Rich 0:02

So this is my show, so you should probably start it. Is your show?

Jonathan 0:06

Yeah. So how do I start it?

Rich 0:08

I'm just getting comfy. What do you want me to call it? I'm actually gonna take my shoes off. Take your shoes off? That's nice. To get comfy. Oh yeah. Yeah, nice and comfortable. On the porch, third floor. This is nice. Looking over Lincoln. I'm glad you allowed me to come here and do this. I'm happy that you're here. You can hear me too, huh? I was gonna we were gonna wear headphones, but not here yet. I'm not to that point yet. You're not that professional? I don't have a splitter. I can't split one signal into two headphones. You can't split. And I I don't know if you this is like a $10 microphone. We're trying to fit it.

Jonathan 0:45

Can I get drink now? Is that okay? Yeah. It's almost 12. Okay. I love that. 1115. Oh, hit the camera. Would you like some? Please. Glenn Livitt Scotch. 12 year? This is Glen Turret 12 years. My mother's cousin gave it to me. She's a foreman nutton. There's a whole story with that there. Um, but she has a whole scotch room. Bookcase full of different scotches, and so I went out there and did some farm work a few weeks ago. I know that sounds funny. Farm work? Don't even ask. She needed she needs some help. And I'm on a healthy kick, so I said, you know what? I'll go out there and I'll split some logs out there and have chickens and uh split some logs to uh pick up some eggs and get some scotch.

Rich 1:31

Sounds like my life out in Warren Mass now.

Jonathan 1:34

That sounds pathetic. Warren Mass. Not nothing against people in Warren. I love people all over the world, but I'd go crazy. This is my home boss. Love living wood chickens. It's too quiet for me.

Rich 1:46

I do miss the rustle and bustle of ambulances and police sirens going up and down through the room.

Jonathan 1:52

Just wait, we might get it. We might get it in the field for you.

Rich 1:55

I find it happens more at night when I lived on Vernon Hill, anyways.

Jonathan 1:58

That's Yeah, I would imagine um on the night here it's tends to be quieter, but you have everything. If I'm the windows open, you just this cars come up there. That's what it feels like. But it's all good. I love my linkage tree.

Rich 2:10

So wait, before we toast. Oh yes. I I'm curious, what was your first thought or your many thoughts when I reached out to do 20-year time out? And what did you think of the idea?

Jonathan 2:22

I thought it was an awesome concept. You know, I've always known you, uh, have always been sort of have had that creative mindset, been a creative person. And so when you reached out about this here, I thought that's a good idea. I think people would really buy into that there, and it would really find it entertaining to see um how life has changed in 20 years. But it's also saddening because you realize it's been 20 years since I've known you. That's insane. It feels like just yesterday in a sense. And as soon as you said it, these flood of memories just came back. Um it was awesome.

Rich 2:55

So for me, you're bringing back a bit of uh sadness too, and I never thought about this concept as something that could be sad. It was always positive to me, yeah, you know, being creative and full of energy. I was like, oh, it'll be cool to reminisce. But you're right, 20 years or more has gone by. Yeah, you lose contact with friends, people grow, uh, which I always find as a positive thing, but yeah, you're right, we're getting older, things are changing. Um, so I do appreciate you coming. Um, do you want to state your name and maybe your occupation? And we'll cheers. Sure.

Jonathan 3:26

My name is uh Father Jonathan Slavinskis. I am a Catholic priest here in the Diocese of Worcester, pastor at St. Bernard's Church on Lincoln Street. Cheers.

Rich 3:34

And that's where we are today, uh, on the third floor of this beautiful three-decker in Worcester on Lincoln Street, with uh Jonathan's church right across the street. Um drinking on a noon on a Thursday. Noon on a Thursday. Soon to be noon on a Thursday. So, how long have you been a priest officially now? So I have been a priest.

Jonathan 4:00

I was ordained in 2012. So I have been a priest now, what, that, 13 years? 13 years, I think, something like that? Yeah.

Rich 4:09

So I remember I guess we could reminisce a little bit about our history. Yeah. I remember you telling us when maybe we first started hanging out at Widoff's Bakery that you wanted to be a priest. Has this been a lifelong mission to make that happen?

Jonathan 4:22

Way back when, well, I've always had a good priest in my life, you know. And so I was always involved in the church at St. John's and Temple Street, yeah. And um, we've always had a great cast of characters in our lives, and uh, it was also a very normal church up, I mean, you know, it wasn't like nail down and pray the worship, you know, every day. It's not like our family was going home and like being holier than that when exactly like let's open up the Bible, you know, read the Bible. You're Polish, I'm Lithuanian. We know how our fathers can be and our families can be there. So it's uh we grew up in, you know, more I would say more disciplined households at times, you know, structured in a sense like that. Um, so I mean the church was always part of my life. I always had good people around the church, which was awesome, and good normal friends. And so from a younger age, I always thought, yeah, I could I could see myself uh entering into this, and then it the reality is you've got to be called into it. You can't just want it for yourself, you've got to really listen to the voice of God, and that's an unfolding over many years.

Rich 5:25

So I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Was there other occupations that you were considering, or when did you get your call?

Jonathan 5:34

My mother always said I had two choices in life to become a priest or corrupt politician. You know, so thanks mum, that's very good, you know. Um, and I'm I am sort of involved in the the politics of Worst Times there. You've got to be in your nature when you're a community leader. Um, but I've always thought about that, you know, like uh could be a police officer or something like that. I'm the chaplain for the police department and fire department. Um I was a bigger boy, of course, when we first met there, and I had no desire to be doing any running like that as a police officer. Um but it over time it just unfolded, you know, going to college at Angria, you know, learning more about the faith there, entering into more solid prayer life, and then saying, you know what, I think Jesus actually might be calling me to do this. And so then trusting in the process. This was at a young age or this was in high school? This is high school, you know. I mean my mother has this picture of me when I was in elementary school as a little kid. I was probably maybe five or six years old at a birthday party we had. You know, when I was little kids back then, you know, you make the little crowns at your birthday party, you know. And on my crown I was putting the um the host and the chalice. I was making that around my crown. But these are things I don't remember, but these are the things um she remembers and other people remember. And a lady came up to her church one day when I was a little kid and she said, she said, you know, he's gonna be a great priest one day. And she was like, Oh, okay. You know, and and so I think the reality is um the Lord is gonna call us at no matter what age, uh, but we're gonna start listening to that call to see, okay, where is he moving us? You know, and trusting in that as well. Um and that again, that's an unfolding. So after college, I went into seminary, which is a time of great discernment. Academic studies, indeed, as you learn about um the teachings of the church, the history of the church, philosophical thoughts, ideas. You know, that's six years after college is seminary. And so there's a pivotal moment in seminary when you realize, yes, this is what actually Jesus is calling me to partake in, you know, and everything changes at that moment. And there's a great sense of peace. And that's not to say, right, you don't have natural desires, natural feelings. You know, I I think if someone didn't have natural desires, um, I don't think that's a healthy thing. You know. Um at the end of the day though, the Lord gives us the grace that is needed, you know, to help move forward. So you're in college and you said it wasn't really you didn't really feel the the love or passion you have now until seminary, or Yeah, so I mean there obviously was a lot that had gone on through the church, you know, with the sex abuse scandal, right? So that blew up my CEO of high school. You know, and so everything's hitting the papers in Boston. Um so it was sort of like, why do I want to get involved with that? You know. Um and so I wasn't as close and active within the parish, you know, being away f from the parish, being in college there. But still go to Mass here and there at Ann Maria College. Um, but I still felt sort of this indudgeon, you know, and I say, I gotta go with it, you know, and again, it's you're gonna question any person in their sanity, like after everything that exploded in the church, do you really want to put yourself in a microscope like that yourself? You know? Do you really want to become so vulnerable um to the point of you know, all it takes is one, you know, to one one person saying something stupid about you. You know, that might not be true, you know? And not to negate there was a lot of no a lot of truth to what had taken place um by individuals of the church, you know. And um so thankfully the church has cleaned up its act, you know, and all new policies have come out of that to again to protect the most vulnerable in society.

Rich 9:30

Yeah, and it does take, I'm I'm guessing, the ultimate strength to pat to move forward with your calling after, you know, maybe thinking, is this right for me? Yeah. Um does uh from day to day, do you still like sometimes do you have a day where you wake up and you're like, is this right for me? And then you maybe pray about it or think about it and it and something happens and and you move forward uh with your mission, or is are you so like passionate about it that there's no doubt in your mind you'll do this for the rest of your life?

Jonathan 10:05

Oh my god, I wake up every day and I'm thinking to myself, what the hell am I doing? You know, like oh my gosh, you know, because everyone just thinks, you know, at times like, oh, Saturday, Sunday, everything's all set. You know, that's all the priest works is Saturday, Sunday. Um the priesthood is very active. You know, there's a lot a priest does in a day that many people don't see recognize or know, especially in a in a community that I'm I'm living. You know, I say there are many different um beautiful parts of my community. Yes, there is the church community, the people that come to Mass each and every day. There was the community in which I live, you know, there's my the home of the city of Worcester, you know, that's my community as well. As a chaplain to the police department and fire department, I have other roles and responsibilities to be present in different ways, you know, and so you could constantly be pushed and pulled in a variety of different ways. Um, and it is easy at times to feel like you're drowning, right? But then at those moments there, you know, Jesus tells Peter when he's walking towards them in the storm on the boat, and now Peter's looking at Jesus when he calls him out on the water. When Peter starts to take his eyes off of Jesus, what happens? He drowns. Jesus, Peter, look at me, you know, and when he sees the face of Christ, he doesn't drown. When he's focused back on Jesus, he's able to get through the stormy running, you know? And for us, you know, we've got to remember that if we keep our for me, you know, Christ at the forefront, I'm not gonna drown. You know, I'm gonna flourish. I'm gonna receive the grace and strength that I need. Um little prayer I like to do every day, and I encourage a lot of people to do, simple little prayer in the morning, you know, Jesus, how are you calling me to be a holy man today? Not tomorrow, not years from now, but today, here and now. So, like when I get irritated like hell by someone that keeps ringing the doorbell, I don't go out there and just like, you know, kick him in the face, right? You know, it's like that's not what Jesus is inviting me to do, you know? That'd be a great quote. They're just just I just I just don't go out and kick him in the face, you know? Um you learn to live the love of Jesus, in the compassion of Jesus, the mercy of Jesus, um, each and every day with a prayer like that. And you just learn to rely on him more and more when you call upon his name. Do people approach the church? Are you uh looking for help often? Oh god yeah, no, yeah. Mm-hmm. Constantly. We have a food pantry here, and in the times in which we live, people are suffering. People are going through a lot, you know? Um, and so constantly in need. Um and we're a church in need as well. You know, we're not a a parish with a boatload of money sitting in it at all. We're surviving week after week like everyone else, you know, trying to pay the bills there. Um, but we try to do more good, you know, and try to just be present to people where they are at. So, yeah, if it means we've got to open up the food pantry to get some food. Yeah, sometimes you got people, ah, need a few bucks for gas. Okay, you know, let's walk to the gas station then. I never give cash out. You know, I never give cash out. If you're gonna say you need it for gas, bring your car over there, we'll f we'll give you some gas there. You know, exactly. You know, it's just too easy um to throw the cash out to people and you don't know where it's going, you know. Um and another reality, you know, it's uh people are suffering. A few weeks ago we had a guy in the church um who came in, and we leave the church doors open because people need a source of quietness in a sense of clearing their life. You know, and so from seven o'clock in the morning to about dusk, the church doors are typically wide open if it's a nice day, and they're unlocked if it's raining or whatnot, so people can come in and praying at the silence. With that, you have other people who are coming in that might have um psychological issues, that might be going through something. Again, last three, two weeks ago we had a guy that came in and he was having an episode, and he started just destroying a lot of stuff in the church, dumping things over, trying to burn stuff, and thankfully a woman came in to pray, and she was like, Oh, this guy's interesting. I think he's cleaning the church, but it's weird that he's cleaning it in his underwear, you know? Like, that's a yeah, that'd be a weird thing there. And then she's realizing, oh boy, he's trying to light stuff on fire. So she called the police, you know, and uh and again he's a suffering soul, so he, you know, that my care is that he gets the help he needs first and foremost. Things can be replaced. These things can be replaced that we have. It's a nuisance, absolutely. It's a pain in the butt. But again, if someone's gonna get the help they need, that's what I really care about, you know. And so he came to church, he had his episode, he came in sick, and my prayer is he's gonna get the healing he needs now.

Rich 14:42

Do you have any other stories? I'm sure you uh of like grow you know, growing your church. What when you s when you came into here, I don't know if this was the first church you start were in. Um, how how has it been growing? Has it been declining?

Jonathan 14:56

So I was uh ordained in 2012, in June of 2012, by Bishop McMenus. In my first assignment, I was sent to Southbridge to St. John Paul II parish. And that was a church where basically four churches in that town came together under one new parish. Very diverse community. You had the Polish, you had um the Hispanic, you know, Spanish speaking um population, and then Italians and others as well there. And so I was there for two years and it was a great experience, and then um typically after two years you moved to another parish to get more experience. And so I was moved to St. Joseph's in Charlton for two years with uh Father Mark Radirati. I was with Peter Joyce um in South Bridge, and he taught me so much. And going back to Peter for a second, my f one of my first um weekends there, you know, when I first was there as a deacon, I went to the did the funeral with him. We go to the cemetery, you know, and we're standing over the grave, after everyone has left, and he says to me, just always remember this. You do your weekend masses, you die on Monday, you're buried on Wednesday yourself, and you're replaced for the following weekend by another priest. Don't ever think you're indisposable, you know? Yeah. And there's a reality to that, like, right? You know, and and we have to keep that in in our minds as well, you know, that we are vulnerable human beings, you know, and so I learned so much with Peter Joyce, and he he really has become a good friend and just a a great mentor. Um, and he's out of Milford now. And then I was with uh Father Bob Gradarati and Charlton for two years. They're totally different community than Southbridge, you know, and it was a great community, you know. I loved it out there. Um but after two years, you know, then typically you're named a pastor now. You know, back in the day it would take, you know, fifteen, twenty years before you were named a pastor, and numbers dwindled. So I got the call that I would become pastor here at Olydia Providence Parish, St. Bernard's Church. Um, I says, That's one of the churches I've never been in. This is one church I've never been in. And so I came down and I tried getting in the church and it was locked, and I was disappointed. I was like, ugh, you know, and I get it, a lot of people lock churches, you know. And so I said, We're not gonna lock the church during the day. We're gonna leave it open. You know, people need a place to come. And so my goal um is to make sure that for the 225 streets that encompass the parish of Arlinga province, because a parish is a territorial area, and so parishes are divided up by streets here in the city of the Diocese of Woodstadt, and so I've become a pastor for all these streets. Here in America, it means nothing. People go where they want to go for church and belong to whatever church they want to, but I look at it as okay, within these streets that I have as a parish, how am I making the love of Jesus known to absolutely everybody? Regardless of faith or belief. Do they know that they can come here and they can experience the love of Jesus through the good works that we're doing? And so that became my motivation just to say, okay, we've got to put the good works out there continually. You know? Um and so yeah, it's it's opening the doors of the church, it's opening the doors of the gym so the youth have a safe place to go to play basketball over there, it's engaging in the community in a variety of different ways. It's sitting down at a restaurant or a bar and having a drink with someone and just uh talking, you know, just being normal. I would say my first church, especially for the youth, the young people, is the gym. It's where I can go in and be like, hey, how are you doing today? How's school today? What's going on today? You know, not have you found Jesus today, right? You know, that's a great question indeed, but like get to know them all at one. And then from those relationships, everything starts to change in their life. They know that they have someone that cares for them authentically, you know. And the reality is we have to come to authentically know that we are a loved people. You know, for me, and we're gonna have a good God that loves me. You know, and once we come to understand that reality, that we actually have a God that loves us. A God that truly loves us and a very inner being in the core, it changes everything in our life. To know and experience and feel that love of God is a beautiful gift. You know, it's not waking up in the morning and experiencing it. It might hit you once, but it's enough to keep you doing moving to do what you gotta do beside.

Rich 19:29

Yeah, it's like a feeling you get when someone buys you a coffee in the low line. You're like, oh, there is good in the world. There is something greater, maybe, you know. Uh maybe I should be better to my neighbor, or say or start more conversations now that we're on our phones so much, and maybe we're losing that little bit of community, like that's been lost since phones came out.

Jonathan 19:52

Yeah, I remembered a woman yesterday, um, fifty seven years old, and her son's a young gentleman, early twelve. And he was telling me about his mother, you know, and he said she just had this caring, gentle heart that brought about a gentleness in the world. And that was a beautiful thing. And he told me a story about how she met um the the cashier at the gas station, pumping gas. They just started talking. And that cashier had just lost his mother, and they just began a conversation. Her and him. And she was having land and mother's services now. You know, she was just being present to him at his time of need. And that's all it takes. How are you doing today? You know, that's a that's a beautiful question to be asking somebody. How are you doing? You know? How can I pray for you? How can I be there for you? You know, I might not be able to give you everything you need, I might not be able to do everything you ask, but how can I just be present in this moment here and being present?

Rich 20:54

What is the community like within the priesthood? You know, may talk about in high school, were there any other friends that you had in your group that were like, oh, I could see myself going to seminary or were you a lone soldier?

Jonathan 21:09

No, yeah, so growing up, I mean I didn't know anyone else in this area that was like, oh, let's become a priest, you know? Like exactly, right? You know? I thought you were kidding. Yeah, yeah, I thought I was kidding, you know, and um but like when I was in seminary, I met some of my closest friends that are from like, oh, in What you talking, is this in that area, the Midwest? And I mean it's a whole different breed out there, you know. It's they have a lot of young priests out there, and so it's a very normal part of it. So they have the Catholic high schools with young priests and um, and so it just became this normal, like, okay, yeah, I actually can do this. When we think of priests, we think of older individuals at times there, you know, um, and once you get to uh know the guys for who they truly are, it's uh it's uh it brings a great joy upon your face, you know, and you just see the frick frack of it all, and you know the reality, like, yeah, we're all messed up human beings, you know. I mean, I always say to my priest buddies, God, if we had a camera to follow us around. I want to do that. It would be a uh we would make lots of money. We'd be moved it, we're moved to the second room, probably.

Rich 22:10

What is that stupid reality show, the Amish girls that make like dirty sodas? I don't know. My wife watches it.

Jonathan 22:16

I don't know.

Rich 22:17

It's like uh Amish wives, housewives, and they just have a show.

Jonathan 22:21

Oh really?

Rich 22:21

But you could probably put the priests in the same concept, and it would be yeah, I would watch that over the dirty soda Amish.

Jonathan 22:29

I have a um there's a group of uh policy friends that I have in the diocese here, and there's five of us. We get together once a month and uh pray. Um pray quickly, and then we have a meal together, and we just shoot the you know, together. You know, we just yeah, we just have a good time, we talk, and we laugh, and uh we complain, and we we do what normal guys do.

Rich 22:51

It's like four or five construction guys who work at the same electrical company going out to have some beers and you talk about work. Yeah. I mean, you have to have that com you know, everyone who has a occupation has a community of people with the same occupation, so you gotta get together and talk about the crazy things, the great things, and and help work through the struggles.

Jonathan 23:09

And pull the ideas together too, like you know, okay, what's working for you in your church? How's it going there? And you know, like uh, Jonathan, how can I help you in your parish? Because we might have some extra money over here. You know, so like you know, what can we be doing to assist your community? So you're building the kingdom of God in a in a nice way. But then also the normal relationships, um when I say normal relationships, the non-princely relationships are so formative to me as well. You know, I have a cast of characters that are friends, we get together often, you know, and uh I put in my place a lot by these characters, you know, and and I love them dearly and they keep me grounded.

Rich 23:44

So, unlike uh, let's say like five software companies that are in super competition with each other and probably won't share company secrets, the church is different in that way. You guys are willing to there the is there a competition among the churches?

Jonathan 23:58

No, at the end of the day, the the goal is this to make the love of Jesus known. Right? We talk about evangelization. It's about going out there and making the love known. It's moving beyond the church walls. I mean, the church is a church, it's a building. It could crumble tomorrow. Catch fire, crumble tomorrow, right? The goal is though we can still go out there and do the work that we are called to do continually each and every day. And so there's not a competition mentality at all. You know, I mean, we support, we love one another, and we want to see each other's communities thrive. We're all in very different communities. Yeah, I could never have one buddy, Father Nick Desimoney, at St. Mary's in Uxbridge, and he's like, I can never be at your church. Nor can I ever be in your parish, you know, right? Like it's a you have your gifts for where you're at, you know, I have my gifts for where I'm at, you know, and I always say you're gonna be a little bit crazier than everyone else in the community around you. And if you asked my community members, they'd probably say, Yeah, father's the craziest one here. You know, he's he's insane, you know.

Rich 24:52

When is the Pope gonna come here and talk to you?

Jonathan 24:55

Like you are Yeah, I don't think he's gonna do that.

Rich 24:58

No, it's it's it's not like you can't reach out to his team and uh like get advice from them. Are they like very separate because they're at a different way?

Jonathan 25:08

It's a whole different hierarchical uh hierarchy, you know. I mean, like we have our structure within the church. The closest I've been, you know, we have a um a priest from the diocese of Worcester, Father Michael, not Father, Archbishop Michael Bianch. He is the papal nuncio to the country of Hungary. So the papal nuncio essentially is the um ambassador from the Vatican, the Pope, to the country of Hungary. Okay. And so he's a kid born and raised in Aben, um, and he comes back, you know, every summer, and so we get together, um, a few of us, and uh a few weeks ago he was sitting here on the porch and we're just normal talking, you know, like it's nothing we just wanted to uh we could have gone to a restaurant. We said, No, let's just stay in and he he enjoyed this one as well, this sip as well, you know, and uh just had a great meal, great time talking and to see how things are like in different countries as well, you know, and the things that they're going through. And he offers a great pastoral insight, you know, and so at the same time, he and Wilson, you know, even with Bishop McManus, you know, he'll come by and do dinners with us if we invite him or whatnot, yeah, you know, and it's and it's a more relaxed setting.

Rich 26:17

Yeah, and I'm not trying to be a jerk either. Like I get it. If you work at Amazon, you're not going to have a meeting with Jeff Bezos. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So just was curious about how, you know, it's like any other communication hierarchy. Exactly.

Jonathan 26:33

If the Pope is calling me, I'm probably gonna be very concerned. You know, I'm probably gonna be very concerned.

Rich 26:38

He's gonna call you one day. I call for him. I'm like 20 years, 30, 20 sooner, 10 years from now, he's gonna be calling because there's gonna be some type of United States like showcase, and they're gonna be like, oh, Jonathan, definitely. Slovitskis, show up!

Jonathan 26:53

You're up, Slavitskis!

Rich 26:55

Yep, and you're gonna have to you're gonna have to parade around the bookmobile and this used to be the sprinkler factory.

Jonathan 27:02

Oh my gosh, the sprinkler factory. They just throw that down, or they're tearing it down. Yeah, yeah. Did you still dance down there or no?

Rich 27:09

I know you did dance. They did dancing down there. I worked at Votary Media down there. Oh, did you? Yeah.

Jonathan 27:14

How did I know that?

Rich 27:16

So as yeah, as yeah, I used to dance, and like you, all my friends, you know, I was playing sports, and then I quit that and I started doing dance. I said, Oh, I'm doing dance now in theater. And they're like, What? Yeah, okay. And I'm like, no, I'm serious. Yeah. So I can relate to how I looked at you.

Jonathan 27:34

Stereotypes and stuff like that. You know, people have stereotypes and ah he's a priest how to touch kids, right? Yeah, no, no, that's not the reality at all.

Rich 27:40

Like, you know, like Or, like you said, you just go home and pray. But we gotta the audience, no, you didn't just we had fun. Oh my gosh. Uh where did you go to high school? North High. North High. So you were the only person who probably wanted to pursue. Yeah, political divorce, is that legal? And then in so probably around college, Anna Maria is when you first started to get other people who were interested in what you were interested in, right?

Jonathan 28:05

No, God no. Or was it you've had people before in college? I mean, I had my normal friends, they were like the soccer guys or whatnot, yeah. And they, I mean, they were phenomenal. It's still close with them, you know. Thank you, my friend.

Rich 28:20

Good thing I have nothing left less than stack. You were saying, wait, you had friends who played soccer and normal guys.

Jonathan 28:27

Everyone was normal, you know, we had normal friends.

Rich 28:28

But was your classes full with people who wanted to pursue seminary? No, no, no. Okay, no. It was like no, not at all. Oh, you so you took regular college classes?

Jonathan 28:37

I took regular college classes, psychology and stuff, some religious studies, and then after that, you know, I realized, yeah, I guess I'm being called, you know, and it's funny, I had to go for my first psychological interview. Um the day after graduation.

Rich 28:53

Was your parents like Jonathan? You can't go off on on a tangent to these people. They will flag you.

Jonathan 29:01

They flag I I we well We went to my buddy Winston's house in Swansea for a party um the next night after graduation. And so I was feeling it. You know, I did not want to drive back from Swansea that next day, and then have to get ready for this psychological meeting to like uh see if I was sane enough for the the priesthood, you know, and then I remember just one meeting determines that? No, no, multiple, multiple, multiple, and uh I remember I had to go to Oh gosh.

Rich 29:36

You would think they would just flag you in, like, oh, you want to do it? Come on in.

Jonathan 29:39

Oh god, no, especially after scandal and everything. Ew, no, no, you go through everything, right? And um Where was it at? Where the heck? Maybe St. Charles Borneo? Is that the church? No. Um down in um down in uh the village, Quincy Village there. There was a church there that's now closed. I forget the name. Um come to me. Father George Riddick, he was a psychologist, he was the one doing the um psychological exams at the time. And I remember going down for an industry. And first I got caught by all the kids coming out of school. And so I was running late, you know, sort of a little bit struggling. Kids are there, I'm like, What the heck? Get out of my way. Then I come across, as we're coming down further, the train tracks. And there's a train coming through. So now I'm just like, I want to blow this train up. You know, now I'm like, and I get there. Remember doing the psychological exam, you know, and it's like questions like, you know, makes me angry. And it's like trains make me angry, right? So then like, you know, I do all this stuff, and then like you know, we meet again. So he's like, I have just some questions about some of the uh and then you flip the paper over, and then all of a sudden I feel very calm right now. Because as I was flipping the paper over, there's a picture on the desk that says, Jesus, I trusted you. And so it just allowed me to stop a moment and reflect, you know. So he's like, Why do you hate trains? Like, where does this come from? And I was like, oh, because a train was blocking me to get here that day, da-da-da. He's like, oh my gosh, he said, I thought it was like a deep-seated rooted thing or something like that. I was like, oh no. Because then you would come and I explained it, and he's like, oh, okay, makes complete sense there. Um so you go through the exam and everything like that. You go through all that stuff in the psychological, and rightfully so, you want to make sure you're not getting crazy. I mean, you're getting crazy, but what level of crazy do you want? Yeah. Um so you know, so I mean you go through that whole process, and then uh the whole application process, and then you go from there, you know, and the bishop then puts you where he wants to send you, and seminary. So college and seminary, two very different worlds. And your seminary was at Anna Maria? No, my seminary was Mount St. Mary's Seminary and Emmett's burgundy.

Rich 31:55

I see, it has been more than 20 years since I don't remember you going to Maryland.

Jonathan 31:58

Yeah, I was in Maryland for six years. I was like 20 minutes south of or north of um or south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I was in the middle of nowhere. And I'm thinking to myself, what is growing? Oh, you know? And um, and again, us from Massachusetts, we're a bit different than um other areas. I guess we have a more colorful language. Um and I guess yeah, I know people get aren't accustomed to like that language down south.

Rich 32:30

Yes.

Jonathan 32:31

And so a lot of um the men in the seminary from like the south and the midwest and the good old boys, they say, you know, and I was a whole new, like, what is this? You know? Um, and so I had a lot of fun with that as well. You know, I was just unapologetically mean, you know.

Rich 32:51

And you're gonna get it done. And I can remember like everything.

Jonathan 32:54

I'm going back to Worcester. I'm not going back down to Savannah, Georgia. I'm not going out to Wichita, Kansas to be a priest. I've been called to be a priest here in the Diocese of Worcester. So, you know, I gotta keep that at the focus. Yes, there's things I need to change absolutely in the process. You know, I gotta grow with our good lord, and I gotta get out some of the become a bit more refined there, you know. Gold in the furnace there, you know, and uh, but it is what it is, you know. So that was, I mean, again, a great time in seminary, very also a good and normal time. Again, a lot of my friends in seminary. We were sort of like the we were a unique class that all came in together because we all just came out of college. Yeah. We were still in college mode, and we're like, okay, still let's say try to sneak the booze in here and there, you know, and like can we have fun? How much fun can we have? You know, we get in trouble. Um, you know, we weren't allowed to have alcohol in our rooms, but we had a bar on campus. But I um I never lied about what I did, you know. I had a rector who's um individual, he's a good man, but um I never lied to him, so C do sirens. And pray for the person that they might be going already here, you know. They get well. Um, but I'd come back from breaks, and you know like the big boxes that you get paper in, the big paper boxes from like WB Mason or something like that. I'd come back from breaks and I'd fill it with booze. And they put me on the fifth floor in the seminary because I was a big boy, and it was like their way of making me lose weight every day, you know, the elevator one went to floor two, then I had to take the steps the rest of the way. But I would go running up the stairs with my big box of booze, and you'd hear the clink clink, and the Monsina would come out, the rector of the seminary, and say, Jonathan, what's in the box? And I'd say, booze! Like, ha ha, aren't you funny? And I kept going. I never lied to him. But I did have the booze, and I I answered the question. Oh Jonathan, what's all the ice for? I'm making some genotonics? Aren't you funny? Okay. But there's also great times of prayer and holiness. I don't want everyone to think like, oh we had a lot of fun time.

Rich 35:06

Well, that's what's great about talking to you is because you're such such a real person. Yeah. And you haven't changed you know, you've changed, you've grown, but you're still the same person that I used to hang around with back in the day. The same person who hurt hurt his ankle at a party and had to be carried out of the woods.

Jonathan 35:27

Okay, that's the first thing I thought of. When you threw this at me, I was like, oh, it took me back to Keg Knight. Took me back to Keg Knight. The infamous Keg Knight of 2002. That had to be due because I graduated high school in 2002.

Rich 35:44

Everyone has had an infamous keg night. Well, maybe kids don't do that anymore. I don't think so. I don't think they do the keg night anymore.

Jonathan 35:50

Yeah, no, they're like, they're not going up to like Crow Hill or up behind uh St. Paul's High School now for more holy name, you know? Thing up by the um power lines. Oh Jesus. Yeah, so um that's and you know what?

Rich 36:03

No one got hurt. Everyone I twisted my ankle! You got you got the I got injured.

Jonathan 36:07

I was injured.

Rich 36:08

I was injured. But you were trying to break a branch to throw it on the bonfire, I think.

Jonathan 36:13

That's exactly what it was.

Rich 36:14

We had a bonfire, and I was trying to break a branch that was probably a log that could have break, and twisted my ankle, and then yeah, was for the format of the show, I actually want to do less reminiscing because the audience doesn't know about what happened, but you gotta mention that I did come home after that night. Uh speaking of uh smoke from the fire and beer from the keg, and my mom was right at the door, and she's like, Who were you with? And the first name that came to my mind, I don't know why, was oh Jonathan, because she knew he wanted to be a priest, so I thought she might be like, Oh, okay, because it's just a ch incense smell.

Jonathan 36:55

That's all it is, is incense smell.

Rich 36:57

Yeah, we were, yeah, we were at, you know. Anyways, and she made me get in the car and drive to his house. She was looking for him, she was gonna chew him out and yell at him for taking her son out. Uh, I think you it was a party I brought you guys to. Yeah, you brought us to the party. Yeah, I brought them to the party, but she assumed, you know, Jonathan's a year older. Yeah. He he's taking my son out to these parties and being, you know. But we drove by his house like 50 times, and then I said, I don't remember where it is. And that's it.

Jonathan 37:27

I remember just an old Fiona, the Fiona the Ford. Fiona the Ford, 1986 pickup. You know, we used to run around to that thing there. That was a lot of fun. And yeah, we went to that party and I remember twisting the ankle. I remember like being your mother calling, like looking, and like, oh my god, it was like scared as hell. It's like, oh my god, if she comes to my house and she like gets Danny, my father, the Lithuanian, the Polish and Lithuanian, we both would have been dead. We both would they would have killed us both.

Rich 37:57

Yeah, I was scrubbing uh stairs, three floors of stairs at the three-decker at 4 30 in the morning the next day. Because she's like, oh, you want to be hungover, you can clean. See?

Jonathan 38:08

Wow, those are the memories. Those those are the memories that came back when you talk about stuff like this. You know, I think about like being in Wood Off's bakery on the holidays, you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas, when they had all like, you know, all the orders for bulkies. And they would put the preacher, put the preacher on.

Rich 38:25

We should let the audience know too. We had full rain at Wood Offs Bakery. We could go in the back, pull orders, eat bulkies, eat pastry, order lunch, drink Heineken, smoke cigarettes, even though we didn't. Uh we kind of had free rain at that place and late night. We could go to the bars, drink, and then go back there and make snacks. It was insane. But also we would be put to work, yeah, yeah. Getting Christmas orders ready.

Jonathan 38:51

Like during college, I remember going back, you know, and like I'd I'd be in the uh the pre-order line, you know, when the first came in the door, they were right around the corner, and all the orders were messed up. We would give orders away left and right to different people that never had the orders. You know, and people just want their bulgies and they want to leave with their pies, blah blah. And so they put the preacher on, the kid wanted to be a priest, you know. Preacher, you're in charge, priest, you're in charge, you know.

Rich 39:12

No, you didn't work there. I didn't work the bulk! Showed up in the get behind the counter and start working.

Jonathan 39:18

We made a few bucks by the end of the day, you know, it was great. Took some good bulkies home.

Rich 39:22

R.I.P. with us bakery. Oh, R.I.P. Where are you getting your bulkies these days?

Jonathan 39:26

Bulkies.

Rich 39:27

What else?

Jonathan 39:28

Uh I'm trying to stay away from carbs nowadays, and I say that knowing that my trainer might see this, and so if he hears that I'm eating carbs, it might not be well for me. But I'm trying not to do um, whatever you do is working.

Rich 39:41

You look like a MMA fighter. That's we're going to a WWE wrestler who comes out like the undertaker. Boom! If this doesn't work out, WWE see you like coming in as like blessing the opponent before you just pummel him into the submission. Yeah, gosh.

Jonathan 40:00

I have my buddy um Kino Luna, he's a boxer here in the city, you know, a younger guy, and uh I started he started training me and whatnot, and so over this past year, like I'm down like 90 pounds now, and he just kicks my butt in my own gym. I feel like what the hell dude? I'm like, Can't we just like like work out, work out, like like lift weights? And he's like, No, he goes, Do you know what a suicide is? I was like, Went to a few calls, you know, and he's like, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're running in the gym. And I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm like, and he's always like, you know, knees to the elbows, knees to the elbows. I'm like, damn it, dude. I my stomach is in front of my knees, I can't get them up to my elbows. Relax, relax, relax. And then I was like, you know, why don't you go to church? You yell at me to get better, you go go to church, Kino, okay? You know? But he's great. He's a great boxer, he's a great kid, and he's, you know, great father. Um, his girl are beautiful together, great people, you know. So it's just a great it's great to get my uh butt kicked, you know.

Rich 40:55

How how does the gym work? Do you have open hours for the gym too?

Jonathan 40:59

Is it Yes, we have open hours for the um the gym for basketball for the youth and stuff after school. So they have uh, you know, they've been in school all day, they just want to get out, release their minds, and so boom, go in the gym, play a bit, and then we have uh the hours downstairs too for homework after school if they want to do homework or whatnot, yeah. But then we do have a weight room there, you know, and so uh we have structured classes with our trainers that um are they volunteers? Yeah, so like we have through the city we have a grant, um called through the Shannon grant it's called, and it's meant for monies to go towards um at-risk youth and whatnot there, you know. Um and so potentially driven youth, I like that better, you know. And so we are able to have uh uh staff and everything that work just with youth in regards to uh trainings in the gym and stuff like that, you know, and Kino does some boxing classes, we do cooking classes with his brother, we have um another guy that does the basketball training, so yeah, we have a lot going on.

Rich 41:57

You you use a different word for at-risk. That isn't a really nice thing to say at risk.

Jonathan 42:01

Well they have it like I'm like at risk.

Rich 42:03

I'm like what does that even mean? Potentially driven, you know, like at risk. I mean, like what's at risk? We're all at risk. Because everyone needs to meet someone in their life that inspires them to do something, you know? It's tough to listen to your parents, and maybe your parents aren't doing the right things, but even if they are, no one really listens to their parents anyways.

Jonathan 42:22

Hello, keg party.

Rich 42:23

Wow, yeah.

Jonathan 42:26

Yeah. It's potentially driven. Potentially driven. I don't want to say something like that, you know? But it's yeah, because it's just at risk, it's too stupid. I don't like that.

Rich 42:36

Why do you think like this area, why do you think it's so is a bigger deal to become a priest or ha why is church so much prolific in the south air rather than in the north?

Jonathan 42:47

I think it's a whole different way of life. Whole different way of living. Everything's slowed down a bit. We're very fast paced out of New England. They the coasts are very fast paced, you know. And so I think a lot of it too is um, you know, um people just strive for different things out here, you know. We want to live for the money, we want to live for these things that happens there. And I don't think we're we don't take the step back to see the beauty of what's around us. So like going out to split wood, a new grain tree on a farm. There's something beautiful to that. You know, and it's nice to get out there to see the beauty of that. At the same time, it's nice to get back to the city, right? What's a bit more crazier, you know? And so and I think a lot are just in survival mode at times up here. You know, I mean a lot of our youth are just in survival mode. Um, how are we gonna survive, you know? And we see that now. Families are struggling left and right, you know, and just trying to simply survive. You see, rent is going up left and right in the city there, an apartment that was twelve hundred a few years ago is now twenty six hundred, you know, and so we're losing good families that are being driven out to towns because they simply can't support it. We see a lot of social services being cut now um when it comes to administration, and so we see a greater need um for food pantries, and we're suffering ourselves because we're trying to get donations, but people are struggling themselves to make uh you know go a long way, so the donations are down as well, you know, and so yeah, it's just we I mean we're very driven different, I think.

Rich 44:21

So for me, okay, so church for me, right? My wife is interested. We have three children. We've heard from people who go to church that they really love the friends that their kids get at church. Yeah, they're similar-minded, they're generally more well behaved than say, like, their friends at school who don't go to church. Yeah. So my wife is very interested in pursuing some church in our area or something because she sees the value in it, and and then there's me who's like, maybe I'm too locked into the fast pace of the world where I'm just like, I just don't want to get away, like, get dressed, go dry like on a Sunday or a Saturday. Maybe it would be better for a Saturday than the Sunday, you know. I I don't know. I just like can't get myself. It's not that I'm religious or that I don't believe in a higher power. Uh maybe I'm selfish. Uh, what do you say to like me?

Jonathan 45:17

So it's not about being selfish. I think it comes down to being able to have you truly experienced the beauty of Christ, you know, and that's the question for me, like, right? Jesus invites us into community with one another. People say all the time, Well, I'm very spiritual. That's that's beautiful. What does that mean? I'm very spiritual as well, but I still go to church. You know? Um, Jesus doesn't say, okay, be by yourselves, go off and frolic in the fields and just find me in nature, right? You know, yes, we can see the working of God's love in nature. We see the beauty of God's creation all around. And so, yes, it is good to be able to get out there and experience those retreat-like moments. Jesus went off to the mountaintop alone many a times to be alone to follow the will of the Father. He goes into the mountaintop to have that experience with God that he needed to have. Again, Jesus, our Savior, comes back down and he invites us in community with one another. Community is important.

Rich 46:12

We need to be communal human beings. So, do you think becoming like recluse is like the devil's work? Because you're moving away from community, you're staying in your basement, you're staying very secluded to maybe just your family.

Jonathan 46:25

I think we when we become isolated, um, we're not able to see the true beauty of God's work. You know, again, at church, we become together, we listen to the word of God that was given to us, which is a love story. When we listen to scripture, it is God's love story for humanity, and we're part of that love story. We hear then the priest, perhaps it's another most dynamic homily or whatnot, there perhaps some of the most dynamic preaching now going on. We we start to come to understand and know why we go. And at the end of the day, for us Catholics, we go to receive Jesus, the living flesh of Jesus and the Eucharist. You know, not a sign and a symbol, but for us, it's his true presence, his body, his blood. So when a gummark and receive, okay, the body of Christ, amen. I believe that we get the strength that is needed, you know? And so it's not just about going through emotion, it's about going to see the one that wants to see you.

Rich 47:27

It's going to see the one that wants you to receive his accepting. Is accepting all his teachings and his way of uh living, and then in in a way accepting your community and trying to be better.

Jonathan 47:43

Well, we go to church to receive the Eucharist, which is the true presence of Jesus, which gives us the grace and strength that is needed to persevere. Jesus Himself has given us the sacraments, the seven sacraments he has given us so that we can experience his grace and his love in a very tangibly and real way as we join on this side. Baptism washes away our sin. We have nothing to do with original sin there, but allows us to enter into the life to become adopted sons and daughters of God. It allows that sin to be wiped away so we can become grafted on to the life of Christ on this side here. We move towards, you know, reconciliation, confession, acknowledging that we are weak human beings. People say, I could just go to Jesus myself and pray and say, Oh, I'm sorry. You can. My life would be a lot easier. Then I wouldn't have to go to confession myself as well. You know, I gotta go. But there's something, Jesus understands our humanity. There's something beautiful about being able to get on our knees and say, Father, forgive me if I have sinned. Not asking me, John, forgive me, but recognize that Jesus is working through the priest. No matter how sinful I am, Jesus is working through me, you know, and say, Father, forgive me if I have sinned. I messed up. This is what I've done. There's something beautiful about being able to acknowledge, vocalize what we've done. But then to hear the words, you are forgiven. Sin no more, no matter what sin it is. If you go in with a true contrition and you're truly sorry, to hear the words that are coming from Jesus, you are forgiven. Go and sin no more. Go and try to hide sin anymore. And then, you know, you move to that, to the Eucharist, you know, to get this true strength and grace that is needed.

Rich 49:22

So you think like if you don't put it out into the universe, it's not gonna resolve itself, you know? Like if you don't go to church and talk about some of your sins or acknowledge your community and just stay in your home and say, Oh, I'm spiritual, it's not gonna resolve because you're not putting it out there to the world. You're not um Today in the life of the church, we celebrate Saint Augusta.

Jonathan 49:45

He was a man who lived for the ways of the world. He was very distant from God, completely unbelievable, more agnostic, you know. And his mother, Saint Monica, was a woman of faith. And she prayed for her son's conversion each and every day. That he would come to know the authentic love of Jesus. You know, and he says beautifully, Augustine, my soul was restless until I found rest in you, my Lord. You know, my soul was restless until I found rest in you. We're living in a world in which we try to find rest in a variety of different ways. Every time I sin, I try to find rest in that way. But again, it's not until we come back to Jesus. For me, again, it's coming back to Jesus and knowing that everything is indeed going to be well. Because I can find rest in my God. Then Jesus goes after the one lost sheep to give him rest. To find him, to protect him, you know, and we've just got to find rest in our good God's eye. And all indeed, yeah. We don't have to have we don't have to figure it all out and feel and pretend we have all the answers there. But just to allow ourselves to surrender a bit more and more each and every day to that great love, it brings about a great change. And it all stems from the reality of knowing that we are loved. To know that we are truly loved by a God. To just ponder that God. You know, just like, damn, this is awesome. In the midst of the BS in which I'm living, in the midst of the BS of trying to take care of kids, trying to help a wife, doing all this other crazy stuff, trying to set up lights, set up cameras there, in the midst of uh being a teenager, not knowing, you know, how you're gonna get your papcha next to me out, you know, and being tempted by these ways in the world, in the midst of all this crazy crap, damn it. I'm actually truly loved. I've got to experience that, I'm gonna be shown that love too, you know?

Rich 51:40

Yeah. I I can relate to that because there's often times where I'm like, what should, you know, is my career right? Am I doing should I be doing this and that? And then, you know, I've even had a mentor in the past who was like, I think what you're searching for is Jesus. Yes, God. And I always just kind of like, am I? You know, and I still haven't found that yet. Yeah. But I always, you know, maybe that am I just prolonging prolonging it, and I could have had it all this time, or I don't know. I always explore that.

Jonathan 52:13

And there's, you know, and there's again, knowing that God is always waiting for us. Last Sunday, um, one of our young gentlemen is a young adult now in his twenties, and he's very you know, active in in the neighborhood here and whatnot here, and you know, a kid who's gone through a lot, you know, and there's a rarity of the struggles in which our young people live. And Sunday afternoon I was sitting um up here in my room, which oversees the church, and I uh saw him walking up the sidewalk, his backpack on, and saw him walk into the church. I was like, huh, what he's doing. And I just opened up the cameras, you know, to the on my floor to the church. I saw him walk down the aisle, you know, and he's he's not a Catholic, you know. Um experienced church, he's helped us at church, you know, and Jenny flected because he knows that you know we believe Christ is present in the Eucharist in the tabernacle, um and sat in the pew and knelt down and just was like there for like an hour, you know, and I ended up having to leave to go uh midfun at the bar. And uh, you know, and I'm leaving, and as I was leaving, he was actually walking out of the church, you know. Um gave him a holla, you know, and top, shot him a text message, like, hey, everything okay? He's like, Yeah, I just need a time with God. You know, that's a beautiful thing. And that's why I leave the church doors open.

Rich 53:37

Why do you think so many people go to spend time with God when it's a negative? Versus like, what if they you're having a great day? You never hear people saying, I've had such a beautiful week, I wanted to come spend an hour with God because it was great. It's usually are people seeking God.

Jonathan 53:51

In time of need, we look to the source of great hope, and you know, it's Jesus is our hope, you know, God is our true hope, you know. And so when people are deeply struggling, it's gonna be natural for them to turn towards God here. But at the same time, though, like I I see the saints that are sitting in the pews of church, you know, the future saints that are sitting there, and I have people that are coming in and they are just simply there to give praise and worship to Jesus. They're coming in in the midst of the crap of their lives. They are happy with Jesus and so they are there just having a good time, you know, and you see the joy on their faces just being present to Jesus. And then, you know, we have people in the community that, you know, help around the power share, watering the flowers because they want, you know, the place to thrive, to ensure the place is alive, you know, and they want to like just give service to Jesus. They want to give service to God, back to God, you know. Okay, God has blessed me in many ways. I have absolutely nothing, perhaps, but God is still blessing me. So how can I now give that blessing back?

Rich 54:46

I'm watching too many movies. You know, everyone's sad they go to church, but people are happy at church.

Jonathan 54:50

Yeah, people are indeed happy. You know, people are when I look out at my Sunday morning mass at 9 o'clock, I see the beautiful diversity of the parish, you know, and it just brings me great joy, you know.

Rich 55:02

Even amidst the struggling, people are still there. What did you think of that movie that came out recently? Uh it was based on the church. Which one? Which one? Which one? Not the bad ones, the good. It was uh about a new Pope being. Oh conclave. Conclave. Conclave. Uh accurate, not accurate, loved it, didn't love it. I've I've never been in the Comiclave, so I don't know how accurate it is.

Jonathan 55:23

But I would not say, I mean, Hollywood is Hollywood, you know. I'm sure there's a lot of like, you know. Yeah, like understanding, okay, guys are going in and it's gonna, you know, people are more familiar with other ones there, and there might be a vibe. Do we want to be more you know, if you want to say left side, right side, traditional, you know. I mean, I'm sure that stuff probably does exist in the real we know that exists in the real world. The um but a movie's a movie at the end of the day. Okay. You know, I mean it's it's meant to just the the oh, you know.

Rich 55:52

Another uh culture, what what did you think of maybe you're not familiar with it, but Joyner Lucas's dirty uh dirty work where he filmed a music video in the church. Did do you like that song?

Jonathan 56:02

Do you think it has a good message or um So I remember that all took place there, you know, of course. That was uh That was filmed in Worcester?

Rich 56:09

That was uh what's in a church.

Jonathan 56:11

Yeah, St. Peter's there in uh Main Street there he had uh I don't think they really knew what it was all about there. Uh Jonah Lucas is you know, he's a phenomenal artist. He's a phenomenal artist. Great storyteller. You know, he is he he does it well. I can listen to his stuff there, he and he's so good to the community, giving back to the city of Worcester, you know. He recognizes this is indeed his home, you know. And so I think he got a lot of flack, I think the church got a lot of flack at the end of the day. It is what it is at this moment. Yeah, we move on from it there. You know, he's a phenomenal storyteller, and I think he gets a good message out too at times, you know. And again, I love what he does for our community. You can't knock what he's doing for the city of Worcester, you know, and he he tries to put us on the map all the time, and he just had his um uh honorary street naming, you know, uh a few weeks ago, and he had a a massive block party, which is awesome, you know. A few weeks before that, with the record rap, he was behind City Hall, you know. Um, and it's just so it's great, you know, and I think it's also um good for a lot of uh young people to be like, you know what? If he made it, I could do it too, you know, and I think I think that's good. You know, I think that's a good thing there. You know, it's it's good to see him out and about supporting local restaurants, I see him out and about, you know, because it's great.

Rich 57:21

I remember seeing his vans driving around in like 2010. Yeah. I'd be like, oh, Jonah Lucas, joining Lucas. I didn't know who he was, but I was like, his van's everywhere. Yeah. You know, you know, yeah. I like his story too, because it shows that if you stay true to yourself, yeah, you're talented and you just work at your craft, big things can happen. It doesn't matter where you start.

Jonathan 57:39

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, you know, and he's and again I appreciate the way he gets back.

Rich 57:45

You know, he's he sees Oh not dirty work, devil's work, dirty work.

Jonathan 57:50

Yeah, when you said dirty work, I was like, what the hell is it? Dirty work.

Rich 57:52

That's like a an 80s movie. Dirty work, is it? No, I don't know. Um Dirty Dancing.

Jonathan 57:59

Dirty Dancing. You should know the the dancer.

Rich 58:02

Yeah.

Jonathan 58:02

And I only know that because I was just watching a TV show the other day where Dirty Dancing um a couple once you go see the movie Dirty Dancing. Um Hightown, have you ever seen that in the TV show Hightown? It's on Netflix, takes place like in P Town and drugs and stuff like that. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love P Town. Yeah, so it's I mean, so yeah, watch the watch. Look at that, you know.

Rich 58:26

Um, yeah, I was just put onto that show. And the gay man love me in P Town when they dress me. I like their the flame. Yeah, I go in and I'm like, I I got my suit for my wedding there too, and like a nice shirt, like a floor shirt. Oh that yeah, they hooked me up. They and it was just like perfect for my wedding, but yeah, I get these random shirts, you know, like a people now we have um you have the boobagem or stuff?

Jonathan 58:54

No. You gotta try the boobagle out. Absolutely insane.

Rich 58:57

Fun plus, you know, it's uh thing on the I'm out of the I don't know anything.

Jonathan 59:01

Yeah, no, yeah, John and um Nate own it with some good friends in the couch as well. But it's uh it's a great place, a lot of great craft cocktails and stuff like that, you know, but it's a very a crazy group of individuals there. You get everything from everything and everything, you know, it's just a it's a fun time, you know, it's a good food, good place there, you know. That's a yeah. Good spot. I like my trees by the street, you know. I like to try to go where I am um which is I try to go to restaurants and places in my cabbage territory, and so I have a lot of good streets in my college territory. Just a little. Just a little. Can you hook me up with a little ice? Absolutely. Look at that. I could turn water into ice if I put it in my freezer. Smell good? Absolutely. We don't put any water. You can't put my hands? No, I don't care. It is what it is. Exactly. Like a water! Thank you.

Rich 1:00:00

Are you kidding? I can do this all day. I don't want to do it once a week. I'm just gonna leave this stuff here so I'm not gonna set it up. Absolutely.

Jonathan 1:00:06

Come on by, you know?

Rich 1:00:07

Give me a whistler. Set this up. Yeah. Make this happen every week.

Jonathan 1:00:10

Boom, let's go. Get some good sponsors there, you know. We're gonna get some good sponsors there. I like it. So we're gonna do it. That's what you're gonna do. Like film a different restaurant. Have them sponsored, film a different restaurant. You know? Look at people different places. Bas what not.

Rich 1:00:28

Yeah, I mean, the original idea was 20-year time out to start talking to people I missed because it was like, oh, I miss these people. I want to see what they're up to. But I think it turned into like who are the people in not my life, in your life, the audience. Who are the people that affected you in life? And do you you know isn't it great to reach out? So with Facebook and stuff, it's easy to find people. Yeah. But there has, and this is how this idea originated. There's people in my past, from like kindergarten to sixth grade, that I wonder where they are, and I look them up and I cannot find them. Really? That's what started this because I'm like, I would love to know where this kid went. Because he there's you know, taking the city bus from St. Mary's to my house, and there's people who rode the bus with us, and I and it's like they were characters. And where are they now? Like I can't even fathom what they've become. Yeah. Maybe nothing, maybe something amazing. Probably something amazing. Everyone becomes something. Everyone becomes something.

Jonathan 1:01:27

You know, and monetary value doesn't make you something. You know, the big house doesn't make you anything at all.

Rich 1:01:32

Yeah.

Jonathan 1:01:33

You know? Like I have this big rectory here. I spend my time in one room typically. You know? I could probably be very content living in a one-room apartment. You know. And maybe that's because my mother has so much crap around the house sometimes. Just kidding, Mama. I love you greatly. She she kicked me out of the house the other day, officially, I decided. I saw that.

Rich 1:01:53

Yeah. You had one t-shirt left or something.

Jonathan 1:01:54

Like I had like a bag of clothes left. I don't know what happened. I think I had more stuff there, but she, you know, niece and nephews come in the picture and all of a sudden, boom. Take your last bag. I need I need room for their clothes and stuff. I was like, you have three other rooms in that house, Debbie. Like. So it's funny, I actually just been like, I got a text this morning. Um let's see. Uh da da da da da da. Where we at? So this morning at this text. You know how people randomly text you. Like you have to get you number smile. Hey, this is Hannah. I know this text is out of the blue, but would you ever consider an offer on 16 Havillard Street where my parents live? Today I want to respond, absolutely! Sell the house after I just got kicked out, you know?

Rich 1:02:36

I heard they're looking to sell the house. Oh, absolutely. They'll be knocking on our door, emailing people.

Jonathan 1:02:40

Oh my gosh. Yeah, text my father every day. See how that goes, you know, give him a call, you know? But you know those spam stuff, you know. And but after after the incident the other day and what I'm saying.

Rich 1:02:50

I just did that to you. I like texted you out of the blue, like, hey, you want to do a podcast? Sure, why not?

Jonathan 1:02:54

Could I drink during it, I said? Hmm? Could I drink during it?

Rich 1:02:57

Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna have to take you for a big bowl of faux, sober up a little bit to get the rest of the day going.

Jonathan 1:03:04

No, this is good. This is gonna start today. This is gonna be great.

Rich 1:03:07

This is gonna be great. I don't drink a lot anymore, actually. Good. Well, I never drink a lot anyways, but I'm just saying, like, this is my my polar sodas. I like plain usually. I went coconut limeade is okay. Coconut? But I usually go plain. Good thing I did not eat this because I don't know. So like everyone's cracking a beer at a party, and I'm like, oh, I got my salts of water. I gotta have energy for the kids.

Jonathan 1:03:31

Yeah, I gotta try to cut back on it all. You know, a few years back I went eight months no drinking just to upset my friend, because you know, he's always like, Oh, have a drink, have a drink, have a drink, have a drink. I'm like, I'm gonna upset him. So it became a game for me. And then uh at the Easter vigil after Easter, him and my brother and my brother-in-law were all up here, and he's like, That's it, you need to have a drink, you know. I'm gonna hold you down, you guys pour it down his top, you know, and I'm like, oh gosh. I said to him, Whatever happens next is all on you. Or whatever mess of anything, it's all on you, you know. Um, but it is, I mean, it becomes too easy.

Rich 1:04:04

I feel for people who have a problem with uh addiction, cigarettes, yeah, alcohol, you know, it could be sugar, it could be anything. Oh, anything to do, it is overeating. Mm-hmm. Classic me, overeater. You know, obviously I have a quick metabolism, so I can handle it, but uh for me, it there's no I tried the Zinn poaches because I was like, let me see. They say they're addictive. I want to see if I that's so stupid to say. Let me see if I get addicted.

Jonathan 1:04:31

Let me see if I get addicted, yeah. Let's work as that. See if you get addicted. You know, like what the hell?

Rich 1:04:35

I think I would think anyone would actually I don't know. I'm not gonna I'm gonna do that experiment.

Jonathan 1:04:41

Jesus, Miran Joseph, here we are. Gosh. This is not gonna be the next podcast. What do we get addicted on? Get addicted on the buttons. On Christ, get addicted on the buttons. No, addictionism and it's a very real pain that so many people go through.

Rich 1:04:55

Yeah, so it affects so much. My thought, and I I totally disrailed my thought, but things like uh yeah, having a couple of drinks once in a while, I think it like opens your thought and your pro and I was gonna segue into since marijuana is legal, are priests allowed to smoke or do they technically uh they don't do it because they're occupation?

Jonathan 1:05:18

No, I think the reality is um anything you use anything as an escape becomes a negative thing. You know, I could use this as an escape, and I have, you know, and that's not a good thing. That's when it becomes sinful, right? You know? Um and I I do oppose, you know, sort of uh pot use for for young kids and stuff like that. Like I don't think that's healthy for brain development.

Rich 1:05:42

I oppose it for young kids, I oppose all the dispensaries. Um I'm the minority, I don't think it's a good thing for the community.

Jonathan 1:05:48

And so, like, I think the reality is, you know, again, whenever we try to just I think that there's ways in which we could settle down a bit, and I think authentically for me, again, finding Jesus allows us to settle down. And I say that obviously, no, when people like, ah, he's a hypocrite. I see him drinking his Johnny Black hair there and everywhere. Yeah, I do drink my Johnny Black hair there and everywhere. I'm not proud of it. You know, I'm not proud that I could walk into a bar and uh my sister just um You should be, why not?

Rich 1:06:14

It's okay to have a drink, you know, unless it's a problem.

Jonathan 1:06:17

Well, I'm still drinking a lot.

Rich 1:06:20

But are you drinking a lot and then not fulfilling your duties?

Jonathan 1:06:23

No, I was not fully doing it. Yeah, but at the same time, like it's it's not smart, you know, it's not healthy, you know? It's just moderation. Exactly. And I don't live in moderation at times. It's extremes. A to Z. You know? Zero to 60, boom, let's go. You know, and like and you know, so like, I mean, yeah, I enjoy it, but I think, you know, it's just gonna cut back on it.

Rich 1:06:46

Well, okay, so the marijuana thing. I look I don't I haven't smoked in ten over ten years, probably. But I look at it as like a spiritual journey. Like I will att I will once in a while eat a gummy, or I always say to my wife, like, oh, we should, you know, have a a yearly ritual where we because I think it really makes you look at yourself from the outside in, versus like it it kind of almost reduces your confidence in a way. That's what I'm saying.

Jonathan 1:07:16

So why can't you just do that? Why can't you just shut your mind down and get away? Like these are like this is the beauty of like doing a retreat, like a three-day retreat or something, detaching from all the media of the world, going on a retreat, and just like being present, like you know, there's a lot of different types of retreats that exist now, but like you know, like I mean there's a lot of great Catholic retreat centers. So just for me, like again, be present. The church in its wisdom tell its priests once a year you have to do a retreat. You gotta detach and get away you because you you if you are crap, your people are crap. You know, and so you gotta get away and detach from it all. You gotta get away and reattach yourself to the heart of Jesus, you know, so you're not just screwing up left and right there, you know.

Rich 1:08:08

Yeah, and yeah, for me, I feel like marijuana is such a powerful, potent uh substance. I don't think it should be a daily use thing. Because when I have partaken in the past, it's really made me look at myself. Yeah. And not and be honest with myself. Yeah. I mean, I haven't in so long. Yeah. But yeah, that's what's scary to me about the youth, like the way they market it and the way the youth like looks at it as like, oh, it's the most fun, uh, it's it's uh a party every time, but I think it's not. I think there's some depression issues, psychological and strength.

Jonathan 1:08:48

Especially for the for the young people, absolutely, you know, and uh again, we all have a past, you know, we all have present and future, you know, and so just like I think the greater thing that scares me now right now in the city is all the vaping going on. Like all the like all these kids who are vaping left and right. Yeah, it's just like it's like what the hell? You know, and I think this is where like as a city in the community, we gotta get beyond end like why do I like why is every freaking store selling all these vapes and marketing towards the kids, right? We had a big marketing thing, you know what, they came against all the cigarettes, you can't market towards kids like that. Like vaping is out there left and right, you know, like it's just like what are we doing to our youth, our young kids, like young people get involved, 12 years old, 11 years old, 10 years vaping. Come on, knock that crap off.

Rich 1:09:31

And I I think we got in a uh compulsive issue like where we take something like a donut and we like it, so we just want it all the time, all the time, all the time, all the time. As I'm drinking. You don't drink a lot, do you though? Like what? Like uh do you drink a one a day, two a day? No, it depends on me. Is it a social thing? Is it a celebratory thing? Like, oh, I've accomplished something, I'm gonna go ahead and do that.

Jonathan 1:09:56

No, so like I have a lot of people, so give them a bit like so like I have a lot of different people and a lot of different friends that like to go out, right? And so at the end of the day, whatnot, you know, it's easy to go out. Politicians and big people. Oh, they're all different, all different people, all different people, you know. Just because they have a title or something does not make them big people, you know. Um but at the same time, too. I mean, it's easy for us to again turn towards this when the day's gonna crack. And I've had I have those kind of days. I do a lot of hospital industry, a lot of hospital clouds, you know. And so it's easy just to be like, you know what? I just can't wait for the day to end to have a job. You know? Yeah, because I mean especially in my world as a child, you know, I see a lot of crazy crap. You know, a lot of crazy crap. Um, and it becomes an easy escape, you know.

Rich 1:10:46

Um is depression a challenge within the church?

Jonathan 1:10:50

I don't think it's uh not necessarily depression, I think it's with anyone you see enough negative things, you build a wall up. You build a wall up around your church because you don't wanna deal with that happen. So it's not about being depressed, it's about not wanting to deal with that. So it is easy to have it is easier than to fall to different sentiments. It's like, you know what? This is not I gotta be honest with myself, you know. I'm gonna be like, okay, I've gotta talk to my people too that I talk to. You know, and that give me uh the strength and the um motivation and the um tools to move on, you know. Um I do a lot of critical incident stress management myself, you know, um offices, um debriefings and stuff like that, with like police officers, fire officials, officers, firefighters, um AMT nurses and whatnot. I mean these individuals uh first responders, nurses, students, they see things that no human should have to ever experience or see in their life. You know, and so that's gonna have an effect on the very psyche of an individual. It's easy to fall towards negative things to deal with, you know. Um you know, we had a young boy the other day, you know, in a driving situation. It's not an easy thing for anyone to deal with. Um and that is a kick in the gut. That is a kick in the gut, you know. I mean, one of my worst days as a priest, you know. Um you know, uh it was uh Father's Day. I had to get called out to inform Father that his son had died tragically. You know, then that morning I'm up doing mass for Father's Day, blessing Father's after that whole incident, you know, and baptisms I'm doing. And long day, I had my five o'clock mass, and I just wanted, I said to myself, I can't wait for this mass to end. So I could just I try to see my father to the process, you know, Father's Day, just go back, sit down, and just have a jolly, just experience a sense of peace. During that mass, my phone was blowing up from a town police department in the room. I was a chap in here at Worcester, and they needed a priest for uh a young girl that could make a sweet second. And the the parent had warned me to bless before they took my thought this is not you know um and so they were like very trying days like that, you know. Um but also to recognize and know that in the midst of those greatest pains that people are experiencing it to be a presence of peace, you know, and and God is still working in the midst of the smugness of my life and mushroom, you know, and Jesus still works through me, you know. Um when you oh sorry to cut you off.

Rich 1:14:02

When you do mass, right, and you've had a day like that, how do you approach it to do you try to stay on script or do you go off? Do you are you preaching what you've done that day?

Jonathan 1:14:14

Yeah, so the beauty of the mass is, you know, you can walk into any Catholic church in the world, and the readings that are going to be done here in St. Clement's is the readings that are gonna be done at St. Peter's Basilica in the world.

Rich 1:14:25

Wait, the same reading is done throughout all the Catholic church in the world.

Jonathan 1:14:29

Oh, it is a structured thing, you know. So you you have the beginning, you have the readings, you know, you begin, um, you you know, you you have the introductory rites, you go into the reading of the word, you know, you move from reading the word to the liturgy of the Eucharist, the liturgy of the word to the liturgy of the Eucharist, you know. And so everything is gonna be the same. So no matter what language it is, you know what the heck is going on. You know when Jesus is present, you know, oh the bell's ringing now, okay, Jesus is here. You know, you don't have to understand what the priest is saying. You know what the priest is saying, you know, you've been to it, you know, and so there's a beauty to that. Now the priest's message, after he reads the gospel, is gonna change a bit. Typically, he's gonna open the word and see how perhaps it's speaking to the community, you know, um, and and where we're at. So the way I preach here is very different than the way I'm gonna be preaching someplace else.

Rich 1:15:21

I heard a beep, so I get nervous. Okay. I think we're good. Oh, yeah, we're golden. We're golden.

Jonathan 1:15:29

We're going. You could just click that out, not even make it look like you got out.

Rich 1:15:32

I'll keep it in. Keep it in, I love it. I don't care. I love it.

Jonathan 1:15:35

I love it. Yeah. And that's the beauty, you know. So, yeah, my message is going to change. Um, and it's gonna, you know, I mean, because our life experiences change. But this is the beauty of like, again, being a pastor of a community allows you to know the people entrusted to your care. It allows you to know and become familiar with their strength, their weaknesses, their joys, the happiness, the the pains, the suffering, you know, and so you can begin to speak to people say to me often, what you said, you know, it just was like you were speaking to me. I was like, hell, I was speaking to myself. I was preaching to myself. I know what I was saying. Jesus was talking to me, you know, like I needed to hear that message.

Rich 1:16:24

So do you like have a cadence you you follow, or do you just go off the cuff? Do you it depends.

Jonathan 1:16:30

So, like, you know, so typically on Mondays, I you know, I'll start to look at, you know, at the beginning of the week, I start to look at the readings for the upcoming Sundays, you know, and just like ponder and look at well, okay, how's Jesus speaking to me? Um and then Do you curse in the church? No.

Rich 1:16:46

No.

Jonathan 1:16:47

God, no, there's kids in the church.

Rich 1:16:48

We'll never curse together. Yeah, curse at children, okay. That's that's me being stupid. Alright, move on, cut that out.

Jonathan 1:16:54

No. I mean, no, not while I'm preaching under a mass or whatnot. You know, it's I'm being a jerk. I know, trust me. Listen. It's almost the syllabus on my mind. It's still a cinema. You know? But um, no, I I don't think I've sworn in. I don't think so. Maybe once I might have slipped and said something. I don't know. Just kidding, Bishop.

Rich 1:17:26

Yeah. Well, it's like you also gotta let your servers know, like, I'm taken. You know what I mean? I'm I'm uh what do you say? You're you're married to to God, or you know. No, that'd be word. You know, I'm living my life with Christ. Living the life of Christ. So it's like, I know you think I'm beautiful and charming, but listen, I'm gonna give you a good tip, but I'm taken. I'm taken, taken.

Jonathan 1:17:51

I love Jesus. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry, you know, and I mean again, like you know, I mean it's funny, you know, people people are great, people are very supportive, you know, and especially just being on a stupid health journey. Not stupid health, but it's good a health journey. Um, people are very encouraging, you know, and so it's it's great.

Rich 1:18:08

Uh did you ever have like back pain or anything? And then now you're God, yes. Okay.

Jonathan 1:18:12

Oh god.

Rich 1:18:13

Are you everything? I just thought you were like this athletic big guy, you never had pain.

Jonathan 1:18:18

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I a few about two years ago, a year ago, I was putting laundry for the washer, the dryer, and like I sneezed or something, and I pulled my back. And it was a bad pull. And my bed is high because everyone is in this new bed, like you know, you could just use the mattress you don't need the box spring. But I had the box spring, it's a queen-sized box frame, so like we got it up here by like hoisting it up here because it wouldn't fit up the staircase. So I'm not like cutting up to throw it down again. So like I like it's like 10 feet to get into my bed. So like I'm using like I have my uh stool, but you know, get in the you know, in my uh stepping stool, you know, to get on. And I'm calling my bro, brother and my good friend, uh, my brother Chris and my buddy Micah, and I'm just like laying in bed in pain, and I'm like, we gotta do extraction, you know, I was like, wrap the belt around my leg and paw, you know, and they're like, what the hell has happened to our lives, you know? I was like, Paul! I'm like, well, yeah, so I had back pain and stuff like back issues and stuff like that. And the reality is, you know, I don't want, you know, I gotta be healthy. At the end of the day, I gotta be healthy for my people, you know. Um, and I want to be around, you know, I want to be around for my nieces and nephews. Um, you know, and in hospital ministry I see far too many young people um, you know, passing on way too early, you know, and and I I see a lot of brokenness with that, you know, and I don't we live in a scary time, in a scary world right now, you know, and people have medical issues, you know, that just come upon them. I said, why is this happening, you know? And I and I I want to be as healthy as I possibly can. And at the end of the day, like too, like, you walked up these stairs. Three flights up. Can you imagine finding my body on a bed? As a, you know, and then they have to carry my body down three flights of stairs over. Just throw me over, guys. Hoist me down. Like the uh or the in the gospel, you know, the four friends that brought the papaletic and they hoisted him down the roof there. Just bring me down.

Rich 1:20:19

I don't know that one.

Jonathan 1:20:20

Send me off and get me to Jesus. Do an ice mass for me.

Rich 1:20:26

Well, I at times I feel disconnected living far out and worn because all the people I know are here. Yeah. And it's, you know, working out as a challenge. It's usually a lonely endeavor running in my neighborhood, or you know, it would be nice if I was closer to go to the, you know, join you for something or you know.

Jonathan 1:20:47

Yeah, no, I I so I belong to um Anytime Fitness 2. And so I uh go there at times and use the treadmill and stuff there. Um try to do more walking in the morning, go up Burncoach Street, down by uh You had a lovely hill for walking hills here. I know. I like my downtown walk too, going downtown, walking around downtown, coming back up. Um then again working out at the gym.

Rich 1:21:12

You do you have to wear uh pre garb all the time? No, no. Yeah, I see you in casual. Yes, all the time. Yeah, yeah.

Jonathan 1:21:20

I'm only wearing this and I'm wearing the long black one today, the cassock, just because I got the shorts on underneath. Yeah. My regular gym shorts.

Rich 1:21:26

Yeah, well I know, it looks good for the video.

Jonathan 1:21:28

It does look good for the video too. We can cut that part out, you know. Like it looks I look very hold on. Uh but you know it's great because I keep this with me at times, so like if I'm on call for different stuff, it's just easier to throw on. Yeah. I just I have my long socks in the car, my shoes. Throw this on.

Rich 1:21:43

Um for the y for the audience too, Jonathan has an amazing collection of sneakers over there. He's got Yeezys, Air Force Ones. Uh I mean quite a collection of sneakers over there.

Jonathan 1:21:57

The balance is there. And that's only because um I have uh my buddies who are big in the shoes and stuff like that, and they you throw into shoes like that. So they would convince me to get the, you know, like I found the conflict, da-da-da. And so you're gonna build the street cred around here at times, and so yeah, I I throw them on. Maybe you should start vaping. No. No, thank you. No, thank you. But I love you know what I love? I can't wait for the fall to throw the jeans on with the cowboy boots. I love that. Just throw the jeans on, cowboy boots. Something about that. Boom. It reminds me of because I like to so I've been my father's Lithuanian. Um, you know, obviously born and raised here. My you know, his parents were born and raised here. But uh when I was in seminary, I went to Lithuania, you know, it's in the Eastern European country. Both sides of West Virginia. And um a lot of cobblestone and stuff like that. A country that went through great persecution under communism and everything like that, yeah. And and the story of the people's faith is a beautiful, beautiful story. But I've been there about three or four times, um and I love going in October, like a brisk October night, the streets of Vilnius, cobblestone, wearing my boots, walking down the street. Just something about it I just love. Or like going out to Lanka on the sea coasts in Lithuania, the Baltic Sea, and just like walking out. There's a big um boardwalk out there. You go into the sea, which scares the hell out of me, right? Because you're walking out, it becomes like an L-shaped boardwalk, and you're like, God, this all collapsed, I'm screwed. You know, I've been ready big I better be ready to see Jesus. But like being out there and that coldness, the wind hits you, it's just like I love it. It's just such an alive. Do you travel a lot? I try to, you know, like I try to travel. Um I try to take time off more, um, just because I'm like my parents, I'm more like homebody, I enjoy being around. Um but I have been to Scotland. Um right after I became a cruiser went to Scotland with my good friend Father Chad from a Chita. That was a great, great time out there. I don't need to go back. Um I've been to France, you know, before and it's it's okay. I could live without. Uh Portugal. It was a beautiful spot to go to Portugal. I went to a wedding out there, so that's where I went to Portugal. Um, Italy, my cousin got married out in Italy, Monteputriano area, so I've been to Italy, a CC and stuff like that. I loved that. I'll go back again.

Rich 1:24:32

Um Thailand, Vietnam, and the Asian countries.

Jonathan 1:24:36

Puerto Rico, you know. I love uh I got to go to Puerto Rico. I did a wedding out in Porto Rico years ago for um when I was in Southbridge. I had members of the youth uh group there. They ended up getting uh fall in love getting married um when I first came here. So I went out there to do the wedding, and it was uh in Urukovi, it was a beautiful area in the mountains, middle of nowhere, and that was a fun time. Um to book Jonathan for your weddings. There you go, book me for the weddings.

Rich 1:25:03

Message me, I'll give you pricing and uh video pricing, and it's all they have all these um trips, you know, like these church trips they do, you know, and stuff like that.

Jonathan 1:25:11

Companies reach out to you, hey Diana do a trip here, da da da. And I'm like, yeah, I I would be into it, but like what is it in TL? Like I don't want to be the one stuck like pushing granny in a wheelchair the whole time, like because I'm the priestly way to be kind one. I love Granny's okay. You know, but like a group trip where Yeah, yeah. So like as you know, I could like you know do those group trips and they you know get a good deal for the priest leading it. So I have um a company they um I'm gonna be planning one in uh we're planning two actually, two different areas there. I forget one is like oh gosh, I forget where one is going. It's more like Eastern European, and another one's six months later in uh Italy and stuff like that.

Rich 1:26:00

And so have you been to the church in Spain, the Last Emilia?

Jonathan 1:26:04

I don't know, no, no, I want to go search with the Holy Family. That's one place I w I gotta get to Spain. I've not been to Spain yet. I want to get to Spain. Um and I have portioners from Colombia, and they uh in August, next August coming up, they're going down, and they're like, you have to come with us this time. It's awe inspiring. I wanna I was supposed to go two years ago, but my father was very sick with cancer, um, so didn't go. Um and so now I'm like, yeah, I'll go. So I'm gonna go to Colombia in August. That's the plan.

Rich 1:26:36

Yeah. What do you th what do you think? Uh what's the future hold? What do you think you're gonna be doing? So what's the future hold? One day at a time. Do you do you stay here? Do you grow? Do you wanna you know is it not your decision?

Jonathan 1:26:53

No, so the bishop is the one who decides where we go at the end of the day. And so we have parish assignments for set terms. So, um, yeah, I had my first six years, then again react for another six years, you know, as a pastor here. Um everything can change with the new bishop. Um, but also we know that we're gonna be going into through um we're gonna go through some uh not consolidation um of churches, but more looking to see how it is a reality. More priests are gonna be retiring in the next few years, and we don't have as many priests to fulfill all the spots. So it's gonna involve, I think, priests taking over multiple parishes. And so I would guess that I would be taking over more parishes as well as the parish online, you know, um, in the future. You know, I don't think it's just gonna be, okay, you have one parish now.

Rich 1:27:52

I might have two parishes, I might have three parishes there. And that means you have to do the masses or you'll help orchestrate like within the No, I'd be the one running the parish, you know.

Jonathan 1:28:01

So I mean we don't have all the priests coming in. So like how do we have a mass schedule for three different sites? You know, how do we have one pastoral team? You know, and look at the realities of the church of the future, you know? How do we strengthen and build a good strong community for what is to come, you know, and and how to make the love of Jesus known with with what we've got. You know, I mean again the church is not just a structure. These are coming down. You know, the structures are coming down. Um we have to build for the future in a very authentic and real way. So um I'm happy where I'm at right now. You know, right now again, I'm Pastor Harrod Allen in Providence at St. Bernard's. I'm the chaplain for the police department, the fire department. I sit on the Human Rights Commission for the city of Worcester, you know, and so that's a three year appointment. So I think I'm gonna be um in Worcester for a while.

Rich 1:28:50

You know, can a priest speak on a mayor?

Jonathan 1:28:52

No, no, no, public office. No. Oh, because you can't mix that? No, we can't take a formal public office. Can't I think church law states it, you know, if you did you'd have to leave the priesthood. No, I don't I wouldn't I wouldn't want to be in politics like that. You know, when I say the influence I have, um people look, you know, and and have a respect because I think at the end of the day they know that I'm there for them. You know, and so the influence is very different than a political leader. Um, you know, because they know that I'm at the end of the day Jesus driven. You know, you gotta be Jesus driven.

Rich 1:29:38

Do you wanna do like a an ending blessing for the city or say like some last words?

Jonathan 1:29:44

Yeah, you know, I think that's great. I think there's a lot of pain in the world. Um you know, as we you know, record this just yesterday, we see the horrific uh actions that took place in Minneapolis there, you know, and to see the loss of life um that took place during a Catholic Church service is there's a lot of pain in this world, there's a lot of struggling people in this world, there's a lot of struggling people in our community, you know, and I think at the end of the day, we have to be able to look at others in the way in which Jesus looks at us. He knows our sinfulness, he knows our pains, he knows our joys. Um, and so we have to look to see the way in which we are being invited by that higher power to be his presence and goodness in a very gentle way to others. And so I would encourage people when you do see people struggling to be present to them. Maybe it is, you know, biting your tongue a bit there when it's easier to yell out the car window at another driver because you never know what somebody else is going through. You know, maybe it's easier to hand a granola bar to the person on the street corner who is looking for some money there just to show them a gesture of love. Instead of getting money, handing them a bottle of water, handing them granola bar, something like that. Maybe it is reaching out to a family member that has gone through a lot or you have disconnected with because of a pain and saying, you know what? Let's put it past us. You know, and so at the end of the day, we live in a very beautiful community. Um, and we are called to be there present to one another, and what you're doing, which is a beautiful thing because it allows us to connect again. You know, I mean, as we're talking now, we've connected again. And so perhaps people who are watching can say, damn, I haven't talked to so and so in how many years? You know what? Let me Facebook search, let me be a little Facebook stalker for a bit. Let me reach out, let me look on Instagram, see how they're doing. Just authentically reach out and be like, hey, how is life going? So now we have the police science coming up, and that means we're probably like coming to the end of it.

Rich 1:31:59

Because how many people in life do we really connect with? 300? Like how I wonder what the statistic is. Yeah. You get your friends through school and then college and then work. That's probably under a thousand. So how many that's not that many people.

Jonathan 1:32:16

No, you know, and again, this is where, like, you know, when I say uh I I use the platform of Jesus, you know, each and every day. I I have an ability to connect with a lot of different people, a lot of different settings. Whether it's the bedside of a in a hospital where a loved one is moving on, whether it's at a baptism, at a wedding, at a funeral, at a fire station, at the police station, in the supermarket, at a bar. You know, I could just simply connect and be in the normal presence of Christ in the day-to-day living.

Rich 1:32:48

How would someone get in touch with you if they were thinking about joining the priesthood or thinking about joining church or even just like wanting to talk to you about anything?

Jonathan 1:32:58

Yeah, so I think uh first and foremost the church doors are always open. And I always invite people, whether it's been 10 years, 30 years, you've never been before, walk through the doors. Do in the middle of the week, just go in and experience the beauty of the beauty of what is there. Come to a service and just experience it. Sit in the back. Sit in the back and follow what everyone else is doing, you know? Um experience the beauty of what's taking place. Um reaching out the platform uh on social media, on my social media tags uh J J S L A V S. JJ Slavs. J J Slavs on our social media platform for the church. It's S T B O L P Woo. So St. Bernard's Church, O L P Well in the Professor's Parish, so it's S T B as in Boy, O L P as in Peter, W-O-O-W. I'll put it in the description. You know, and so that's the best way to get a hold, you know, reach out. Um, don't be surprised if I can't reach out right away. Give the parish a call here, you know, and then 236 Lincoln Street. This is where we're at. St. Bernard's Church. It's a great place to be. Um, give me a shout out, you know, uh, from the porch, from sitting on the porch having a drink. It's a funny story for you, really quick too. Um last week I was uh sitting on the porch and often I hear Pasta Pasta because you know a lot of people just call me Pasta, you know, that's what they just think you know um that I was Catholic, and they're just saying, Pasta, and I'm like, who is that? He goes, The knockout king is back! You know, I was like, Where have you been? I've been locked up over the last incident, you know. We had a guy a few years back, he um he's uh a professional street boxer on the street theater, and you know, gets in some incidences at times there, and you know, found himself uh away for a little bit there, and but it was so good just to hear him yelling out like you know, I got you, I'm gonna be doing better, Pastor. That's all we care about, is that you do better, you know. So we're all called to do better. Awesome. Great, I like it. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Cheers. Appreciate it. Oh great stuff. Yeah, it was fun. It is a fun time.