Dressed For Battle—Spiritual and Physical.

The above is a picture of what my chest looks like when I do exorcism prayers and sidewalk counseling at the third largest abortion center in the world.  At the top is a Go-Pro to record all interactions (except talking to abortion-minded women.)  I record all interactions not because I am afraid that I will do something illegal, but rather that the pro-aborts will harm my pro-life team.  (If they’re willing to kill babies, they’re willing to kill adults.)  So, the Go-Pro is essentially a body-cam for my time at the abortion center.

In the feature image above, you can see below the Go-Pro is the top of the starburst of a life-size laminate of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I wear her around my chest as half of the couples going into Denver’s Planned Parenthood are Spanish-only speaking.  My prayer is that them looking Our Lady of Guadalupe will turn some of them around.

Switch gears for a minute.  This Life-Update section of my site is to show my donors what I am doing with their money.  But because I am a one-man operation-of-a-hermit, this entails writing about me.  Thus, it’s a major temptation to brag.  But, again, I want to show you that I am doing more with my time and your money that just complaining about the Vatican and the USCCB.  That’s why I decided to write an article called Dressed For Battle—Spiritual and Physical.

Because I used to be a paramedic, I began each day with things in my pocket that I might need.  Any good cop, soldier or medic thinks not through the contingency of a good day—but a bad day—in order to be fully prepared for a thousand things that could happen.  So also, 90% of the time I leave my hermitage, I put the above items in my pocket:  A Miraculous-Medal to hand a stranger, an explanation of the that Miraculous Medal (one in English and one in Spanish as seen in the lower right of the above picture.)  I leave my home nearly every time with examination of conscience to give lapsed Catholics (again, in English and Spanish.)  Rarely do I leave home without my Rosary, purple stole for confessions and Holy Water.  Yes, I keep all the above itemsin my cargo-pants pockets under my habit every day.  Why?  Because every time I don’t stock up in my pockets, I have an evangelization opportunity that I was unprepared for!

My hermit or monk habit entails a rip-cord Rosary with an exorcised Benedictine Crucifix for both the Rosary and deliverance prayers.  I also keep a CPR face-mask on my key-chain that goes onto my belt every day.  I carry a small Diurnal (Roman Breviary) that allows me to pray all 150 Psalms in Latin a week as I hike around several continents in the world.  In fact, that Diurnal is so small that I can fit it into my custom-made habit (also seen above) and the three fancy pockets in the chest-area made by a kind woman named Liz Ortega.

I still have my paramedic skills, and I still drive my truck around a lot.  So, in my truck I keep trauma shears, a tourniquet, a fire-extinguisher, three window-breakers, an emergency blanket, two chest-decompression kits, a chest-seal, nitrile gloves, a splint, a stethoscope, a blood pressure cuff, abdominal trauma pads and Narcan (a narcotic-reversal agent that brings ODs in respiratory arrest back to consciousness within seconds.)  In the above picture at the top left of my truck-topper, I also carry the parish ritual (the ritual to nearly all old-rite sacraments) as well as cards to the local Crisis Pregnancy Center.

Why do I do all this?  When I left parish life, I was very sad, but a friend said to me “If you can’t light the world on fire, light yourself on fire, and let the world come to you!”  I may not be on-fire with the love of Christ as I want to be, but I am able to pray this prayer:  “God, please let nothing bad happen today, but if it has to happen, please let me be there.”  Similarly, I meet new people every day, and the most non-obnoxious way I can evangelize them is always to give a Miraculous Medal or examination of conscience to lovingly encourage them to return to confession.

Thus, I try to be prepared and ready for anyone that God might have me meet in all my travels.  I want to bring them closer to Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church.  This doesn’t just include a nice smile, but real preparation for the spiritual battle.  This also includes the many medical emergencies I have been able to help with in public with as an ex-paramedic, even after my ordination as a Catholic priest.

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