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Hi everyone, I am Jeff and this is fundamentally Catholic.
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It's where we take the big ancient Catholic story and
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make it simple, clear and actually interesting. Now today we're
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going to step into the early second century. It is
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when Christianity is shifting from the age of the Apostles
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to the age of the Church Fathers. And right in
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the middle of the transition stands the fifth Pope, Pope
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Saint eva Ristas. Now I'll be straight with you, Everistas,
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it's not like Pope Clement. We don't have letters from him,
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and we don't have dramatic accounts of his martyrdom. We
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don't have a long biography. What we do have, though,
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is enough to paint a surprisingly rich picture if we
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understand the world that he lived in. Let's start with
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what we know for a fact, then we'll move into
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what the early Church strongly believed about him. He was
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born in Bethlehem, sometimes in the late first century. His
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father was Jewish Greek. That means, Everistas, he grew up
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where Jewish faith in Greek and culture that was constantly interacting.
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So that brings us to a word that might be
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new to some of you. So what is a Hellenized Jew. Well,
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think of it this way. If you were raised in
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a Hispanic household in the United States, you might speak
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English at school and then speak Spanish at home. Now
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you're fully a part of both worlds, and neither world
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actually councils the other one out Helenized jew it was
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pretty similar. They were Jewish in faith and ancestry, but
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they lived in a world shaped by Greek language, Greek education,
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and Greek cultural norms. So Everistas he would have spoken Greek,
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understand Jewish scripture, navigated Roman society, and been comfortable in
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multicultural settings. Now that actually made him perfectly suited for
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leadership in the early Church, which was exploiting across cultural boundaries.
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Everista He became pope between ninety eight and one hundred
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eight d. He served into about one oh seven or
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one o eight. Now what is huge. His papacy overlapped
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with the death of Saint John the Apostle. That means,
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Everistas he was the first pope to lead the church
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after the Apostolic era officially ended. No more living eyewitnesses
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to Jesus, no more apostles to consult. The church is
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now fully in the hands of the bishops. The most
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historically granted claim about Everistus is administrative. He divided the
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city of Rome into districts. He assigned priests to specific
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titles that early as perishes. He formalized the role of
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the deacons, especially as official witnesses and assistants to the bishop.
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In other words, if Pope Clement were the voice of
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authority and unity of the Catholic Church, Pope Everistus he
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was the quiet architect who helpedformed the Roman Church into
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a functioning, organized community. This is when the Church starts
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looking yeah, less like a persecuted movement, more like a
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structural body. What is strongly believed but not proven is
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his martyrdom. Now, many early lists they call Everistus a martyr,
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but there is no surviving ed as the subscribing power.
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When he died, it's possibly died peacefully, as possibly died violently.
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We simply don't know. Now the early Church, they tended
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to assume that any pope under a hostile emperor was
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a martyr. Aristus he lived under Tajhon. Yeah, he was
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not friendly to Christians, so the tradition was understandable, but
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it's not historically confirmed. As for his exact writings. Some
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ancient sources they claim he issue decrees, but none of
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have survived. We don't know his teaching style, his personality,
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or his pastoral voice. What we can't say is the
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church remembers him as a stabilizer, someone who kept the
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community unified and structured during a delicate transition. So why
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have eristis? Did it matters today? Well, if you've ever
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had a priest assigned to your church, are you interacted
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with the deacon or are you've seen a church organized
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into a diocesis and districts and that kind of stuff? Yeah,
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you've seen. The legacy of everistis. He is the pope
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to well turn the church from a family of believers
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into a structured shepherd or fluck. He is reminded that
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not every scene is dramatic. Some states build quietly, some
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states organized, and some states they stabilized. So from Bethlehem
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to Rome, from multicultural Jewish Greek cup bringing to the
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chair of Saint Peter Everista as he stands as one
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of the early architects of the church that we know today,
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a man who led the flog says, the last apostle
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left the world, and he helped shape the structure that
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would carry the gospel forward for centuries. All right, since
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we're in lint right now, let's take a moment and
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talk about where the season actually comes from. Because, believe
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it or not, the early Christians did not wake up
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one day and just say, hey, forty days of fasting.
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That sounds fun, let's do it. Nah, Like most things
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in the church, lint grew slowly, organically and with purpose.
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In the very earliest church, like when Everistus was there,
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Christians the absolutely fastest. But it wasn't a forty day season. Yet.
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What we do know Christians fasted before Easter. Now the
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lenk varied by region. Some fasted one day, some fasted
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two days, some fasted an entire week leading up to Easter.
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So the instinct was there preparation for the resurrection with
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prayer and fasting, but it wasn't standardized. The forty day
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pattern emerges in the third and fourth century. By the
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two hundreds we start seeing references to a longer preparation period.
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Why forty days, well, because in scripture, forty is a
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number of preparation, purification, and transition. Think about it, forty
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days of rain in the flood, forty years in the desert,
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forty days Moses fasted, and forty days Jesus fasted than
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the wilderness. So Christians began to imitate Jesus's forty day
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fast as a way I prepare for Easter. The Council
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of Nicea three twenty five eight D. Now, this is
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the moment that LNT became universal. The Council of Nicea,
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it's the same council that gave us a Nicean creed,
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refers to the forty days as something the whole church recognizes.
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That means by the early three hundreds, LNT is forty days.
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It is tied to baptismal preparation, it is tied to penance,
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and is tied to the Peshal mystery. That's all mystery.
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It's the story of Jesus suffering, dying, rising and returning
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to Father. For us, this is where LNT starts looking
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like what we know today. By the Middle Ages, LENT
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becomes a strict fast, no meat, no dairy, one meal
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a day, and a heavy emphasis on confession and penance.
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It's at this time that we get things like Marti Gaus,
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you know, Fat Tuesday and Carnival farewell to meat. Yeah,
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people were literally cleaning out their pantries before the fast. Today,
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the modern church, it keeps the spirit of lent, prayer, fasting, alms,
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giving preparation for Easter. But the discipline is gentler. Ash
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Wednesday and Good Friday are both fast days. Fridays are
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days of abstinence. Now the focus on his conversion of heart,
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not just dietary rules. The heart of Lint remains the same.
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It's a season of turning back to God. So all right,
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after talking about lint, fasting, discipline, self denial, let's talk
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about a saint who reminds us that holiness does not
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have to feel like spiritual tax season. Some saints fot dragons,
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some wrote theological masterpieces. And then there was Saint Philip Neary,
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who once shaved half his beard before an important meaning,
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just to keep himself humble. Yeah you heard that right.
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Half The one side was smooth as a baby. The
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other side made him look like a renaissance lumberjack. Philip Neary,
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he is a saint who proves that joy is not
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only allowed in Christian life, it's essential. He played jokes,
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he made people laugh, He broke down pride with humor,
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and he had an uncommon ability to make holiness feel
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well human. Now here's the thing, Philip. He wasn't canonized
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because he was the class clown of the fifteen hundreds.
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His human was the surface. Underneath was a man of
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astonishing depth, discipline, and spiritual fire. Let's meet that man
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behind the jokes. Philip was born in Florence in fifteen fifteen.
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It was right in the middle of the Renaissance, the
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time of art and beauty. But there's also a whole
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lot of corruption going on. Everyone expecting him to become
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a successful businessman. Instead, he moved to Rome as a
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young man and lived almost like a lay monk. He
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spent his nights in prayer. He spent his days serving
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the poor. He studied scripture, visited hospitals, and tutored kids
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for free. He wasn't ordained, yet, he wasn't famous. He
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was simply falling in love with God. Rome. In Philip's
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day it was spiritually exhausted. People were cynecal the skurs
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and drifting. Philip. He didn't fix Rome by preaching doom
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and gloom. He fixed it by loving people back to God.
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He walked the streets, he talked to strangers. He listened
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to people's stories. He brought warmth where there was coldness.
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People followed him because he radiated something they wanted, peace, joy, authenticity. Eventually,
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he founded the Oratory, a community dedicated to prayer, music, preaching, service,
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and joyful fellowship. You can think of it as the
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original Catholic small group movement. Philip's humor was holy. His jokes,
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they weren't random, they were strategic. He knew pride was
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the root of most sins, and he knew that the
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best way to kill pride wasn't punishment, it was humility.
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So he used humor as a spiritual tour. If someone
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bragged about their holiness, he'd give him a really silly
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task to do. If someone was too serious, he'd lightened
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them up. If someone was proud, he gently poked fun
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to bring him back down to earth. He believed that
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if you could laugh at yourself, the devil couldn't get
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a foothold. Why is Philip Neary canonizes well? He re
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evangelized Rome. He guided countless souls to holiness. He founded
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a community that still exists today. He lived a life
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of deep prayer and radical humanity. He combined spiritual fire
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with disarming joy. His humor wasn't an entertainment, it was evangelization.
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One I will. Praying in the catacombs, Philip felt an
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overwhelming surge of God's love. Witness to say, he cried
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out and collapsed. Now, after his death, doctors discovered something extraordinary.
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His heart had physically enlarged. Two ribs had actually bent
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outward to make room for it. Now this wasn't a metaphor,
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This wasn't legend. This was a medical reality. It was
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fifteen ninety five. He was seventy eight years old. On
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that night he died, he had hurt confessions and celebrated mass.
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No marty dumb, no dramatic visions, no big final speech,
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just a peaceful death. Philip made people laugh, but he
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also made Rome holy again. His joy wasn't a distraction
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from holiness, It was a doorway into it. He reminds
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us that during lent, repentance and joy aren't opposites, they
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are partners. Well, thank you for joining us today at
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fundamentally Catholic, we sure appreciate you listening. Make sure you
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follow us so we're easy to find and you always
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get the newest episodes when they first come out, and
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today's show description. There will be a link to our website,
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coolmedia dot com. So until next time, God bless,