 Working on these things, right? Hey friends, this is Dan Stephanie Burke divine intimacy radio behind the scenes We're gonna be talking to Charlie McKinney about how to navigate, you know, Catholic materials and Who you should buy from and all that important stuff. So How to make sure you're getting faithful resources. Yeah water that will bring you life rather than death or Poison or poison or muddy the waters. What do you call it death or? Microbials my probe now, but how would you do that in spiritual realm like you become spiritually stunted? Yeah, stagnant water some of the versus living water. Yeah publications. Okay. There you go. All right, so We're gonna jump in with Charlie before we do just want to tell you guys tonight Come let us adore him webinar Tuesday, November 23rd 7 p.m. Central 3 Directing.com forward slash events. You want to have an extraordinary Admit you got it. You got a John Byrne Stephanie myself. I think that's good enough for now Let's go ahead and start to show you ready. Yeah, Mark. Check out Welcome to divine intimacy radio. This is Dan and Stephanie Burke and you have arrived at your Spiritual Haven of rest your her vintage of the heart your monastery of the mind Where we lift our hearts and minds to heaven To draw on the wisdom of the saints the teaching of the church the spiritual patrimony of the church to help us to navigate The difficult storms of life and they are a Raging the world has gone completely insane. Yes insane. Yes, and the enemy always overplays his hand So everything is out on the open. Everything is being good in a way I mean it is and I even pray to the Lord reveal all things right if it's painful just reveal it Right so that people can wake up. They can see what's true They can they can understand where they've been led astray. Yeah, and they have time Yeah, you know the more we can see the more we can turn ourselves around and get right with him Yeah, so that when he comes because he's coming. Yeah. Oh, yeah He's coming as judge and savior and Lord of all page of pizza. He is king of kings. That's right We must be ready. That's right. Yeah, so, you know over playing the hands interesting The the benefit of it, right? It's because a lot of people lament and are just sad And you know, this is all bad including with the hierarchy including with the lady whatever is That there are devout Well-formed Catholics who get what's going on Then there were there's this other very large category at least by the data not not judging but just by the data Confused Catholics, you know, there's surveys out there that ask Study whether or not Catholics what they believe in and the majority of Catholics are Heretics or don't believe in that. I'm not again not a judgment. It's just factual data. They believe teachings that are Directly opposed to Catholic teaching. They believe in contraception and abortion and you know what all this other stuff So here cafeteria Catholic But the good thing is happening You know just a little bit of life for people so you can be encouraged is that the world is getting so profoundly Stupid that even confused Catholics are going whoa, whoa, whoa, I you know, I didn't sign up for this You know this that's too much that's too far and I had one Catholic woman who had been away from the church most of her life And she's in her late 60s now and she said it was attacks on the church And what I remembered is true as a child that woke me up to what's really and now she's devout and totally engaged and Getting ready to you know to go to her final judgment. God be praised as a faithful Orthodox Catholic So it's not all you know, it is gloom out there But listen we we win in the end the bad guys already lost They got their high knees whooped by even you know, St. Michael who's a great, you know archangel But not the highest of angels and and God himself didn't even have to defeat Satan St. Michael did it. He said hey Can you go take care of these idiots and st. Michael went and kick their butts. Yeah, and you know what? Yeah, our lady Yeah, which and I always just love this because when I hear it I mean it just like sets my heart aflutter But yeah, you know, we know that her immaculate heart will triumph in the end. She's promised this She's told us the church has told us and the thing is is our lady is so little so small And she has no shoes and she crushes the head of Satan no shoes no shoes Courage her her humility her goodness grind them in the dust I mean, she just steps completely into the truth of who she is yeah and comes with All of the graces that the Lord has entrusted to her. She will she is crushing the head of Satan Her immaculate heart will count will triumph and we can rest in that so here's the deal I want to talk to I want to talk to a guy who's a guest of ours now Who is doing really the best work and I hate to say that because I have friends and other Publishers, but I think they're the best at really also kicking the enemy's butt And publishing great stuff reversing the tide of of False teachings in the church because they not only publish the best Authors and they're not only the best at what they do in helping Catholic teachers And all of that But they do it for all the right reasons and they're actually good at selling books a lot of publishers are good at publishing books They're good at selling books and good at reaching audiences and helping people so We're grateful to have again part two with Charlie McKinney from Sophia's to press Welcome to the back to the show Charlie. Thanks great to be with you So you want to introduce him again just to our new new listeners and then to today don't know who he is So our dear friend, um, Charlie McKinney has served as publisher and president Yeah, uh, Sophia Institute press for nine years. I can hope good. Yeah, there you go for nine years In 2013 Charlie founded Sophia Institute for teachers again Amazing amazing resources if you have children in catholic schools and your principal does not know this Your superintendent of catholic schools does not know about it. Please Please get the word out to them. So the Sophia Institute for teachers Was founded and with the mission of forming catholic teachers through High quality training and curriculum resources that lead students to grow in holiness Charlie is also publisher of three popular catholic commentary websites catholic exchange crisis magazine and one peter five As well as benedictus, which is his new monthly companion to the traditional Latin mass have us be incredibly beautiful as well Yeah, it's like a magnifica but for the latin mass So those of you who love latin mass are still going to latin mass parishes or newly in latin mass parishes Benedictus check it out at Sophia at Sophia's website. Yeah, he also serves as a board member of our foundation the avalanche foundation And also the american principles project and the new hampshire base family policy institute cornerstone policy Research most importantly other than living in amherst new hampshire He is married to carolin and they have five beautiful children. Awesome. Welcome back to the show charlie Thanks. Thanks for having me. So charlie. I wanted so the first show for those folks who you missed it We talked about a new really beautiful Bible that they're producing called the catholic readers bible You can check that out on ewtn's website on our spiritualdirection.com on podcast all that you can find that out there once it's all published, but the what I wanted to talk with you today charlie is You know divine dismissive radio and our whole mission is about Reproposing the spiritual patrimony of the church Which is of course involves orthodox teaching and all that But I want it I want our readers to hear And get a taste of why I believe in you so much just from you like what What is your heart? What why do you care about catholic publishing and you know your your support for catholic school teachers and all that you do Like what drives you? well In our core purpose of sofia institute, uh, we state as The salvation of souls that's what our goal is and so that's really what motivates everything we do um, I can say in terms of the books we publish if if I our editorial team our marketing team Read a manuscript and feel that it helps us in some way to grow in holiness or to Come to know the faith better than it's it's a book that that we pursue We don't want to publish anything but just because we think it's going to sell well or because I don't know because it would be cool to do We really want to have You know meaning and purpose and our publishing And in terms of the teachers, I mean look that we've got a whole team of former teachers here that are Running our sofia institute for teachers division And they've experienced and seen firsthand a lot of the struggles that teachers have how poorly developed the textbooks are how they miss so much content out of the catholic faith And seeing this gaping hole which really kind of you know, I was enlightened after my conversion and several years later I put my children into catholic schools and I get exposed for the first time to what these textbooks look like And that it's just this flavorless catholicism that's being conveyed to to our our our children And that and that so many teachers, uh, just haven't had that rich Intellectual catechetical spiritual formation that that enables them to transcend beyond the textbooks And so if the text if the teachers don't have that formation They rely exclusively on the textbooks and if the textbooks don't have it Then what you're doing is you're you're graduating students who don't have a basic understanding the faith much less a spiritual life, which is even more important and so So we started sofia institute for teachers to solve that problem to to to form teachers to give them faithful materials in the classroom Because at the end of the day, you know You want you want these kids to be saints and and you've got to give them Everything you got to give them everything you can to to facilitate that Yeah, absolutely, you know, and I can really attest to the quality and the remarkable material it's interesting that you described The materials that you had seen as flavorless They were dad poorly Illustrated fluffy. I mean, you know, I have your experience as a catholic principal I'd look at materials and I'm going really this is what we're we're trying to convey No wonder everybody kind of rolls their eyes into their heads and you know, it's it's just having nothing Nothing substantive is going on with it and and the thing is is And like it or not, I mean the truth is I had I had a pastor one time when I was a catholic school principal And he said to me said Stephanie, you know, we've lost generations to poor catechesis Not not one year generations of catholics to poor catechesis And and we must bring the best of who we are. We must bring beauty and truth and excitement I mean the holy fire the holy fire of the holy spirit transforms And if we can learn about the truths of the faith and especially help form our teachers Who often don't have a lot of formation either just because you teach in a catholic school does not mean, you know The faith and so you I love the two part is that you cataclyse the teachers You have institutes for them where they can receive formation learn how to use the materials Learn about why these are these are important And then they take that excitement this new found faith and beauty and they actually have something in their hands That is well written well designed Where they can go and change what's happening in their classroom Pour out the spirit upon the children and you set that school on fire from the inside out And you truly can't help them become saints. That's good. How many dioceses are you in currently? What uh, yeah, so I was going to um, the the great thing about it is that it's actually working It's not just uh, you know a white paper and a business plan We've got 60 dioceses now who have outsourced all or a portion of their teacher training their professional development onto us Because every teacher is required to do professional development either by contract or because the diocese requires it And so we take over those days for them and run our programs. And so we've trained over 30 000 teachers since 2014 And um run hundreds of programs across the country And then our textbooks are now in something like 650 schools across the country are are using our textbooks and so It's been um, and we published those in 2017 So we've gained some pretty significant market share in in just a few years And I think that's a testament to the fact that You know what there is a desire for beauty and there is a desire for truth and there's such a hunger for it And maybe a lot of these teachers and even students didn't know they were hungering for it But once they see it and they experience it and they use it they realize Not only they they realize not only what they didn't know But they also realizes that they realize that their students have a capacity to know more than they give them credit for Because we simply are afraid to Teach third graders about concupiscence for example That you know the word they can't understand But you repeat that word over the course of a year and teach them what it means Those third graders are going to understand that a growing in virtue and overcoming temptation is something that you have to develop the habits for And and that sort of formation is essential and you frankly just don't don't get it with your standard textbooks and resources Absolutely. So we're going to take a break. But when we get back, we're going to continue this conversation with Charlie McKinney and Sophia Press Yes, so we're 1317. So can we just go 1230? Are we at 1317? Okay. All right All right, Mark. So this is Dan Stephanie Burke. Welcome back to Divine Intimacy Radio your radio Haven of brass. We're talking with Charlie McKinney about how to really understand Well, I getting in the head of a Catholic publisher I want to shift gears a bit charlie And talk about your heart in terms of so you said before the break We don't publish anything. We know That doesn't help us spiritually I've also seen you publish things that I've asked you to publish that we both knew That we both knew wouldn't make money But you did it because the publication was Was and would be beneficial for the church. That's very unusual In contrast, I know a Catholic publishers and I'll use quotes So I'm not talking about as an example good publishers like Ignatius press tan. That's the baronius But but in quotes Catholic who they'll just as quickly sell a richard roar book and richard roar is something that You you you can buy his books, but you should only use them as kindling for your fireplace But they'll just quickly sell a richard roar book as they will something on thomas equinas They'll they'll sell whatever sells that is not your model, right charlie everything you sell is orthodox Yeah, yeah with that look I'm gonna You know judgment day is going to come for me and I want that day to be as As good as possible. Okay, and if if I'm publishing things that I know I'm just gonna You know make money on and at the same time do damage to souls then, you know, I frankly I frankly don't want to I deal with that, but there are books like you said they can have tremendous spiritual impact But you know, they're not for everybody and and but but the You know while it's not going to have ongoing impact on our bottom line, right it is going to have An ongoing impact on on the culture on the catholic faith if if this sort of book gets out there and so Um, there's several that we've we've done and that we've done together for that purpose just because of the You know and look we publish books that do great We've got we've got a great sales department And I see the the fact that we are blessed with one book that may sell 20 000 units and gives us A a profit for which to sustain our operations We have a responsibility to take that and and use that profit to then publish books that You know can have an impact beyond But but is not going to bring in the same level of profit And so as as long as god continues to bless us with the means to invest in such products, we're going to continue to Yeah, and you know what's what's really awesome about it First of all that that you even consider that you Will meet your judgment one day and have to answer for what you do and I wish all businessmen I wish all business women, you know, everybody would consider that every day our decisions have an impact So, you know as as you're looking towards this charlie and This beautiful thing, you know, you think about the books that maybe don't sell the 20 000 units But have a spiritual impact That is immeasurable, you know the the Classic commercial of you know, it's priceless, right The the impact of getting one of those really spiritually heavy books That have such an impact in the hands of the right person who may pray That can have a huge impact. So Tell me what are you looking forward to publishing in 2022? Like what's on the docket? What can we look forward to seeing coming from sepia? In the year to come. Yeah, we've got we've got a lot of great titles one that i'm particularly excited about is We're we're publishing the first linton cookbook with scott han And we we've got chef david geiser as a former swiss guard is part of it the whole first section of that is Conveying the church is teaching on fasting and why it's important. Oh, very cool. Why penance is important It's it's it's it's describing the ember days, which we don't really practice any much So much anymore. And so the the audience for this is sort of your Well, it's for awk athletes. Okay, but the people we're really wanting to impact are those who Well, they go to mass every sunday, but they're not necessarily immersed in the spiritual life And that by publishing this book and getting it in their hands We're going to expose them to you know some teaching and understanding that they might not have known before So that'll come out in january the lintin cookbook We're also publishing two books by bishop schneider athanasius schneider One is the catholic mass That'll come out in january. So it's his reflections on on the holy mass And then the second one is the springtime that never came That'll come out in may and it's And it's basically his observations on the things that are going awry in the church and And and what we ought to do to address them Um, and then we've got a book by cardinal zen coming out in may as well, which is his biography He's just the remarkable life in communist china and the the his spirituality is so strong And I I feel like he's a living saint And so to to hear his story it's being translated right now But we've been working with him over Cosh about 12 years to do his definitive biography So we're excited to finally have that come out in may and then we also acquired romain catholic books Which was a publisher? You know it's been publishing books for about 30 years And we've just been bringing out so many of those out-of-print books that That they've published on On you know on the spiritual life. And so we've our spring is just packed with with those titles It'll be we're publishing about eight to ten books a month in 2022 is what we've got scheduled That's awesome charlie, but i'm sorry you've missed the most important I did uh, I was saving the best for last You interrupted me uh the The devil in the castle uh dan bergs next book it's gonna be okay, so look I love terry savabla. All right and This is gonna be a phenomenal book. We've done a first hardcover dan berg book Oh, I didn't know you're doing it hardcover. This is new. We're gonna do it. We're gonna do it in hard Okay, it's you know, I felt you deserved it. You know, it's uh, I'll give you a hug next time. I see Yeah It's a great book devil in the castle. We've already got it up on the site. You could pre order it pre order it now So that comes out when february, I think Yeah, I think february, but it's uh So the subtitle I think is saint Saint therese of avila spiritual warfare in the progress of the soul And i'm grateful you published it. I know it wasn't a hard decision because we How many do we sell in spiritual warfare and discernment of spirits quite a lot, right? Yeah, I think I think it was close to 30 30 000 Uh, yeah 30 35. Yeah, it sold really well and but this book I love because It's it's never been done on therese of avila in the history of the church that we're aware of And it's it's a reflection on her perspective on spiritual warfare at each stage of the interior life. So it's it's uh And what part of the reason I wrote the book charlie It is I my hypothesis was i'm not crazy Right, so let's see if the way I think and believe about spiritual warfare If if you know, what's the proper sourcing of it and all of that and in in the end I was delighted because you know, she's a doctor of the church She rocked the world and continues to do so in terms of her teaching the highest most important teaching on prayer in the history of the church But she had a view of spiritual warfare that is not commonly held in our time except for some fringy groups And that is that the enemy is always at work and you have to understand him to defeat him It it's not that we focus on the enemy But that we Understand and therefore, you know are able to defeat him Uh at each stage knowing what kind of attacks are going to come Yeah, you can never let your guard down that that that's right. I appreciate you publishing that Yeah, and I'm excited and by the way, you know I think your wife does the majority of the graphics for the books and they just are beautiful And this this one coming out the devil in the castle, you know, your your new book dan is uh, it's so beautiful Yeah, it's one of my favorites. Yes, beautiful. I love it ever and spiritual warfare and discernment spirits cover was I mean simple But awesome as well. Yeah. Yeah, so so i'm gonna Kind of transition to something that's near and dear to my heart that a lot of people won't And won't actually know about it, but I was a music major in college. I've got two kids I've got one that's uh, and and a son-in-law who are both opera singers Ariel and kiana and then I have another son He was also a vocalist So I want to know what you're doing with sophia music and what's this thing about hymnals and everything tell tell us about This because I I feel like I've spent seven or eight years Really building up the press and sophia super teachers and they're getting Uh, uh stable and kind of on rails to a large degree So i'm trying to find where I can invest my time that can make some meaningful impact and you know To be honest one of the things I think about when we're out there evangelizing is you know Let's say we plan a seed and they decide that they're going to go to mass next sunday Okay, and they just pick a random church and they walk in it or is that experience that they're going to have Right. It's they're I don't know. It's a 50 50 chance. They go into into a mass and that's really generous That is that is reverent and beautiful and and is really gonna attract and pull them in Okay, and I think one of the reasons for this is just the music and uh, and you know, I music directors are very busy, okay, and um, You know, I can't be an easy job and a lot of the hymnals that are out there are really just Protestant hymnals Okay, there's not catholic theology in the hymns and there really has any of the catholic hymnals are are really just Um, a bridgements of a Protestant hymnal So there hasn't been a real catholic hymnal published in a hundred something years And so what we're doing is we're putting we're putting together a beautiful catholic hymnal that has exclusively catholic hymns that have been sourced from the beginning of time And putting it together in a very easy and accessible way at an inexpensive price Okay, so that's what we're doing with the hymnals and then we're working with a guy out in uh, Los angeles, uh, uh that actually runs corpus christi watershed, which is a great resource for musicians and and parishes Uh to you know, potentially run programs that are training Um That are training music directors love that and putting together Look, one of the things we want to do is put together like little youtube videos where the choir can Can practice if you're a soprano or whatever you just hear your piece of it So you can practice and when you come together for 30 minutes on sunday morning or whenever you practice You've already got all of the notes down and you're you know You're further advanced than you would be if you started from scratch And that I think will enable the parishes to then cover a multitude of hymns rather than singing the same five goofy songs Every sunday, and so there's a lot more I could get into but for the sake of time We're really starting to to deeply dive into how to solve this problem in a meaningful way that that that will address the issue while lifting the burdens off the people in the in the industry So charlie, we've got to wrap it up. I just want to tell everyone 100% I couldn't give it a higher endorsement I believe in it completely totally believe in charlie believe in his team. There's no safer better publisher There are great publishers out there like ignatius and tan and that But my number one publisher is uh, sophia and stupras charlie. Thanks for all the great work you do for the church Well, thank you guys and thanks. Thank you for what you do. Thanks. God bless you charlie I'll let it that out until the 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. Just because that was a little messy. I'll try it again Just say thank you to him and then go to the exit Thank you charlie 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. Thanks charlie. It's so good to see you. You got to come Yeah