moments of repose has been fun. And then also, I can think of like saying Mass in the hospital rooms for either friends who have just had a baby or, you know, family members who are suffering and getting closer and closer to death to say that Mass, you know, on a hospital tray in their room for them and to bring that in those places.
Yeah. And then I have a crazy experience with like COVID and stuff and being able to say Mass throughout COVID was like a really cool gift. So I would say those are kind of the three, three areas of mind my mind goes to the most.
Fr. Gregory: Yeah, it’s that treks so like being able to celebrate the Holy Mass for people who are dying, I’ve been able to celebrate for a couple of religious sisters on the day they died, you know, to give them viaticum. Which is beautiful. Shrines of holy saints, Saint Dominic and Saint Thomas Aquinas being the ones like with their relics. It’s like on the top of a lot of big mountains in the Swiss Alps, which is exotic. But the one I’m looking forward to is this summer. I’m going to Australia for a Thomistic Institute trip. And the thing is, I’m going to cross the international dateline. So, you know, when you plug a flight into Google flights and it gives you the old plus one and you’re like, Wolf, daddy’s is going to sleep on the plane. In this particular instance, I put it into Google flights and it said plus two. So there’s going to be a point at which, like it turns midnight, a few hours will elapse and then I’ll hit the international dateline and it’ll be the next day. So the current plan is to, at midnight, trundle on into the galley and ask the lady like, Hello there. And I actually can’t do it.
Fr. Joseph-Anthony: But I was I wanted to see. I was like, I see you, is he going for it? Is he sending this?
Fr. Gregory: Let me see if I can do it.
Fr. Joseph-Anthony: [laughing] I want to hear.
Fr. Gregory: Oh, I just have to think like Matt Fradd. [In Australian accent] Matty Fraddy. So I’m just going to trundle on into the galley and say, like, is it alright if I stand here for the next 14 minutes to 18 minutes, it’s actually 24 minutes. And she’s like, Yeah, just as long as there’s like, you know, turbulence. Just make sure you sit down and then I’m going to look at her and ‘m going to go [making blank smiling face] …and give no indication because I don’t like lying. And then when she tells me to sit down, I’d be like, [whispering] I’m almost done. So we’ll see how that goes.
Fr. David Michael: [lauging] That’s amazing.
Fr. Gregory: Yeah. Mass, Mass. 35,000 feet up somewhere over Guam. That’s what I’m looking forward to.
Fr. Joseph-Anthony: I can’t wait for this. Could you just, like, set your phone up and record that? I just want to see the time lapse of all of that go down.
Fr. David Michael: That’s incredible. Yeah, that’s a flex. That’ll be a story for the ages.
Fr. Gregory: Exactly. Cool. All right, well, we are approaching the end, but if folks want to follow up with you in person on the Internet, where can they track you down?
Fr. David Michael: Yeah, pretty much any kind of social media platform works, on Instagram, so we do a lot of our stuff, YouTube, that kind of thing. There’s a website that can go to just Father Michael dot com and they can sign for the newsletter if they want. Got some music out there. And also I’ll be having Father Gregory on my podcast too so you guys can look out for that.
Fr. Gregory. Let’s go. Alright, man. Well thanks for making the time. Thanks for being a priest. Keep crushing it and yeah, look forward to the next chat.
Fr. David Michael: Thank you so, so much for having me. It’s been an honor. Thank you so much for your witness. All you guys are doing for the Church, it’s. That’s a real gift.
Fr. Gregory: Bless up. All right. Turning to you, the listener, thanks so much for tuning into this episode of Godsplaining. There’s stuff that happens on the Internet as ever pertaining to Godsplaining, and here it is in order. If you want to check things out on social media, we’d appreciate it. If you want to like and subscribe, we’d also appreciate that. And if you want a follow up for upcoming events, you can check out godsplaining.org. All right. Know of our prayers for you. Please pray for us and look forward to chatting with you next time on Godsplaining.