 I need to be TN. So, okay. Very good. Hey, friends, this is Dan and Stephanie Work. You're watching Behind the Scenes, Divine Intimacy Radio. We're in a few minutes. We're going to talk to Michael O'Neill about they might be saints, saints on the path with the sainthood in America. And we're going to tap into his expertise, which is fascinating to me about how saints become saints, that sort of thing. So, stay tuned. We'll be with him in just a minute. For right, just to give you some updates on things going on, the opportunities for you to supercharge your spiritual life, because that's kind of what we do, right? That's right. Pilgrimage to Holy Land is going to be May 30th to June 8th. We only have like a seat or two left, right? And if you really want to go, put yourself on the wait list, because people always shift at the last minute. Okay. So there might be an opening. And we have great news about it. Well, it's incredible in that they're not requiring, as of March 1st, any vaccination to get into Israel. Which is awesome, because we've avoided it. Yeah. All you have to do is take a PCR test when you get there. What's a PCR test? Just to make sure you don't have COVID. Right. And if you do, they'll just put you in a cage for a couple weeks. Yeah, basically. They probably have a quarantine hotel or something. Yeah. So our pilgrimages are not spiritual vacations. When you come home, you will know better how to pray. You'll better understand the interior life. You better understand the one for whom we were made and in whom we live and breathe and have our being. And the Holy Land there's no better place, of course, to really kind of experience the reality of God's invasion of His creation with love. So spiritualdirection.com forward slash events to sign up for that. For those just joining us, we're going to have Michael O'Neill on in a minute. They might be saints on the path to sainthood in America. So don't miss that. Devil in the Castle is out. I'm going to grab it. Well, can you put it on the screen? I didn't warn the producer. So I will put it on the screen myself. Which is Devil in the Castle, Saint Teresa of Avalos, Spiritual Warfare in the Progress of the Soul. So you can get a 50% or 25% off discount if you pre-order. Well, you can't pre-order anymore. Today's the release date. You can get it on spiritualdirection.com shop and rave reviews from those who are doing some advanced review work. If you don't understand Teresa, you'll read this book. You'll get her very well and it'll help you understand the interior castle. Last thing and then we'll jump in to the show. The summit, the summit, the summit. What's a summit? The mountain? Yes, the Avalos summit is the summer in DC at CUA. It's going to be amazing. We do still have seats available. We expect it to be sold out. A bunch of them exorcists gathered in a room talking. We have awesome speakers. We have Father Dennis McManus. Those who were with us last time will remember him and he's amazing. I know a lot of good speakers. I would say the best speaker I've ever heard. Father our Monsignor Rosetti. If you follow spiritualdirection.com you will have been reading his exorcist diary entries. Diary of an American Exorcist is the book. Wonderful human being. Both of them are. Kathleen Beckman will be there. You and I will be speaking there. For people I don't know. If I'd go for us. I'd go for you. I'd listen to you though. It'll be amazing. Spiritual warfare and discernment of spirits. Pray for my wife. If you watch this show you get a sense of how much she suffers. We're going to jump into the show. Hold on. I don't know why my phone went off here. I got to turn on the timer so we don't mess up the production. So it's Anyway, to find events while my husband's looking for his timer that's disappeared you go to spiritualdirection.com forward slash events. Everything is there. You can get more information. You can also find out where we're going to be when we're going to be speaking or bringing events to you. In fact, we're leaving this week and we'll be heading up to Lincoln, Nebraska. Pray that we don't freeze to death up there. And then we'll go over to Colorado. We'll be in the Fort Collins area as well for some more events up there. So it'll be wonderful. Jordan, my brain is not working. Where can I find how to make sure that oh, it's battery. That's such a weird place. So my phone doesn't turn off. I thought it was battery. Low power mode. Battery home. This is great radio. This is great radio, right? Markable radio. Hey folks, pray for Dan Burke. Michael O'Neill comes on an interview with Dan Stephanie Burke and suddenly his sales tank because people are waiting for Dan. So Jordan, I'm going to need your help with Is that an iPhone? Well, you don't have to get up. Well, I just got to figure out how to make sure my phone doesn't turn off so I can see my timer. But I think we should start the show. So why don't you just tell me at 12.5 or something. Give me a little. I'll do it. So Michael, well, I'm excited to talk to you. What I'm really interested to learn about is the current steps to St. Hood, you know how it works now and how we've had a lot of recent canonizations that to some like in the traditional realm are a little bit controversial. So it might be interesting to talk a little bit about that. But all right, we're good now because somebody smarter than me is the producer. All right, you ready in your markets that go. This is Dan and Stephanie Burke. Welcome to Divine Intimacy Radio. Your Radio Haven of Wraths. Your Hermitage of the Heart. Your Monastery of the Mind where we lift our heart and minds to Heaven to draw upon the wisdom of the Saint to help us navigate this very challenging life which daily seems to be getting darker. Praise Jesus. Okay. Why am I praising Jesus? Isn't that the question you used to be asking? Well, for me, it's clarity. Jesus is Lord as our favorite exorcist friend always says. Jesus is Lord. Right. Jesus is Lord. So why I'm praising is because even dim bulbs can look bright in the dark room. And I'm kind of a dim bulb. So I'm excited. In the darkness I get to shine. The darker it gets, the brighter I look. And a serious note, that's true about the people of God. I mean really when it gets dark people of God need to light up and light the way to people who are struggling and suffering. But why don't you tell people about our guest? Okay. I'm very happy to welcome Michael O'Neill and he is an award-winning author, EWTN television and radio host and creator of the popular Miracle Tracking website, MiracleHunter.com and I'm going to say that again MiracleHunter.com He is the radio host of the April award-winning weekly radio program on EWTN, the Miracle Hunter, Saturdays at 1 and 7 p.m. Eastern Time and the television host and executive producer of the weekly docu-series, they might be saints from the lives and intercessory miracles of the future American saints. It's broadcast Mondays 11 30 and Fridays at 5 p.m. Eastern Time and the new travel series, Explore the Miracle Hunter. So welcome Michael O'Neill, author of They Might Be Saints, beautiful book. Thank you. It's great to be with you today. So Michael I want to know you know when you got a pretty long list, I was actually surprised when I cracked the book and looked at the list. There's one saint I want to talk about a little bit that's most interesting to me but I was surprised at how many saints there are on the list and basically who the churches already made some indication of their holiness, right? That's right. And some people have asked me who did you include in the book? How did you decide who is worthy of mentioning as a future saint? But I put everybody in there. So that's all 24 venerables and blesseds. I have a chapter dedicated to the saints who already have been declared by Rome and the final chapter is about servants of God, people who may be a saint someday. So I tried to put everybody in there. So what I want to know is you wrote nice summaries of their lives. The Augustine Tolton one was just beautiful about I'll never forget this image of his mother never having rode a boat to escape the oppression of the north and get to freedom rode a boat for the first time in her life with her little babies across the Mississippi river. Are you kidding me? Wow, amazing. So you do a great job of writing these summaries. So as you were doing it was there anyone that surprised you or anyone that because that touched me and I'll explain the reason in a minute but anything that really any of them got under your skin or you personally thought I need to have a devotion to the saint or I need to you know. I think that Augustus Tolton is a chapter that everybody needs to read in the book and that's our next episode of they might be saints the television series they'll air this summer. So we already filmed that one so I'm excited to present the story of Father Augustus Tolton but for me Father Frederick Berraga is always an inspiration to me. He's known as the snowshoe priest of Upper Peninsula Michigan and I always like to make the comment that every time I think I'm doing enough shows and the TV stuff and you know I'm doing enough to evangelize you gotta read the life of Father Ernest Berraga because Frederick Ernest Berraga because he came from Slovenia he came to Cincinnati and then he was sent up to the wilds of Upper Peninsula Michigan to minister to the Native Americans who live there in the copper miners and he was up at three and four every morning to pray for an hour or two and then he would slap on these snowshoes and travel for thousands of miles over the course of a lifetime just bringing the sacraments, building churches, spreading the gospel, saying mass in four different languages sometimes. I mean it's amazing his incredible life so I feel very he's a great intercessor for me personally. Well the reason that Gus Tolton is interesting to me is Stephanie and I moved down to Montgomery, Alabama and attend a predominantly or a historic black church and predominantly black church it's a church where Martin Luther King came on the march and with the crowds and camped out and all of that and so my and and by the way I will say a shout out to St. Jude the most friendly church I think I've ever been in I mean I've been in some good friendly churches too and they are wonderful folks and really welcomed us there but how you know why did you do this book and your motivation to me it's inspirational to I think it should be inspirational to people to look and go gosh you know like St. Ignatius what if I give my life to this I could probably be a saint you know that's right I mean I probably have different motivations but one that I think is really important is you know I think anybody who's a fan of sports you know you know that you cheer for your and so when we see Americans who have put on this path to St. Jude or who are canonized we have a sense of American pride or Catholic pride when this happens because it's kind of exciting to think that these people walked amongst us on American soil and for the average person who thinks of saints is you know these people who lived centuries ago maybe across the pond you know you know these almost plaster images of saints the painted halos you know some Italian nun or priest you know who we could never be like because we're just regular people this book kind of opens our eyes to say these are regular people who are on the path to saint who did it right who give us the key and the direction of how to become a saint to be in heaven with God someday so I think that you know people can find inspiration in the average people who are highlighted in this book they might remind us of ourselves in some way yeah I think that's a beautiful point to make and actually was what I was thinking about when you think about St. Ignatius of Loyola and how he became a saint by reading the lives of saints that that was his inspiration that helped him to discover so much and so a book like this is really important for us because we can read and be inspired and dream a little bit and wonder about where the Lord might be leading us we might see ourselves in some of these stories and say oh you know maybe this is how the Lord's calling me and and if they can do it we can do it too and I think it's just so important that we understand that saints are real people they're real people and and they had real lives real difficulties and and they had laundry and dishes and you know in some of them had in-laws some of them had you know brothers and sisters you know whatever it is that challenge us in our day to day make it feel like we'll never get there just because of our own weaknesses and the problem with concupiscence but anyway I just love it I think it's a great it's a very very necessary thing and we just really could spend the rest of our lives and not exhaust the richness of the saints and and understand you know how that can help us in our walk so let me ask you about this it's my understanding that the sainthood process has evolved over the years so what are the four steps in the current process for those of us who are a little ignorant in this area help us understand how do saints become saints thanks it's a it's a good question and when I wrote the book the book has these 24 chapters there are short biographies of these Americans incredible Americans and I've encouraged some people just to flip these stories because that's where the book is really fun but people do have this question how are saints made anyway how does this come to be you know some people might have the concept that you know somebody whispers in the ear of the pope and the pope says that sounds good let's make that person a saint and then he canonizes them well it doesn't work that way at all it's often you know years or decades or even centuries that it takes for somebody to advance through the four steps and you know the church there were martyrs were the ones who were canonized and then later those who lived lives of heroic virtue were recognized but it wasn't until Prospero Lambertini who is an Italian cardinal born in the 1600s that he sort of revised the way the church looks at miracles specifically and also the canonization process so in the new canonization process which has been most recently modified by Pope John Paul II in 1983 we have four stages in the sainthood process the first is servant of God so that's when your cause is off the ground out of the gate that's when people are starting to do all the research the investigation in the diocesan phase and getting all the turning over all the rocks basically making sure that everything is okay to proceed and then once that diocesan phase is complete this giant sort of summary samarium or is sent to Rome in the congregation the cause of saints use the life of virtue of that future saint and they often take years to get through this giant book which is hundreds of pages long that documents the person's life and if the congregation can come to the decision that the candidate has lived a life of heroic virtue then they'll declare them to be venerable and the pope will make a big statement about it and then they've moved to that second step of sainthood and then the search for miracles is on sometimes they look at older historical miracles but they look for intercessory miracles to move from venerable to blessed because those miracles show that the person is in heaven interceding for us and establishes them in heaven which is the whole point of declaring a saint in the first place and so when they look at those miracles that need to be a serious condition liable to go in its own it must be an instantaneous complete and lasting cure and perhaps most difficult of all there can be no medical treatment that relates to the cure of just that one potential saint which we can talk about that more later but that's awful complicated and so if you find one if they find one miracle it's validated in Rome and a second miracle is validated in Rome then you move to that fourth step which is canonization and that'll typically happen in Rome where the pope and all the faithful will celebrate the life of that future saint. I can see why you've got a show on EWTN you're very clear and helpful in explaining what's going on and if you're wondering who this is if you're in the middle of the show who's talking to us on Divine Intimacy Radio it's Michael O'Neill and he's the author of They Might Be Saints and also the host of a show on EWTN regarding the saints and the path to sainthood in America inspiring book I would say I don't know Steph to me I'd love to get this in the hands of like required reading for a high school a Catholic high school have you heard of anybody doing that? I'd like to say your idea is novel and it is in the fact that it hasn't been done yet but a number of people have said that perhaps a confirmation class of some sort would like to read this and then they could watch the videos which the episodes air every week on EWTN there's been 15 of them done so you could read about them and then also watch them come to life in the film so I think there's some potential there we got a head to the break when we get back we'll talk more about the process of canonization and I'm going to ask you how many of the servants of God there are because that is a long list that's very cool so we'll be right back and I did name them right servants of God right that's the list in the back of the book yeah that's the final chapter so we want to come in and we're going to do okay three right we finished two right we did that so you're going to do three after I bring this back okay and your mark is at go this is Dan Stephanie Burke welcome back to Divine Intimacy Radio your Radio Haven of Rest we're here talking with Michael O'Neill about a really fascinating book I think especially for Americans I know people listen to us from all over the world but for Americans in terms of inspiring us to be saints this book is great and I want to reiterate a suggestion before the break this would be great for a confirmation class or high school or what's the last grade of middle of the schools that you that you last oversaw well middle school is eighth or some middle schools have up to ninth grade ninth grade but you know any age after that is going to be awesome young adults these are amazing because of the age of these saints so I wouldn't relegate it just to schools but if any any confirmation class I'd love to sit all afternoon on a Sunday and just read it cover to cover right and then as we talked about Michael has a show on ETVT and so you could watch the show read the book you know combination to get the full effects it's very cool so back to the canonization process Stephanie has another question so I want to know how the church validates intercessory miracles because that's just really beautiful you know the way you were describing it and thinking about oh yeah that's right that's how we confirm that they're actually in heaven so we need specific miracles and we need to know okay it's only that saint because if you're somebody like me when I pray for intercession I pocket saints and I have like 25 and so you know when I go into prayer I'm naming all my saints so I'm not really sure who's answering me sometimes so how do we validate that it's actually that particular person that's so it's a great question and I like to joke about this too when I'm in need of some help I'm praying to all my friends the saints and heaven hoping that somebody up there picks up the phone because you know I need the help badly so so I might do a scattershot approach and approach all my favorite intercessors but when it comes to you know sainthood miracles think about it from a practical point of view imagine that somebody was cured of cancer and they went to the pope or went to the bishop or went to the cause and they said guess what I have a miracle through this potential saint but I also prayed to Saint John Paul II Mother Teresa, Saint Therese, Saint Francis but I really think it's that you know that future saint who did the work they might say you know congrats on your miracle but we can't use that one because there's no proof and so it's really complicated with canonization causes is because you have to pray to just that one saint and all your family and all your friends have to pray to just that one saint if there's any word that gets out that somebody else was praying to somebody else they're not going to count that one and in the book they might be saints I actually include at the end of every chapter an intercessory prayer and the contact information the website the mailing address and the email address of every cause so let's say you read the book I kind of like that future saint that Miriam Teresa Demjanovich you know I'm going to pray to her let's say you got a miracle well sure sure enough you could contact the Sisters of Charity in New Jersey with the book so I want to make that I want to make it easy for people if they find a miracle along the way that's awesome I that's just really remarkable what a great detail about your book to have the particular intercessory prayer for each one of these individuals that might be saints that's awesome very cool but you know it's interesting about that the you sort of got to take a risk right so you can't you can't include but I imagine that means you have to be fairly convicted that that person is the one to be praying for you in order to set aside all your other pocket saints and yeah I mean I think the thing to keep in mind is that God is the one who heals right yeah we just asked them to intercede yeah very good that was a good point okay okay so tell us about how many servants of God are there right now so the number is increasing all the time I mean there are St. Hood causes that are popping up and you'll see in that final chapter I needed to put the word this is an incomplete list of the the servants of God because it's growing every year and so it's approximately 100 it's a little bit south of 100 I think but every year there's new there's you know last year there were a couple added in New Orleans for example and there's there's new ones that were added in New Orleans at the time and some of them advance on they graduate and move to a venerable and blessed but much much a larger number gets added as servants of God every year so we've got a lot of future saints brewing in America that's awesome okay so brewing in America so who would you predict predict is going to be the next American saint haha that's a great question if I were to take this to Las Vegas and set up some odds you know I would I would venerable doesn't have a miracle yet so you need a blessed who's got one miracle under their belt and you know I think that it probably would be somebody like father Michael McGivney the founder of the Knights of Columbus because you have such you know it's the largest fraternal organization in America and to think you have all those people praying for his canonization and for his intercession I'm pretty sure that his door gets knocked on as much as anybody so my money would be on father Michael McGivney on the fruits of that of what he said in motion are quite quite extraordinary you know it strikes me that this book might also be given to someone because I have someone particular in mind to reignite or draw them back to the faith or maybe introduce them to the Catholic faith do you what do you what's your sense about how effective that might be you know I think it's a really smart idea and I've started doing this myself of course it's my book so I'm happy to give it out but what I've been doing is I've been putting a bookmark in the chapter that I think relates the most to the person and so you know for example there's a chapter about blessed James Miller who's a martyr from Wisconsin and he was a real handyman he was just you know a guy helping around and helping out the other priests and building the chapel building the school and you know I gave this to a friend who does construction because I thought you know maybe you know that would resonate with them but you know I think when we try to clobber people over the head with theology and dogma and doctrine you know there's a very rare person who's going to say yes you've convinced me yes you've got me now I now I know how I want to believe but the stories of people who love Christ and who did it the right way and who were real saints I think that can be inspiring and the chapters are short and interesting I think so I think that anybody could read just one chapter and maybe that'll bring them to knowledge of the saints and to Christ himself. So we're coming down the stretch for the show and I want to be careful to make sure we don't miss a few resources for folks who find this interesting aside from buying the book which you can find at EWTN's Religious Catalog how does this how does the book connect to your show they might be saints and just curious how you're deciding who I mean you have so many how you just how have you decided who you're going to do first second third on the show. Well we've we've definitely talked to many of the causes and there are future ones being considered right now and we've done 15 of them so far so this show is you know often running and I think that if people go to theymightbe saints.com they can see when the next episodes air and every week Friday's at 5 p.m. eastern time this program airs so people can really watch the show and then read more in the book if they say hey that saints pretty interesting they can get the full the full scoop by reading the book but you know when we do these episodes we just try to feature we collaborate with the causes and present these lives of future saints and like I said there's 24 of them to be done we've done 15 of them already so my great hope is that we can partner with all the causes and present all of these incredible lives. So I have a quick question this is like burning in my mind at the moment so going back to validating the intercessory miracles you mentioned physical healing is that the only miracles that are counted because of why so interstate or medical miracles are the best to be used for canonization causes is because they have scientific proof both before and after the event so we're talking about MRIs or X-rays or doctors reports where it's been documented the serious condition and then afterwards you can do the same MRI and see that the tumor is gone for example or the eye test you know the doctor will say or in the case of Robert Gutherman in the case of Catherine Drexel there is a boy who lost his hearing in his ear because a virus ate the bones out of his ear but sure enough after her intercessory miracle the bones grew back in his ear so there's incredible miracles but it's because there's documentation before and afterwards. I'm aware of two cases where they've used miracles that are not medical and there was one blessed Juan Macias he was not an American saint but it was a food multiplication miracle where he was a cook a cook prayed for his intercession and then the rice and the meat started multiplying and he felt a room full of hundreds of people that was one miracle and another miracle was this St. Stephanie and her there was a water fount to these people who were in Africa and they were out of water and there were people outside the doors ready to kill them so they survived on the water of this holy water fount that just kept refilling and refilling and that was the only other time I've heard of a non-medical miracle being used for a canonization. You know I've actually had a medical miracle validated and I'll tell you the saint in a minute but my heart I had a blockage in one of my arteries and was interceded for just with this saint and then when I went back to the hospital because I was going to have to go back in for surgery and they did the test and the doctor said your heart is no longer there's no longer any blockage and I said how did that happen you know there was a Jewish doctor and he said I have no idea I said well I think I do so but I don't think this saint needs your help and that's because it was Saint Joseph so God be praised but it is fascinating to kind of experience that firsthand well this is kind of how it works it was the only one that was interceded to and the priest who prayed over me told me when it was all done thank Saint Joseph so that's really kind of an example of what we're talking about right? Yeah praise be to God for your healing that's wonderful and yeah we're talking about the prayers being targeted at just one potential saint those are the kinds that the church looks at for canonization so you know it's a very tricky thing that to find any miracle little bit of a miracle anytime they find a miracle for a sainthood cause all those causes around the United States are scrambling and looking to see them come to the light that's awesome so if you are in need of healing pick up this book just to find the one so you can help him become a saint Michael O'Neill they might be saints on the path to sainthood in America really interesting book very well written and so the EWTN show a weekly documentary they might be saints about the lives and intercessory miracles of future American saints Mondays at 11 30 a.m. and Fridays at 5 p.m. both eastern time you also have a show explore with the miracle hunter right what's that about so this is my travel show so I travel around the world looking looking at miracles and for miracles people know me by the name the miracle hunter so this is my travel series and this will this has been we've filmed 12 episodes already and this will be airing in March the beginning of March on EWTN so check the local listings for that but this shows with beautiful footage of these places and amazing recreations encourage people to check them out we did the Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano for example and the recreation of that is absolutely stunning so I encourage people to check out explore with the miracle hunter also at EWTN great great we'll look forward to it thank you for participating in this podcast with us it's amazing topic so until next time may the God of peace make you perfect in holiness may he preserve you whole and entire spirit soul and body irreproachable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ amen amen that's awesome can't wait to check this out yeah it was a pleasure to talk with you thank you I can