 Hey friends, this is Dan and Stephanie Burke. You're watching the behind-the-scenes divine intimacy radio very exciting unusual show today You're if you're listening to us live stream on EWTN's Facebook page or on our spiritual direction comm website This is going to be an unusual show. We don't we've never done one like it and it's about storming the gates of hell intercessory prayer spiritual warfare For the sake of the liberation of Armenian Christians who are presently being persecuted in a in a pretty grave way so we've got some very interesting guests and good friends, of course Simone Rizcala and Dr. Joseph Holcroft who wrote the book unleashing the power of an intercessory prayer So we're we'll start the show in a minute before we jump into that I want to make sure we let people know about our upcoming summit Which is also in many ways, you know central to what we're doing today on the show and Regarding the triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the the summit this year is called the Marian mystery And the triumph of the Immaculate Heart. We have Amazing speakers Dr. Mark Maravalli sister Regina Marie Gorman You know Father John Burns and that Stephanie tell them about the dates and Location absolutely. It's October 13th through the 15th The Marian mystery and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart. It's in Hansville, Alabama the amazing shrine of the most blessed it's sacrament and You're just not gonna want to meant to miss this. It's we really bring together great speakers It's deep water amazing people in attendance amazing way to connect to others and And we know that in the end our ladies Immaculate Heart will triumph So it is directly connected to what we're talking about today. Yeah, very good. All right Well, let's go ahead and jump into the show Jordan Do you have I think you put this on that you put this on the desk, right spiritualdirection.com Forward slash Armenia Armenia, can you build a little? Label the flash up on the screen spiritualdirection.com forward slash a R M E and I a on your markets that go Okay on your mark get set go this is Dana Stephanie Burke Welcome to divine intimacy radio your radio haven of rest your hermitage of the heart Your monastery of the mind where we lift our hearts and minds to heaven brought wisdom from the great cloud of witnesses the great saints have gone before us the blessed mother Regarding how it is that we can face fight overcome Darkness in us and in the world and that is the subject of our show today Which we're talking about the gates of hell will not prevail intercessory prayer And prayer against a prayer vigil against the Armenian Christian persecution is going to be happening this Friday At 7 p.m. Central August 25th 2023. Why don't you introduce? Simone because I know you love Simone. I do love and I will introduce dr. Holcraft whom I have a mild affinity towards I Really happy to have Simone Riscala She is the director of program growth for endow groups an educational Apostolate dedicated to cultivating a new feminism according to the vision of Pope Saint John Paul the second She is also special advisor to the president of the philos project which is which is dedicated to positive Christian engagement in the near in the Near East as the daughter of immigrants from Armenian dysphoria Diaspora in Cairo, Egypt. She has a particular interest in matters of religious freedom and culture You can find her talks and publications on her blog at cultural gypsy comm She also hosts the endow podcast So love you Simone so very happy to have you here with us and I'll let Dan Say hey to father for father Dr. Holcraft he almost I mean he did he almost he discerned right, you know, he's a very holy guy So we think he chose right And his favorite my favorite of his offspring is named Abula, but don't tell them I said that okay So Dr. Joe watch everything Dan they watch everything My Dr. Joseph Holcraft is a good friend and Collaborator on one of the most important projects in the church, and I don't say that lightly Right, and that is our heart-calling priestly formation and discernment program Dr. Holcraft is also a man of deep prayer And he's the author of an important book unleashing the power of intercessory prayer And today we're talking about the power of intercessory prayer, you know, I was the so welcome dr. Holcraft It's great to be with everyone this room. So how the reason this came up came up is I'm Jewish By birth by identity. I'm a Hebrew Catholic. I'm not My Judaism is not a minor part of my identity. It's it's the essence of who I am That's how God made me he put me in the womb of a Jewish woman You know and it's always been how I've understood myself and my faith even as a Catholic And and so because of that I I'm super sensitive to the the suffering of Jewish people in particularly In particular with the Holocaust and history of the Holocaust years ago though I came across some photographs that rocked me to the core Um, it's it's actually emotional Even talking about it and that was a series of women Who were naked? Uh crucified Um If I remember right Simone, there were 13 of them. Is that the number? Do you know? You know, and I don't remember the exact number to be honest Yeah, and it just it it was so gruesome because when we talked about crucifixion in our time It it you know, it's like well, that was the first century. It's like no no It actually happened at the beginning of the 20th century Um Or in the early around 1915 or somewhere around there. I don't remember the year Simone you can fill me in on any of this stuff. Yes, and then I'm thinking what is this? Is it a movie photograph? Is this like some weird, you know thing and I looked into it and I discovered That it it was photographs of what actually happened to Armenian women during a period of What we would rightly call an attempted genocide Of the Armenian people by the surrounding aggressive nation and So my heart was moved and then I began to study the Armenian persecution and was struck by the parallels To the jews in the holocaust the the Armenian people are an industrious people they were seen as kind of a They they had a big play in them in the the local economies and markets like middlemen and so Like the jews people were jealous of them. They tended to be they tended to do well and so because of this and and because of their faith as christians in in contrast to The surrounding hostile environment And because they wouldn't convert to Islam They were slaughtered so ever since studying all of that I've been moved by it and then recently we had this news report of a blockade An eighth month long blockade and I don't have television and I don't watch the news So it came it hit me this last week Then I saw you simone on Trent horn's great podcast um council of trend And I was just I said we is there something we can do we are a people of prayer The community of apostolate va is a people of prayer, you know, uh, what can we do so simone? Like fill in what I missed on the blockade or Some of the details that you think are really important for all of this Sure, and I I just want to thank you so much dan and stephanie and the whole avala family for Personally caring about this is very moving to me as an armenian catholic And as a as a human being in front of such a gross human rights violation on just a natural level um, so thank you so much for uh for being you and for You know the the power of prayer that you have been promoting in your apostolate in your work. Um But yes, it even if you were the sort of person that watches the news and reads the newspaper every day You wouldn't be hearing about what's been happening to the armenians in the last eight months. So there's this region Known to armenians as arzach known to most of the world as the nagorno karabakh Which is an enclave of 120 000 armenians 30 000 of which are children There's a route that connects this region, which is part of ancient armenia the the uh The armenian alphabet for example was born in this region um There's only one route one corridor called the lachen corridor that connects this enclave with the republic of armenia This is a completely ethnically armenian place since December of last year The aziris have blockaded That corridor and have not allowed food medical supplies sometimes fuel electricity To enter in and thereby starving the people of the nagorno karabakh They won't eat let even the international red cross and they won't let any anybody in to Help these people That's been happening for the last eight months There might be a question. Why is this region not just part of the republic of armenia officially? And that goes back to a long history stalin decided to put it under aziri So to speak But it has always been ethnically armenian Very good. And i a number i wanted to keep repeating 30 000 children 30 000 children I want everybody to remember that number 30 000 children And this and this is the is this the only route For food and supplies there into that community or the primary it is and You know for months now for those who have been trying to listen trying and again There's no fault for anyone who really doesn't know what's going on because how could you know if the media isn't paying attention to it And why would the media be paying attention to it to attention to a small christian nation? Let you know surrounded by hostile neighbors But for months now we've been saying oh my goodness if this blockade isn't lifted People will eventually the supermarkets will run out of food medicine So in the last month or two it's been extremely dramatic Babies and the nicu having to share electricity because there isn't enough because the aziri is cut off fuel Moms who are pregnant miscarrying because they're mount there's malnutrition We just knew now we're getting reports of people who have literally been starved to death A single mom one of the most heartbreaking stories lost both of her children Just they she's a she's a single mother both her children have died So, you know, it can sound dramatic, but it sounds dramatic because Yeah, now these people there's a name for these people by their enemies That references the original attempt at the genocide of the armenian people. What is the name they're called? So there's a there's a phrase in turkish Called leftovers of the sword And so armenians are leftovers of the sword. So turkish and azar bhajan, of course do not recognize that the armenian genocide happened they have failed to recognize it and As long as and this is so much and actually Dr. Hallcraft and i've talked about this in terms of the importance of memory as long as there's an armenian in existence And an armenian people in a country in existence There is a christian witness that is a spiritual threat to those who are trying to destroy her And so it's leftovers of the sword meaning they we need to finish the work that was begun the murderers need to finish The work the the horrifying work and that that means killing 30,000 children however many adults whatever So I want to shift gears here to What's really going on and and we're going to blow through the break We're not going to do the break. We're going to just do the show as long as we need to do the show The dr. Hallcraft scripture says It scripture reveals a couple of things. I'd like you to speak to one And and if you're not comfortable that I can I can do one of them, but I know the other you are One is In scripture you have this indication that there are demons assigned to regions of the world There's references in the old testament to Demons that are that have you know jurisdiction over localities And then we have this passage in the new testament. We were not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers You know And this is what I want to focus on I want to focus on In all of this it is true that there are ethnic groups that are Culpable for this murderous action and behavior But when you get to the heart of the thing like what causes all this division, where did it begin? Um, it's it's about the enemy and the sin and the fallen nature of humanity That causes us to be So brutal that we could crucify one another that we could starve one another to death all of that That to me is the heart of the battle if you win that battle You you can you have an opportunity to win the war. So talk a bit about that joke Yeah, well, it's it's a battle for souls, right and What's so essential? I think to this discussion make you Simone for everything you just shared Is that each and every one of us has been given a very particular baptism or call To sharing gods out going love and mercy and in doing so help save souls, right? In first Timothy chapter two St. Paul makes it very clear. He says first of all so from the outset He wants us to understand that there is a priority that we as a church Exists for prayer right was first of all then I asked for supplications prayers Petitions and thanksgivings to be offered for some no everyone Yeah, the greek word for intercessions Is is is a verb that really describes the favor all of us have received by virtue of our baptism as subjects to be admitted into the presence of the king And and to remain to make our requests known to God Right, so this is a baptismal call that each and every one of us have been endowed with And if we're going to fulfill a baptismal vocation, this is what we do Right, all of us are subject to the one king, of course who we call friend Jesus Christ So this is is is essential and the context is for paul's letter to Timothy the salvation of all people All people even incredibly those who are persecuting the ones right so we pray for the The the it is a radical prayer but for the conversion of all souls and for The these these powers of the demonic to be overcome by virtue of our prayer and by virtue of our conviction You know, we are just not baptized into the body of Christ incorporating the body of Christ But the mystical bond of Christ so we have this this mystical call and We're not talking necessarily in the captain of st Captain sienna where st trees of battle were given that great But in a sacramental sense right in a sacramental sense, which means all of us And the context is Eucharistic right with thanksgiving st paul and his letter to the Philippians Says do not be anxious about anything. I know this is a verse close to your heart And you know do not be anxious about anything but by prayer and supplication make your requests known to god That the peace of god which transcends our transcendent understanding may protect our hearts and minds and hearts of Jesus So we've been given this particular gift this particular grace and we do so in Eucharist, you know The language of offering is everywhere in st paul's corpus when it comes to intercession Why because it's Eucharistic And when you talk about petitions when you talk about our role as intercessors, you know, we have to understand it It comes out from our union with god St. Alfonso de Goli says one of the great doctors of church You know in mental prayer and meditation It's it's most profitable And perhaps even most useful to repeat our petitions to god That in receiving the holy love of god We also then share in that great act What we have to understand too is that And I know this is hard for some people to get their head around But we don't necessarily change god's mind Right, I get that the question asks a lot, you know, I go these different parishes But can you change god's mind? No, we don't change god's mind But we bring to fruition what is in the mind of god Yeah, this extraordinary gift We've been given to bring about the will of god when when what is it john chapter 16 verse 23 Jesus says In my name, I will give to you anything in my name If we abide in his name in the holy Eucharist He will grant us The the petitions we give to him. Why because they're not our petitions. They're his petitions I you know, we tend to say when we receive the Eucharist, you know, we consume Jesus and that of course we do But it is also Jesus consuming us You know, we we tend to think that by Abiding the Eucharist and living this faithful catholic Christian life We you know, we we put Jesus at our disposal to get what we want, right? When in fact we abide in Jesus Jesus is putting us at his disposal But it's not a utilitarian thing. It's a very relational personal thing And the beautiful output the manifestation is of this Is offering to god our petitions and we do this most profoundly in the Eucharist. So storming Heaven is this our tagline? I mean, let us storm heaven With this great petition of bringing about radical radical change I'm made to think of revelation eight verse five when the angel goes before the altar of god And the angel comes over writing and puts incense and the incense is mingling with the prayers of the saints and the smoke Is going up and then the angel takes the fire and puts it in the golden sensor and he throws it onto the earth That's the vision. I have I don't know about you, but all of these people coming together and With our prayers and prayers the saints prayers the holy ones prayers of those who pursue god Taking all of these petitions all of these hearts mingling with this Is golden sensor and then god taking that and throwing it back on earth, you know And in that and that landing on earth things are transformed things are changed You know dan, when you brought this up last week, I have to tell you I got really excited At the prospect of change Right that james 516 says the fervent prayer of the righteous person yields great power The fervent prayer is is the personal fire for god It's the fire that we're talking about that's in the courtroom of god that the angels are throwing and you know throwing on the earth this is exciting humbling but one of One that's necessary And I and I thank you for again What you've initiated here? Yeah, beautiful You know something that you were talking about that I think is just so powerful And when we talk about the spiritual warfare warfare realm of this, right? That the lord puts that desire on our heart and then he brings us to he calls us to prayer to bring about his desires That desire of ours that hunger that those children Be fed and be set free that their parents be set free that there be peace in this area of the world Is that hunger that the lord's put on our hearts? It's his hunger that he's calling us to fulfill through this intercessory prayer And the thing is is when we get anxious I love that you use that scripture verse that anxiousness gets us out of the present moment Like it we start worrying we start wringing our hands or we're worrying regret I should have done something months ago about this or or that opportunity I had whatever it was and so when we stay in the present moment Then our prayer our prayer becomes very powerful So the enemy works constantly to get us in you know into speculation or worry Or regret so that we don't stay in the in the moment Where that's the power of our prayer stay in this moment pray at this time for this purpose Don't worry. I'm in this. I've got it pray Pray pray and surrender and I will bring about a greater good. I will bring about even good from this Amen. Amen. Beautiful. So I want to recap something really important that Dr. Holcraft and Stephanie have been saying God has desired ends What he wants to occur And he has chosen means this is the easiest way to understand this in my mind Desired in and chosen means what are the so the let's say the desired end is that these 30,000 children are saved That these these these christians are are protected and spared or that the region becomes Yeah, sure The lord can make all things new listen So that's the desired end. What are the chosen means? What are the chosen means the chosen means is us joe gave you the theology Joseph gave you the theology from the new testament. It's us cooperating with the lord So if this is his will And it is the way he designed the divine economy all grace is mediated That's the way it works if we want grace to flow. We need to be a part of that grace So let me tell you about this event because I don't we're already 21 minutes in and I I wanted to make sure people get this and I want you all out there listening live right now Share this on your facebook page every share it everywhere. You can because the news is not covering this We want as many people to gather together this friday as possible august 25th 7 p.m. Central time And the url to sign up for this time of prayer is spiritualdirection.com forward slash armenians And it's on the screen, but spiritualdirection.com forward slash armenia We are joining with The the filos project This is spiritualdirection.com is who we are you guys know that catholic answers and the I can't read the name of gia's group simon for the martyrs for the martyrs. It's easy. I should it says martyrs, but it's tiny So we're we're we're coming together to pray The gates of hell will not prevail prayer vigil against the armenian christian persecution And whether or not your armenian it doesn't doesn't matter We're all we one of the most beautiful things about the catholic faith is that no matter which region of the world we come from because the particular apostle that affected our Our whatever Ethnicities we were around the world or peoples that we were whatever we are we're all one body And when one part of the body suffers we all suffer and when one part Is victorious we all share in that victory. So we're coming together. So stephanie and i'll be there simon Christopher jack who's the head of the catholic answers wonderful human being Gia shekone and then also we're going to have the eparch mickael mordean mordean mordean did i get that right simon moradian I didn't even follow my own phonetics moradian He's the of the eparchy of our lady of of nadeg. I know I got that right We're all going to get together with as many thousands of believers as we can And then and I'm also beginning today fasting every day This week for this purpose So you can begin praying now you can begin offering your rosaries up But I want to storm the gates of hell because scripture says The gates of hell will not prevail and this is a principle that most christians don't understand When you advance the kingdom of god you crush the kingdom of the enemy Simultaneously It's inevitable. It always happens the kingdom of god never advances Without crushing the kingdom of the enemy. What are we seeking to crush? We're seeking to crush evil. We're seeking to crush hatred. We're seeking to crush all That prevails in the hearts and minds of men and women who would Establish a blockade like this To starve 30,000 children To try to do to try to bring about the the the the final end of the initial attempt to gen genocide Whatever the evil is We want to come against that evil. We were not against flesh and blood And what we want to see and I believe I mean I'm I'm a crazy person. You call me crazy I believe the lord can disintegrate every vehicle in that blockade You know, they're just sitting there. I've seen the pictures of it. They're they're all empty I think and they're just sitting blocking this main highway I believe you can disintegrate every single one of those vehicles or cause a huge, you know landslide or or what at work or bring about a political change Because there are people that you're working with steam moan. I'm gonna throw it to you here Who are petitioning our government? president biden and have a formal effort to Help to call upon the president to to ask Those who are persecuting these christians to stop so tell us a little bit about that Yes, I've been so grateful to For example ambassador senator brownback who has been, you know, just doing everything he can as possible to Get the biden administration to uphold section 907 of the freedom support act So we give a lot of money to these governments to the tazara bajan That should come with the condition it does come with the condition that it's not to be used against aggression against the armenians But of course it is being used Uh against the armenians so I I pray that everything you said dan set my heart on fire whether it's through politics or Whatever whatever. I love what you said about grace being mediated. It absolutely. That's obviously absolutely true However, it comes out You know once this blockade God willing and it would be amazing if it happened today this week right after our provincial I don't know when but as soon as possible, you know, these forces these strongholds That's I love that you're going to the root of it, right because it's not just about ending this particular blockade But whatever demonic strongholds are keeping this particular hatred and oppression against these armenian christians and You don't have to be armenian But you know, armenia is the first christian nation in world history armenia Declared christianity. It's official state religion A decade before the roman empire legalized christianity And 80 years before the roman empire declared christianity. It's official state religion So maybe that's part of the spiritual warfare dan and stephanie and joe But you know, this was this was the first people in history to declare christianity It's official identity point. Yeah, absolutely So we want to we want to again remind everybody to sign up At spiritualdirection.com forward slash amini armenia. We're going to get together It's called the gates of hell will not prevail It's a prayer vigil against the armenian christian persecution You want to join us with gia chicone christopher check simone Uh are the most reverent michael Muradian you got it dan and myself and and the felis project I can't read that from here What does that say martyrs for the martyrs catholic answers? Sorry, it's too small But you know all all of us joining together to do the one thing necessary, right? Unumis necessary. We go to pray We listen we watch we step up and we say okay lord now. What do we do? We pray and then we follow his lead we pray and we follow his lead the gates of hell will not prevail Against us amen and if between now and then as I said, I'm I'm going to begin fasting every day and offering rosaries and Everything that I'm doing that we do spiritually The community of apostole va is also going to be joining us in this as well We're inviting all the abla institute students to join us All of our subscribers to spiritualdirection.com So we need but we need your guys we need your help those who are listening on live stream to share this On your facebook pages or wherever you share it in email You can send the url spiritualdirection.com forward slash armenia out and you do need to sign up so you can be A part of the live stream so that you know you can log in and see it, you know So and then get notifications about you know, what's happening if anything comes up with technology or whatever But we need you guys to help us get the word out So that and I want you to remember Over and over I I want something to never leave your mind 30,000 children I want that to to to stick in your brain. Yes, and that you can buy becoming an instrument of god which he desires you to be And joining us with us in prayer you can become the chosen means of god to bring about The breaking through of the gates of hell to breaking through This blockade at whatever level needs to be done political Or physical or whatever whatever miracles need to be done I believe god will do them if the people of god will join together and there there it is You know joe joseph touched on this briefly. There is a conditional reality to this When god decides that he has an end and he decides he has a means he's saying This means is what is going to get this end done. We have this revealed in scripture And when we abdicate the responsibility to be the means the ends don't come to fruition So when we fail to do our part, so it's not our power You right the power comes from god himself But when we join with him his power moves through us in prayer And but when we don't join with him the every single person who could join in with this who doesn't I and I really honestly believe every one of you is hearing this. That's divine providence So you're hearing this every single person who who could join in and doesn't join in You have abdicated your responsibility to be a part of this to be a part of this solution Everyone who believes in jesus. I don't even care I don't even care if you're catholic or you're Protestant or whatever Everyone who believes in the power of the name of jesus and who believes in him for their salvation And you're listening to this it is an obligation to be a part of the solution Yeah, absolutely and and for our catholic brethren I would say one more thing because um joe brought it up about the prayers of a righteous man available much Go to confession. Yeah, and then go to confession and then come to pray because i'm telling you it's a game changer. Yeah and and Go to confession get on your knees pray with us join with us in this battle And uh, let's push back the darkness. All right. So the last word i'm going to say friday august 25th 7 p.m. Central time And if you want to be a part of it spiritualdirection.com forward slash armenia Spread that url out spread this show out. We're going to post it You it'll be out on youtube when we're done. You can you know share that We'll send it out to all of our email lists and all of that But uh simone, uh joe. Thanks for being with us simone I want to just give you the last word because this this resonates Very deeply in your heart and then we'll wrap things up Oh my goodness. I guess for the last word Uh, first I feel like this whole initiative is miraculous And i'm like, yeah And then second they're in the first genocide of armenians during world war one It was american it was americans was american christians who in the words of historian howard sasher He said this Literally kept an entire nation alive And if that's a That was a grace mediated to our meaning christians Through american christians through america So the fact that this is happening again through american christianity an american christian initiative this this visual Means a lot All right, well, thank you guys. Thank you dr. Holcraft Thank you And uh, thank all of our listeners for joining with us and we'll see you On friday and so you can do the normal into the show. Maybe we'll forgot to use it as a normal show 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