Catholic Education Matters | Raising Saints in Today's World: Dylan Drego on Prayer, Parenting, and the Catholic Faith

This episode of Catholic Education Matters features an inspiring conversation with Dylan Drego, a Catholic educator, speaker, and creator of the Latin Prayer Podcast, as he shares his incredible journey of faith—from growing up in Dubai to discovering a deeper relationship with Christ through Catholic education, mentorship, and the rich traditions of the Church. Dylan reflects on the life-changing impact of prayer, the Rosary, the Latin Mass, and the Eucharist, while offering practical advice on raising children in the faith, overcoming vice through grace and sacrifice, and pursuing holiness in everyday life. Together, Dylan and host Troy Van Vliet discuss what it truly means to become a saint in the modern world, emphasizing that authentic Catholic living begins with prayer, intentional family life, and a wholehearted commitment to Christ.

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• (00:00) - Intro
• (02:43) - Dylan’s Journey: India, Dubai, Canada & Finding His Catholic Identity
• (07:32) - Success, Wealth & Discovering What Really Matters
• (11:08) - The Purpose of Life: Becoming the Best Version of Yourself
• (15:55) - “What Would the Saint Version of Me Do?”
• (18:23) - Why Dylan Started the Latin Prayer Podcast
• (28:05) - How the Latin Mass Changed His Family’s Faith
• (33:43) - Teaching Children to Pray the Mass with Intention
• (41:05) - Can You Experience This at Any Catholic Mass?
• (45:52) - Overcoming Anger, Addiction & Vice Through Sacrifice
• (49:23) - Praying with the Saints & the Holy Souls
• (55:07) - The Rosary, Catholic Education & Rebuilding the Family
• (01:06:47) - Technology, AI & Forming Young Catholics in the Digital Age
• (01:26:42) - Final Advice for Parents Raising Children in the Faith
• (01:30:00) - Outro

Creators and Guests

Host

Troy Van Vliet

Host of Catholic Education Matters, father, and founder of Saint John Paul II Academy

Guest

Dylan Drego

Producer

Silveria Roselli

What is Catholic Education Matters ?

Welcome to Catholic Education Matters the podcast that celebrates the beauty of Catholic education, highlighting excellence in academics, athletics, and the transformative power of faith. Join us as we share the stories of those making a lasting impact on Catholic education.

[00:00:01] Intro: Welcome to Catholic Education Matters, the podcast that celebrates the beauty of Catholic education, highlighting excellence in academics, athletics, and the transformative power of faith. Join us as we share the stories of those making a lasting impact on Catholic education. Let's begin.

[00:00:26] Troy Van Vliet: Good day everyone. Welcome to Catholic Education Matters. My name is Troy Van Vliet and I'm here today with Dylan Drego.

[00:00:32] Dylan Drego: Howdy, sir.

[00:00:33] Troy Van Vliet: Welcome Dylan.

[00:00:34] Dylan Drego: Pleasure.

[00:00:34] Troy Van Vliet: And a supporter of Catholic education in a different kind of way because you're, well, you're doing it online.

[00:00:40] Dylan Drego: Yes, sir.

[00:00:41] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. Which is awesome. So I'm going to read a little bit about you. I'll read it out loud here so we don't forget anything. It'll kind of give you a good, a good introduction.

[00:00:48] Dylan Drego: I'll try not to blush.

[00:00:49] Troy Van Vliet: Okay. Perfect. Dylan Drago is a Catholic educator, speaker and podcaster with a deep passion for helping young people grow in faith through prayer, reflection and lived experience. He is especially known for his thoughtful witness to the power of prayer in daily life with a particular devotion to the holy rosary as a source of peace, discipline, and spiritual formation. Through his work, Dylan invites others to encounter faith not as an abstract idea, but as a living relationship rooted in trust, perseverance, and love for Christ. His ability to speak openly and authentically about prayer resonates with both youth and adults, encouraging a deeper interior life grounding in hope life grounded in hope and humanity humility. Dylan's approach closely reflects the mission of Saint John Paul the second Academy, forming young people in mind, body, and spirit, and helping them discover how faith can shape their decision their decisions, character, and sense of purpose. He brings warmth, clarity, and sincerity to every conversation and his experience as a Catholic educator and podcaster makes him a natural and engaging voice for discussions on Catholic education, prayer and the spiritual life. Dylan, welcome to Catholic Education Matters.

[00:02:10] Dylan Drego: Thank you so much for having me.

[00:02:12] Troy Van Vliet: Thanks so much for coming today. We got and we were chatting before we started and we were having some great conversation and then we thought, wait a minute, we got to stop. This is good. This is good material. We got to so anyway, welcome.

[00:02:25] We're so I'm so excited to to get into some deep conversation with

[00:02:28] Dylan Drego: you I'm looking forward to it. I really appreciate the opportunity to spend some time with you.

[00:02:32] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. So give us a little bit about your background. You're from North Vancouver. Yes. And well, married with kids and

[00:02:41] Dylan Drego: So all let's hear

[00:02:42] Troy Van Vliet: a little bit about

[00:02:43] Dylan Drego: We'll go back a little bit. Go back a little bit. So I was actually I was born in India and for the first ten years of my life, I didn't actually live in India. I lived in Dubai in a concrete jungle, middle of a desert. Anything and it's funny because there was a Catholic community there.

[00:02:59] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. But there's

[00:03:00] Dylan Drego: a funny story that's attached to that. In Dubai, there are so many different ethnicities that are going to school at the same time. There's people, expats, there's people from The Netherlands, there's people from all from from Great Britain, from India. And one of the first questions you get asked when you go to school is what are you? And by asking what are you?

[00:03:20] They mean where are you from? And I didn't know what the correct answer was. And I asked my mom and my mom said, well, when they ask you what you are, you just tell them that you're Roman Catholic. Now that has stuck with me my entire life. Nice.

[00:03:34] Because I've never really identified with any ethnicity. And I've, you know, I have some Portuguese and British blood in

[00:03:42] Troy Van Vliet: me. Yep.

[00:03:42] Dylan Drego: I have Indian blood in me. I grew up in Dubai, but I've always seen my identity universally as Catholic because of that one thing that my mom told me when I was probably four or five years old. Yeah. Anyway, first ten years of my life there, we came to Canada when I was, I guess, 10, between 10 and 11. And I went to St.Thomas Aquinas High School in North Yep. Yeah. Graduated from there and had probably the best years in terms of formation and education and catholicity than that that any that anyone could ever ask for. I met my my wife there, high school sweetheart, and we ended up getting married, think when we were I was 21, she was 22. 2008, we ended getting married. And today we've got four lovely children. My oldest just became a teenager. So I have a 13 year old in the house.

[00:04:37] We have three boys and a girl. And my youngest is my daughter Gemma, she's six. And so strong names, Maximilian, Fulton, Benedict and Gemma. Thanks. Yes.

[00:04:50] St Maximilian Colby is almost special.

[00:04:54] Troy Van Vliet: Named our school St Maximilian. Really?

[00:04:56] Dylan Drego: That's really cool. Very

[00:04:58] Troy Van Vliet: close.

[00:04:58] Dylan Drego: So we've been living, I've never known anything other than what it means to be Catholic. And I've wrestled with and struggled with, but there's if I look back just purely at what kept me Catholic growing up when so many of my peers abandoned their faith, didn't understand or know the faith, it wasn't just simply knowing about God. Mhmm. It wasn't knowing the truths of the church. It was being challenged by good educators, being challenged by good people who genuinely cared about the eternal destination of my soul.

[00:05:40] And they challenged me to live that out at various points through high school and then past that many of them became friends and good mentors. And so today, I run multiple businesses. One of those is I've a podcast, the Latin prayer podcast, which I started in 2017. And it was born out of a just this desire to understand and live out my faith better and to share it with the world, to make it easier for other people to encounter our Lord. And God has done something amazing with that and is continuing to do something amazing with it.

[00:06:18] So that's how we're here today.

[00:06:20] Troy Van Vliet: That's awesome. Yeah, and I think Joe King, did he Oh no, he met you through Murray. That's right. Yeah.

[00:06:28] Dylan Drego: I met Murray through Kyle and Kyle and I go back to the archdiocese because actually I didn't mention this earlier before we started. When I graduated from high school, I found a job in the vocations office at the archdiocese of Vancouver, 150 Robson. When I was there, I was working in that office and kind of doing a little bit of everything. And I remember there was this new guy that just started and he showed up at the door and he's like, hi, my name's Kyle. I'm working two doors down in this different office.

[00:06:58] And I was 19 or 18. And I had a full beard, like bigger than I have right now.

[00:07:04] Troy Van Vliet: And I was

[00:07:05] Dylan Drego: I didn't have any, you know, salt and pepper in it at the time. And he looked at me and he goes, So how many kids do you have? I'm like, are you

[00:07:11] Troy Van Vliet: talking about?

[00:07:12] Dylan Drego: I'm not even married yet. Like how old do you think I am? And he thought I was 40. Like I looked a little bit older than yeah, the beard kind of changes thing. But that's kind of how, you know, we've been part of this world together for twenty years now.

[00:07:25] It's been really cool.

[00:07:26] Troy Van Vliet: That is awesome. That's awesome. So yeah, so you've had different businesses or you have different businesses. So you've been finance?

[00:07:32] Dylan Drego: I've been finance for twenty years, run and built a financial services agency from the ground and, you know, did all of the really cool things that every young entrepreneur wants to do. You make good money, you travel the world, you have all of these experiences and somehow that means you're successful.

[00:07:50] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah.

[00:07:50] Dylan Drego: And at the end of all of that, like every successful person will tell you, it means nothing. Honestly, it means nothing. You can cruise the Sea Of Cortez on a $14,000,000 yacht with your wife and your, you know, two year old son and you can have all these really cool experiences, but then at the end of the day you sit there and go, is this it? Is this is this really me becoming the best version of myself? Yeah.

[00:08:15] Where is the virtue? Yeah. And when you're surrounded by people who don't put virtue as the number one thing and they don't have that as the end goal, you're always just chasing the next shiny thing.

[00:08:28] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah.

[00:08:29] Dylan Drego: And it gets tiring and exhausting and mentally fatiguing, never mind spiritually and emotionally.

[00:08:34] Troy Van Vliet: So as you get older, I can't remember who it was. Actually, won't mention the name on it, where somebody is saying massively successful, deep in their eighties now and has chased the shiny thing forever and, their health has declined and they're so unhappy with their life. And, and you know, now, you know, hopefully there's time for them to revert back to their faith if they had one before, but yeah, emptiness is there in a big way. You're just chasing the next thing, next party, the next concert, the next event. Totally.

[00:09:12] Dylan Drego: There's never a break and part of all of all of that lifestyle, you know, there were some hard lines I drew in the sand, but that world is very there's a it's not just a lack of virtue, there's a lot of vice in the business world. And when I looked at mentors or people that had been in that industry ten years longer than I was, or twenty years longer than me, and they were grooming me or trying to make me the next person to step in their shoes or take over, the next them. I really had to have a hard look and go, well, my marriage is too important to me. My children's souls, my family, that's too important for me to become this, which is not what God wants and I wrestled with God for that for a long time because I knew different and I had a relationship with him.

[00:10:02] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[00:10:03] Dylan Drego: And I kept saying, well, don't you want me to have these really nice things? Right? Shouldn't I be able to give my family really nice things? And yeah, there's a piece of that as a husband and father, you do Provider. You provide her and protect her, but really all of the wealth that you can create in the world should be at the service of your family.

[00:10:22] Yeah. Right? We we go back to the catechism and we look at why were we created? To know God, to love God, right? To spend all eternity with him.

[00:10:34] Like the I used to say this phrase when I was training, building my agency and, know, I ended up helping. I've trained tens of hundreds of people over twenty years in finance. And I always had to find a way to bring to be discreet, but to be very blunt with people about what the meaning of life was. If you're gonna go pursue things, there has to be something deeper than just the shiny thing. And I would always use this cliche phrase, you know, the meaning of life or the purpose of life is for you to become the best version of yourself.

[00:11:08] In my mind, the best version of yourself is a saint. Yeah. And so I had no problem saying that to people, you know, and I'd finish that sentence in my head every And now I just flat out tell you, tell everybody, like the my kids, if you had to ask them that question, that's the number one answer is, well, why are we here? Want to become a saint? That's the goal.

[00:11:31] And if that's the goal, it then orders everything else in your life. Yeah. Now everything you put first things first and second things second, cause if you don't, you'll ruin both the first thing and the second thing.

[00:11:42] Troy Van Vliet: It's funny. I remember as a kid, father Fagan in a White Rock at the Star Of The Sea. So when, yeah, I probably wasn't even in, I would have been in elementary school and I remember his homilies where he always got, he was included golf in there. Yeah. Some way he always weave golf, the game of golf into life and he always talked about becoming saints and scholars.

[00:12:06] And I remember as a kid going like, really? I remember thinking that back then and it's so true and here you are saying it today. Yeah. What else is there really? And that ultimately will be the most fulfilling thing and living your life as a saint doesn't necessarily mean out there preaching every day or being evangelical, what have you.

[00:12:30] It's living your life as a saint. Yeah. You know,

[00:12:33] Dylan Drego: we're asking yourself the question, what would the, you know, when you're faced with something joyful or something terrifying Yeah. Asking just stopping and asking yourself the question, what would the saint version of me do with this for the next twenty minutes, hour Yeah. Day? How would the saint version of me handle this? And sometimes it's running to the adoration chapel and just crying for ten minutes and going, I don't know.

[00:13:03] Like, you know, you beg God to show you a path or a way, but even that gives you the fortitude and the graces necessary to just go back and face the world or face whatever it is. But that self reflection of, is this really the best version of me coming out right now? How would the and even in the home, right? There's from a parenting perspective, there's moments and times where I'll look and go, my my lack of virtue or my vices everywhere that I struggle, whether it's let's say it's anger, for example. Right?

[00:13:41] Like really frustrated that my kids are pushing my buttons right now and I'm tempted to kinda just lose it. Like, you know, all the the bolts and seams are coming apart here. Just stopping and going. You can you can throw up a prayer and you should, but stopping and even practically asking if the saint version of me were to take over my body right now. Yeah.

[00:14:02] What would they say? How would they say it? How would they behave with what tone of voice would they use? And sometimes you have to do that retroactively. I had an experience recently where with one of my sons who is very exuberant and vibrant, and he's got a very, you know, like a heart after God.

[00:14:19] This child is a wild child

[00:14:21] Troy Van Vliet: and

[00:14:22] Dylan Drego: I love him to bits. He's just so beautiful. And there's moments where we'll butt heads and I'll stop after we butt heads and I'll I'll reflect and go, what should have I said? What would the saint version of me have done? Mhmm.

[00:14:42] Is there something that I've preached that I'm not living?

[00:14:45] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[00:14:45] Dylan Drego: So that the next time this happens, because it's gonna happen, I'm gonna stop and think of I'm gonna interrupt them.

[00:14:52] Troy Van Vliet: Better prepared and you handle it Because different

[00:14:54] Dylan Drego: if you don't prepare, you don't attempt to figure out what you would do different. You don't stand a chance the next time that opportunity arises. Right? So we had it three days later where I had this moment of I could see that he was coming unglued and it was wiring me up and I was about to go down this like, you know, we're going to start butting heads again. And I stopped and I had that question was like ringing out loud in my head going, what would this version of you do?

[00:15:18] Remember, this is just like last time. And I I managed to diffuse the situation by the grace of God. There was definitely my guardian angel there, like shoving that thought back into my head, taking that preparation I'd done and go, here you go. Here's here's your layup. And it worked and it was such a thing to be grateful for because you can know everything that doesn't necessarily equal.

[00:15:41] You're going to live well.

[00:15:43] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So sorry,

[00:15:46] Dylan Drego: I rambled there. No, those are great.

[00:15:48] Troy Van Vliet: I wrote it down. What would the same version of myself do right now? That is, that's fantastic. Those are great words. Great words.

[00:15:55] Thank you. Cause so often throughout the day, we're thrown into a situation, what have you, where, and it can be at work, it can be dealing with somebody, it could be, you know, you're just fed some bad information or nasty, something nasty and you have to respond best not to react, but to respond thoughtfully. And if you can do it in such a way when you feel your anxiety just starting to build or anger starting to build up inside to say, yeah, what would the same version of myself do right now? And you know, others would say too, what would Jesus do? You know, how would Jesus handle this?

[00:16:29] So, but probably not being able to relate with actually being Jesus is probably Yeah, exactly.

[00:16:37] Dylan Drego: You look

[00:16:37] Troy Van Vliet: at To say, yeah, what would the saint version of me?

[00:16:39] Dylan Drego: And sometimes the saint version of you is gonna go consult with God. You don't have to respond immediately sometimes because it's okay. We're we're in a fallen state. Yeah. We don't have total control over our our passions.

[00:16:57] We have concupiscence. And so sometimes just that pause and going, I'm gonna go consult with an adviser, the best adviser, the author of life itself. And I'm just gonna go take some time to pray and think about what's best here.

[00:17:11] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. And

[00:17:11] Dylan Drego: sometimes it warrants letting things go, sometimes it warrants just praying for that person or asking God for for strength. It doesn't always have to be an immediate Yeah. Response right

[00:17:24] Troy Van Vliet: Exactly. Sometimes you're best to diffuse the situation by walking out of the room for minute and give it some thought before you, I know my youngest daughter can push my buttons actually. She can be a little, can be a little sorry. I'm in a house of women. We've got, it's my wife and we've got two daughters.

[00:17:43] Okay. So, yeah, I've had to figure out how to be able to interact with them because they don't respond the same way boys do. It's very different. And, so, my brother's got five boys.

[00:17:56] Dylan Drego: Oh yeah. Total other end

[00:17:57] Troy Van Vliet: of the spectrum.

[00:17:59] Dylan Drego: That's probably a really funny house.

[00:18:01] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah, yeah. Exactly. So my dad came from 10 boys. Imagine that without any girls. Incredible.

[00:18:10] People say my grandmother was blessed.

[00:18:12] Dylan Drego: Yeah, no kidding. She must have given tremendous graces to handle that. My

[00:18:17] Troy Van Vliet: goodness. 10 boys. That's crazy. So prayer. Yeah.

[00:18:23] Okay, so your podcast, you're the host of the Latin prayer podcast. Now, where does that come from? The Latin prayer podcast. How does that come about? Well,

[00:18:35] Dylan Drego: okay. You

[00:18:37] Troy Van Vliet: go to a Latin Mass.

[00:18:37] Dylan Drego: I go to a Latin Mass yesterday.

[00:18:39] Troy Van Vliet: Why is that important to you? Where, how do you like, you've come from North Vancouver.

[00:18:45] Dylan Drego: Yeah.

[00:18:45] Troy Van Vliet: You belong to a parish out there.

[00:18:47] Dylan Drego: Yeah.

[00:18:48] Troy Van Vliet: And now you actually commute to

[00:18:49] Dylan Drego: The go history to Lad of all of that, I'll try to be as concise as I can with the story and not to rabbit hole anywhere, but it was all born out of a desire to get to know our Lord better and to live out the faith. Like I'd mentioned earlier, being challenged by some very good people in my life to live what I said I believed. And you notice it, especially when you have kids because now they're watching you and they copy you. Yeah. They pay attention and they ask questions.

[00:19:26] And I remembered there was a time in my life, God bless my parents. My parents the best that they could with what was available to them, you know. It's not easy to move from India to Dubai and then sacrifice everything again after having built a foundation and then moved from Dubai to Canada and start over. And we struggled a lot. We struggled financially a lot.

[00:19:48] And all through that struggle financially, my my mom had a very strong devotion to the rosary and we would pray the rosary every day as a family, but she couldn't answer my questions. Why? What difference does it make? Mhmm. Says who?

[00:20:06] Mhmm. What is the effect? She just wasn't catechized. She didn't really have an opportunity to learn but she was devoted. And there's some merit to that and it's beautiful.

[00:20:17] But when I when my wife and I had kids and I started to notice these things, I had this vision of being asked the same questions

[00:20:27] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[00:20:27] Dylan Drego: And I didn't want the same response that I got from my parents. This this is just what we do. Mhmm. This is and it's important because I wanted something deeper. I wanted desperately for them to just tell me with complete certainty, we know this to be true.

[00:20:45] This is reality. This isn't something we think And I wanted that to be lived. So I went on this path to just sort of a reversion to the faith. I never left to the faith formally. Went through the motions like everyone else does and did all of the things that were expected of me.

[00:21:03] But I wanted to really understand and know. In trying to understand and know and discovering and educating myself, and this is stuff that I thought I should have learned in high school. I realized that it was missing from my education. I was catechized. I thought, well, I knew more more than most people.

[00:21:22] And then I realized there's this sort of chasm. It felt like this is deep well of information, of knowledge, of tradition, of custom, of history that I was just totally unaware of. And the minute that I began to taste it, I was like, there's so much here, there's nobody knows. And I could spend the rest of my life just buried in discovering all of these histories, customs, traditions, prayers, all of these things that the church has always held and taught and believed. So it started with just me educating myself and wanting to know out of curiosity.

[00:22:03] Having a good spiritual director. Mentioned father John Horgan, God rest his soul. He was my spiritual director for a number of years, and he was critical. He was the kind of the catalyst for me discovering or rediscovering what the church has always taught and believed. And along that path, I fell in love with Latin.

[00:22:28] And I'm not a Latin scholar, I'm not a linguist in any by any shape or means. And I realized because of some, let's say, preternatural experiences and listening to a bunch of exorcists talk. Because when you start dealing with stuff like that, you kind of, you know, you kind of land on, okay, who do the Protestants call when there's an exorcism that they can't deal with? They call it Catholic priests, they call an exorcist, they call the bishop and the bishop has authority and why does he have authority and how did they pray and what did they say? It led me down this path to go, oh, there's something about this language that is no one's really aware of, but it's really cool.

[00:23:13] Let me just push into that a bit more and discover it. Mhmm. And for your listeners probably know this, but in case they don't, Latin is one of three languages that has been set apart and sanctified simply because they were put up upon the cross above our Lord at the crucifixion.

[00:23:33] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[00:23:34] Dylan Drego: So when Pontius Pilate wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews, he wrote it in Latin, in Greek, and in Hebrew. And if you go do a little bit of research about these I didn't know that. Yeah. So these three languages, they were written in in those three languages and because they were written in those languages, they are actually set apart. They were sanctified for use in the liturgy.

[00:24:00] They're sort of extra special in a certain way. They're like a sacramental. And because they were attached to the cross when our Lord died. And so the reason why the Roman Catholic church for almost two full centuries has used Latin, ecclesiastical Latin, as the language of the liturgy until very recently. It's because it was efficacious.

[00:24:27] It is a language of surgical precision. It was only previously used for law and for science. In fact, it's still used in law and in science. If you look at scientific literature, what are the origin of most words or definitions? They have Latin roots.

[00:24:44] It's a language of surgical precision.

[00:24:46] Troy Van Vliet: Right.

[00:24:47] Dylan Drego: And the mass has been and was always celebrated in that fashion. Words meant very specific things and they did not mean other things. Which is why exorcists would use Latin in exorcisms. So it's got me thinking. Was like, man, it'd be really cool if I could learn how to pray the rosary in Latin.

[00:25:09] Yeah. This is part of my rediscovering the faith and I was going to challenge myself to pray the rosary every day for three sixty five days. I'm like, how can I make this really easy for me to do? Well, it'd be really nice if I could just follow along with someone else who was praying it already. So I went online, tried to find a Latin rosary podcast and there were lots that were out there that had beautiful chant and some of them that had sort of like ethereal music going on in the background.

[00:25:40] It's just not my vibe. I just I needed it to be sort of like a workout, you know, rigorous. This needs to be functional.

[00:25:48] Troy Van Vliet: It needs

[00:25:48] Dylan Drego: to be kind of rugged. I just want to get through this. I want it to be sort of like heavy lifting. So I said, well, maybe I'll just, I can't find one that I like. It wasn't easy.

[00:25:57] I'll just record one and I'll make a private podcast for myself. So I needed a title. I just came up with something like Latin prayer podcast. Like I just didn't even think about this at all. Recorded a rosary in Latin.

[00:26:09] This is me, myself speaking to me myself, so I could pray the rosary in Latin every day for three hundred and sixty five days. And I thought I was just gonna put it up online. It was just gonna be for

[00:26:19] Troy Van Vliet: me. Mhmm.

[00:26:20] Dylan Drego: And God had a different plan. And it all of a sudden I started I went on to look at the analytics of the podcast and realized, hey, there's some other person in another part of the world, like people in The Philippines who are learning this. There's people in various parts of Russia who are listening to this. There's people in China listening to this. Like, this has to be weird.

[00:26:45] Like, it must be a bot or something.

[00:26:47] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah.

[00:26:47] Dylan Drego: And then I started getting emails from people going, could you just record the Hail Mary, the Ave Maria in Latin so that we could practice it? And I went, there's like legitimately other people who are interested in this and I just didn't know any better. I said, okay. So I recorded the Our Father and the Hail Mary and the Glory Be.

[00:27:06] Troy Van Vliet: And

[00:27:06] Dylan Drego: One thing led to another and God took it where he wanted to take it. So since 2017, I've been podcasting and running the Latin prayer podcast, learning and sharing what I've discovered and learned. And it's been me just sort of being in this this giant bucket of customs, history, traditions, prayers, you know, whether they're litany or they're full rosary, whatever it is in cyclicals. It's kind of bridged or broadened out to everything. Now I put out Latin learning guides for people who want to learn the prayers that the church is always used in Latin.

[00:27:45] Yeah. Make it really easy for them to learn it themselves or teach their kids and it's available for free. And and it's been just such a fun journey. And the best part about all of this has been what it's done for my family spiritually. It eventually led us to the Latin mass.

[00:28:05] Right. It eventually led us to this deep love and reverence for our Lord in the Eucharist. A love for adoration.

[00:28:13] Troy Van Vliet: A

[00:28:14] Dylan Drego: respect everything from kneeling and receiving on the tongue to the way that we dress when we show up at mass. Even the unruliest of my kids watching the transformation go from being at mass where they were before, not able to sit still and being distracted to we're here, the sacrifice is taking place. We are surrounded by countless numbers of spiritual beings who are so much more powerful than we are because our Lord is present on the altar. And it's only by his mercy that our irreverence is not we're not struck down dead. You think about just stop and

[00:28:59] Troy Van Vliet: Oh, yeah.

[00:29:00] Dylan Drego: They get this to such a degree. Now, my oldest my oldest son, Max, we're driving and he asked me, he goes, daddy, can you explain to me how you pray the mass? And I went, yeah. How much do you wanna know? He goes, I wanna know exactly how you do it because I've heard you talk when you're recording on your podcast, something about the souls in purgatory and something about at mass at the consecration, souls are released from purgatory.

[00:29:33] Could you talk to me about that? We spent a good solid forty five minutes on a drive talking about how you can make your mass so efficacious. And this isn't anything that I invented. I was in Rome a number of years ago, just before my third son was born, Benedict, would have been twenty seventeen. I was there for Easter and I happened to walk into a church in Trastevere where there's this beautiful person lying in underneath an aside altar.

[00:30:07] Her name is blessed Anna Maria Taiji. She's an incorrupt. She looks like she just fell asleep. She's like grandmother just sleeping right in front of you in an altar. Getting shivers talking about this.

[00:30:19] I was blown away by witnessing this. She had a special devotion to the holy souls in purgatory. And in reading all of her writings, I discovered a number of things that were revealed to her and what the church against various saints have always talked about this and said this. It is true that at the consecration, souls are released from purgatory at that moment. And when I was learning to serve the Latin mass, I remember the person who was teaching me, his name is Carl.

[00:30:53] Carl, if you're listening, thank you for this metaphor and this example, or this explaining this to me. He said, this is the moment you're on your knees. The priest is about to say the words of consecration beneath you right here, the floor is going to separate. The souls that have been waiting for this moment, the blood of Christ will drip on them. You will be surrounded by angels and they will be lifted up because this is their moment to finally see God face to face.

[00:31:22] And I went, I don't know that I can be here. I don't know that I'm supposed to be here in this moment. And so I started to realize that every mass, I have an opportunity to offer an indulgence or a plenary indulgence, take all of my prayers, works, joy, sufferings throughout the week and bring them to this moment, place them on the pattern to place it in the chalice like the drop of water that gets dropped into the wine and becomes inseparable with the blood of Christ. I get to bring all of this and this is my offering for those who may have been suffering for a long time forgotten about. And if my prayer aids them in getting to heaven, Padre Pio and venerable Fulton Sheen have said, you will arrive, God willing, at heaven and you will see them.

[00:32:16] And they'll come up to you and they'll say, thank you. And you'll say, I don't know who you are. And they'll say, I was a soul you prayed for in purgatory. How grateful could they be for the rest of your life while you're here on earth, they will intercede for you. They will do everything in their power to bring you to heaven.

[00:32:43] They will beg before the throne of God for the graces that you need so that you could amend your life and get there. For those that have left the faith in my own family. So me and my 13 year old son are having questions like this. This is the discussion that we're having. This was the discussion I wanted to have with my mom and my dad.

[00:33:01] Yeah. How many masses? And the first thing that he said to me was like, how many masses have I wasted? What was the first thing he said? I'm like, chill buddy.

[00:33:14] It's okay. Relax. You know, I get it. I know exactly how you feel. Trust me.

[00:33:18] How many have I wasted? It's okay. But now that you know, you can do something about this. You can do you can make every mass count. And it matters what you offer, what you bring to that mass, how you bring it.

[00:33:33] It matters. It makes a difference.

[00:33:35] Troy Van Vliet: So what did you tell him to do at mass? Like in terms of how to approach mass at that stage?

[00:33:43] Dylan Drego: Well, it starts with getting there. Like we get there early enough, we're there about a half hour before and you have to come with the intention of offering something, which means you have to recollect. You have to think back this week. What have I done? Did I did I participate in the family rosary?

[00:33:58] Because you can gain a plenary indulgence for praying the rosary as a family, and you can offer that plenary indulgence on Sunday. So we pray the rosary driving to mass, the twenty minutes that it takes us to get there from North Bend, prayed as a family. And I'm like, you gotta make an intention here that you're gonna offer this and fulfill all of the conditions, you're gonna offer this for a soul in purgatory. And when we get there, we re offer that we say that to our So I and I have a bunch of intentions and I offer it for the health and safety, salvation, sanctification of my wife, by name, my sons, Maximilian Fulton Benedict, my daughter, Gemma, by name, I name all of them. And I say, for all of the endeavors, for my businesses, for God to bless our, my ability to produce, to provide and to protect for my family for their spiritual good, for their nourishment, for their physical good.

[00:34:50] You'll offer it for specific intentions, but at the very end of all of that, it's for a soul right now that's been waiting for all eternity for this moment. There's a story Padre Pio, I told Max this story too. I said, story of Padre Pio, he was praying in the sanctuary by himself and he saw somebody come up to the altar to start dusting and cleaning and he thought it was someone that he knew and he went up to them and he said, brother, it's too late. Why are you dusting the altar and cleaning now? You should go.

[00:35:25] And this person turned and he realized this was a soul in purgatory that was permitted by God to appear to him. He said, when you don't remember me, maybe you don't remember me, but I used to be part of this group. And in my hastiness, when I would dust, I would not genuflect when I would cross in front of the altar because I just wanted to get my job done. And as punishment, this is my purgatory is to relive this moment and to come in dust. And God is permitting me to appear to you because if you say mass for me, and Padre Pio interrupted him and said, say no more.

[00:36:10] You will be in paradise when I say my mass in the morning. And this was at like 03:00 in the morning or something like that. So we're talking like in three hours from now, I'm gonna say mass and you'll be in paradise. Mhmm. As the soul said, God would permit me if you say mass for me to to enter into the beatific vision.

[00:36:27] And Padre Pio thinks he's doing this soul a mercy by saying in three hours, I'll say my mass, you'll be in heaven. And the soul turns to him upset and says, you're so cruel and vanished. And it and Padre Pio realized at that moment, three hours for him could be an eternity for that soul in

[00:36:47] Troy Van Vliet: purgatory.

[00:36:48] Dylan Drego: And he didn't realize what he had done. And I share that to go, it matters what we do and how we do it and when we do it in this life. So you bring all of those intentions at the consecration, at the offertory, restate those intentions because that's when everything's being offered. You have to make an offering there. What are you offering?

[00:37:12] So with the patent, I said to Max, I say, I offer my body on the patent, let it be crucified there with Christ. Whatever is vicious in me, let it be crucified with Him. Whatever is good in me, let it be made perfect and acceptable so that it'd be offered. With the chalice, let all of my prayers, my works, my joys, my sufferings this week be offered with that drop of water, this small insignificant bit that once it drops into the wine becomes inseparable and let that be sanctified and made holy and made be a perfect offering to God for the intentions that I brought to this mass. At the consecration, I pray requiems.

[00:37:58] The requiem prayer is the eternal rest prayer for the souls in purgatory. And blessed Anna Maria Taji would pray a requiem, she would call it the 100 requiem, it's a chaplet and she would make all of these offerings for the souls in purgatory. And she said tremendous favors were granted to her because she would pray for them and in turn, when they finally achieved the beatific vision, they finally saw God face to face, they were on her side. They would pray for

[00:38:26] Troy Van Vliet: her. Wow.

[00:38:27] Dylan Drego: Right? So anyway, so this is what I told them to do. And then you, you know, you go and receive our Lord reverently, and then you thank him for having taken all of the giving us this opportunity to offer an indulgence for a soul in purgatory, and you ask that soul to become one of your benefactors. Help them ask these souls to join you in your prayer when you pray the rosary, make up for whatever is lacking in your prayer, make it more efficacious. There's so we forget.

[00:38:55] We think of it's very much like the Latin language. We think it's a dead language. No, it is very much alive. It is very much alive because the souls that have gone before us, the holy souls, they are alive. They are very much alive.

[00:39:11] The saints in heaven are alive, more alive than we are here. Their proximity to God. Their prayers are perfect prayers. Way more perfect than our prayers could ever be. Us attached here.

[00:39:25] And so to be able to look at that and go, can you pray for me? It's like, I'm giving away all my secrets here. This is, but it's like the shrewd servant that our Lord commends in the gospels. I know that probably messed up enough in my life that I'm gonna spend the rest of my life trying to make up for all of the things that I've done wrong. And that's I'm okay with that.

[00:39:48] It's that's more than fair. But I love this idea of, you know, the shrewd servant goes, he knows he's made a mess of things and he gets he's losing his job. So he goes to everybody that owes his master money. He goes, what's your bill? 150?

[00:40:05] Cross it out, make it 75. What's your bill? 50? Cross it out. Make it 25.

[00:40:11] In a way, that's pretty much what we do when we pray for the dead. If you stop and think about it, it's an analogy. It's not a perfect, it doesn't It's maybe like an imperfect metaphor, but just stop and think what you're doing. Right? The God is the source, but He gives us these means of dispensing graces and it's perfectly in line with what the church teaches.

[00:40:42] So there's so many ways to pray a mass. There's no right way. Yeah. But all of this has led to how I enter into the mass and the effect that it's had on my children is worth everything that I've gone through to get to this point. Everything.

[00:40:58] Troy Van Vliet: Now, do you think you could have done it without the Latin mass?

[00:41:05] Dylan Drego: No.

[00:41:09] Troy Van Vliet: So the rest of us are doomed?

[00:41:10] Dylan Drego: No, no. Let me clarify that statement. I would not have arrived at this level of thinking without me having gone on that journey. Can anyone do this anywhere? Every mass is valid.

[00:41:23] It doesn't matter whether you're at a Latin mass or it doesn't matter whether you're at one of the other rites. Could be at a Molyalum mass like the Sala Maribah rite. Is that how you pronounce it? I could be wrong on that. You could be at

[00:41:34] Troy Van Vliet: a Don't ask me.

[00:41:35] Dylan Drego: Okay. Anyway, whatever Mass you're at, if it's a valid Mass, like this is you're at a Catholic church and they're celebrating Mass, I don't care whether it's Novus Ordo or Latin, like it's a Mass. This is It's the same It's our Lord, it's our Blessed Lord, it's our Lord Jesus Christ who is being offered on the altar. You are participating and you get to apply that. You can gain plenary indulgences for yourself or for a soul in purgatory.

[00:42:04] And you can go look up and read the conditions and what you need to do, and they're not difficult. Once you know, it's a shame if we don't take advantage of it. If we don't use that opportunity and make every little bit count, you almost start wanting to run to mass as often as you can get it. Yeah. Right?

[00:42:26] So anyone can do this and everyone should do it. Stop and think about what intention you are praying for. What graces are you asking for. Mhmm. Maybe it's a vice.

[00:42:38] It's another way that, you know, I I look at this and go, there are but there's particular vices or particular intentions that I want accomplished. And it's almost always like an exchange. God and I've I've taken this again from my my deep deep research in copying other saints. None of this is my own. I'm just copying what other people say works.

[00:43:03] Like it worked for them. Maybe it'll work for me. I'm not as holy as them, but I'm gonna give it a shot anyway. I'm gonna give it my best effort. You know, there's an exchange that has to happen.

[00:43:13] God doesn't just hand things to us, he wants to work wants us to work for something. And again, I've learned this by watching my kids. When they were very young, they play with these little train sets, And they would come to me all the time, daddy, can you help me build this translate into adult language? Can you do it for me? Right?

[00:43:34] Like, you build it for me?

[00:43:36] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:43:37] Dylan Drego: And as a good and loving father, I'm gonna say new. I'm gonna say yes, but I'm gonna say yes conditionally. I'm not gonna build it for you. But what I might do is I might go, you know, you really need that piece that's way over there and your little brain just can't see it right now. So I'm just gonna nudge it closer so that it shows up in your peripheral vision and then you go, it's right there and you grab, look what I found and you've kind of smile and go, yeah, you found it.

[00:44:07] Good job. Right? And you put it together. Now, does that go? And you ask questions and you get them to work for it, to work toward it.

[00:44:15] So what do we work towards? Well, the purpose of life is to become a saint, which means we have to root out our vices and build the virtues necessary in order for us to reach the level of glory that God wants for us in this life. That's ultimately what we have to do. So what vice am I struggling with right now that I need to root out? What am I gonna exchange?

[00:44:36] You know? And so I'll say to God, look, I'm gonna give you my anger. I'm gonna give you my anger. I'm gonna pray in Avina or I'm gonna do this, but every opportunity that come that arises where I can give into the temptation to lose it or blow up, it's yours. I'm going to sacrifice.

[00:44:57] I'm gonna place this on the altar now. This is the thing that's gonna get sacrificed and crucified. And this is what I would like in exchange, if it's your will, if it's for my good, and if it's not, then give me something better. Like give me whatever's actually necessary for me, but I know it's gonna be better. It's not gonna be worse for me.

[00:45:19] You're you're a good and loving father. Mhmm. You're not gonna put the wrong piece in front of me Mhmm. Defined. Mhmm.

[00:45:25] You're gonna put the right, the perfect piece in front of me, defined. And

[00:45:29] Troy Van Vliet: So so what about what about those that are struggling? You used anger as they think, what about something that's even more, that's harder to give up or deal with? There's different forms of addiction or there's different forms of, I don't know. Well, anyway, start with that one. It's the same thing.

[00:45:51] Same thing?

[00:45:51] Dylan Drego: It's the same thing. What are you going to sacrifice in exchange? You have to give up something, some attachment to make room for something better to be there. Right. And some addictions, I mean, there's a physical aspect to it.

[00:46:08] So, you know, if someone's been struggling with alcohol or substance abuse or pornography or something like that for years, your brain is going to change. There's a physical deformity that takes place over a period of time with any type of substance abuse. And so you have to be practical and realistic and wrestle with the most that you can handle and then strengthen it over time. But there are other things that you can do. There's other offerings that you can make for that particular vice that we're struggling with.

[00:46:46] So you can in a roundabout way go, well, I'm going to in order to combat this, I'm gonna give my time away and my time is gonna be spent in adoration. I'm gonna commit to giving you Lord this every Friday half an hour. Right. And for half an hour in front of the blessed sacrament, the graces that you receive are incredible.

[00:47:11] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[00:47:12] Dylan Drego: There are indulgences attached to that. I'm going to read scripture for half an hour. There's indulgences attached to that. You can then use those indulgences to win friends in purgatory or in heaven and ask for their help, ask for their prayers. If you had 20 people begging for something or 200 people begging for something on your behalf, or 2,000 people begging God for something on your behalf, He's more inclined to listen because he's pleased.

[00:47:47] He's pleased. You've done some good to get these people. So there's so many different ways you can do it. But you have to stop, you have to know number one that it's possible to do this.

[00:47:56] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. Yep. You have to

[00:47:58] Dylan Drego: look at what's available to you and you have to offer something in exchange. Not gonna be something for nothing. It would be exactly the same as if my son came to me and said, my daughter came to me and said, I want these really beautiful bracelet, this beautiful bracelet. Yep. And it'd be the difference between her saying, can you just buy it for me?

[00:48:18] Versus, I know that I've gotta work for it, and I'm too young to earn money, but I can do this and this and this. And if I do it for this many weeks, do you think maybe I could earn enough favor for you to buy that for me? God is a father.

[00:48:40] Troy Van Vliet: Same deal. Same deal.

[00:48:43] Dylan Drego: Same deal.

[00:48:43] Troy Van Vliet: That is great. For all of our understanding it. Yeah. It's not perfect.

[00:48:51] Dylan Drego: Yeah. But it moves us in the right direction to have a relationship with our, with God, our Father.

[00:48:57]
Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. Right? Yeah. That's brilliant. You're talking, you talk a lot about, I won't say the dead, we'll say because they're alive, those that are passed on And the reason why I was referring to it as the dead is because, a lot of our Protestant brothers and sisters have been taught to not communicate with the dead or to attempt

[00:49:23] Dylan Drego: to communicate.

[00:49:24] Troy Van Vliet: And that's not the way of looking at it through our Catholic faith. It's they are alive. Yeah. We have eternal life.

[00:49:30] Dylan Drego: Yeah. So they're alive.

[00:49:32] Troy Van Vliet: You're not talking to the dead. Yep. You're talking to those that have passed on into eternal life.

[00:49:39] Dylan Drego: That's right.

[00:49:39] Troy Van Vliet: So, when it's coming to a saint, we can ask that saint to pray for us and we're not asking the dead to pray for us, You're to be asking the living. We're asking the living to pray for us and why not ask your favorite saint or the one that you Padre Pio. Yeah, exactly. Or, you know, saint, mother Teresa of Calcutta or Saint John Paul II,

[00:50:07] Dylan Drego: whoever

[00:50:07] Troy Van Vliet: it is that feel elevates you or that you can relate to best or that you have a great connection with, you're praying to the living.

[00:50:19] Dylan Drego: Your namesake too, if you have a confirmation saint, patron saint.

[00:50:23] Troy Van Vliet: Saint Anthony.

[00:50:24] Dylan Drego: There you go. Right? So there's so many If people are looking to figure this stuff out, there's no shortage of places that they can go. And oftentimes there's a lot of reading involved to figure it out. But thanks to advances in technology, it's never been easier for us to do research.

[00:50:46] Agree. Or even to watch a YouTube video and to figure out, you know, the history of or the life of or the devotions that this person practiced. They're all there.

[00:50:55] Troy Van Vliet: Yep.

[00:50:55] Dylan Drego: It's all there. And I've just fallen in love with. Researching it and sharing it with people.

[00:51:02] Troy Van Vliet: It's intrigued me too. I've gone through a big reversion in my life too. I was born and raised Catholic and went to Catholic high school, St. Thomas More in Burnaby and then went to university with the rest of the secular crowd. Got indoctrinated there with a liberal education know, and then got out into the real world and, you know, was tempted by everything just like everybody is.

[00:51:34] And it was working with the new academy, it was starting that process for the last thirteen years now, that's been a total, and surrounding myself with people of the faith, that's truly brought it back and the same thing for my kids. It's just like, well, how do I want them to live their lives? You know? And especially my oldest daughter too, said, you know what, when you're looking for a spouse, you have to find somebody who's got the same faith as you. Like that is key.

[00:52:10] You know, like it's, and it's something that people say, oh, my love will conquer. No, no, doesn't. If you're not aligned in that, like that is just, is challenging enough as it is. And that's just a whole nother level of struggle that you're going to have. And then you're going to have confused kids because they're going to be like, well, it's like you had in your growing up, you know, being around and you've got, different people and different faiths in your family and you're just like, wait a minute, what's the right way of doing this?

[00:52:39] Who are we following here?

[00:52:40] Dylan Drego: Exactly.

[00:52:41] Troy Van Vliet: Or are these just different ideas and, you know, fun traditions don't really mean anything. Well, if they mean something, then you have to choose your spouse accordingly.

[00:52:51] Dylan Drego: Yeah.

[00:52:51] Troy Van Vliet: And then you have to, it's much easier to live that faith together. So, and I've said too that the fall of the West is the fall of Christianity. Starting with that. Because with the fall of Christianity is the fall of the family and the fall of the family is the fall of society and everything crumbles from there and you can only ride on the coattails of Christianity, the traditions that is established, the laws, the way of life that it established here in the West. You can only rely on that for so long and now you've got people that are wondering where did these rules come from?

[00:53:25] Actually, I don't even like these rules. So, feels good. Yeah, just change it. Yeah. And now you can be whatever you identify as and nobody can tell you the otherwise and you're saying, wait a minute, we're losing our marbles.

[00:53:41] Yeah.

[00:53:41] Dylan Drego: How did we even get here? Yeah. How did we even allow this to get to this point? When I was looking at, you know, some of the questions here

[00:53:49] Troy Van Vliet: Well, sorry, and to elaborate just on terms of what you said, how did we get here? Well, Satan isn't obvious. No. It's tempting with little things, little things throughout society. So which has tempted us.

[00:54:07] We've had it once again in the West so good for so long that we've gotten just grossly complacent.

[00:54:14] Dylan Drego: Yeah. We're drunk on it. Yes. We're drunk on the comfort.

[00:54:17] Troy Van Vliet: And the more and the self indulgence and the narcissism that we've created, but that's just, you know, you eat an elephant one bite at a time and that's exactly what Satan's doing. And it's just one bite at a time.

[00:54:33] Dylan Drego: He's just

[00:54:33] Troy Van Vliet: chipping away, chipping away at the little things and people are so busy that we, it's like, whatever, it doesn't affect me. So just leave me alone. In the meantime, the world is crumbling and until it affects you directly, you won't stand

[00:54:48] Dylan Drego: up You won't say care about it. That's totally right. As you mentioned that, I'll try to connect this back to Catholic education because it is connected to that. There's a few thoughts that popped into my head when you were sharing that and one which was a discussion that I had with my wife. So I'll come back to that about one of the questions on here.

[00:55:07] There's a story of I'm gonna get the exact details of it wrong, but there's a story and the listeners can go look this up, and I'll look it up afterwards as well. Pope Saint John Paul at one point, I think he went to Japan. Mhmm. And when he arrived at Japan, I think the president of Japan said, this is all your fault, you Catholics.

[00:55:30] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[00:55:30] Dylan Drego: Because didn't your blessed mother say that if all you did was pray the rosary every single day, then the whole world would be saved. Well, you're not doing your job. This is all your fault. The reason why everything is falling apart is because you're not doing your job.

[00:55:44] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[00:55:45] Dylan Drego: And if I got the story wrong or the details around it, you'll have to forgive me. But that it kinda hit me because it's related to a quote that Pope Saint Pius the tenth said, if we had 1,000,000 families praying the rosary every day, the entire world would be saved.

[00:56:07] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[00:56:08] Dylan Drego: And it's a quote that I've used, sort of the banner for the Latin prayer podcast. And you stop and think, is really that difficult to do? No. No. It's just easier not to do it.

[00:56:25] Right. We have made comfort or this sort of it's easier not to, it's taken a higher priority in almost everything that we do. I've thought about why is it that out of my graduating class from St. Thomas Aquinas

[00:56:45] Troy Van Vliet: High School, I

[00:56:47] Dylan Drego: can count really on my 10 fingers, the number of people that stayed Catholic. Why? Cause you have to stop and ask, was it that they weren't educated? Is that really all that it is? Is that they just didn't know?

[00:57:07] Maybe, my new favorite word, maybe. But there's something I think deeper there. We had a phenomenal principal for the four years that I was at St. Thomas Aquinas, who's Dan Morick.

[00:57:22] Troy Van Vliet: Dan sat on our board for many years. Dan's an incredible

[00:57:25] Dylan Drego: Love Dan. Incredible guy. The changes that he made to the school when we were there, you noticed it as a student, you paid attention to it. Mhmm. He started morning prayer.

[00:57:39] Go figure. Why shouldn't a Catholic high school begin the day with morning prayer? Yeah. But before morning prayer, it was with the staff. Mhmm.

[00:57:50] He did morning prayer with the staff and then we introduced the Angelus. Mhmm. And he made sure that there was the blessed sacrament in the chapel. Yeah. And there was all these little things, then he looked at the teachers because he stepped in taking over.

[00:58:04] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[00:58:05] Dylan Drego: And there were teachers there that gave lip service to the faith. And then there were those that actually believed and challenged their students to live up to that faith. He wasn't interested in growing the school. He wasn't interested in all of the secular definitions for what success actually was

[00:58:26] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[00:58:26] Dylan Drego: Or even bottom lines. I'm sure those things mattered. Yep. But again, you put first things first and second things second. What mattered first was the faith of those who were there.

[00:58:37] And if you took care of that, there was a school counselor, wonderful gal, good friend, Michelle Robertson, who was responsible for the grade 11 and grade 12 retreats.

[00:58:51] Troy Van Vliet: And

[00:58:52] Dylan Drego: she told my wife, she said she was having a conversation recently. She said, you know, when she was first at the school, you had to beg people, teachers to come and be part of the grade eleven and twelve retreat.

[00:59:06] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[00:59:07] Dylan Drego: But when Dan showed up, by the time four years had gone by, every single teacher was asking to go on the grade eleven eleven and twelve retreats, and they were spiritual retreats. These were not just like they were the whole point of it was to deepen the relationship that you had with our Lord because you're about to leave this safe space in a couple of years. You're gonna go out into the world and everything, especially your faith is not just gonna be challenged, it's gonna be attacked like head on. And if you aren't rock solid, if you don't have home base to come back to, something that you can stand on, it's gonna be hard. It's gonna be really hard.

[00:59:49] Yeah. And years later reflecting on all of this, you know, why does Catholic Education matter? Let's look at the word education. It's not just knowing the information, because everybody was taught the same thing.

[01:00:02] Troy Van Vliet: The

[01:00:04] Dylan Drego: educators, their witness, how they live their life, how they inspire you. I I had a grade nine religion teacher call me out and go, you're the dude that everyone thinks you follow all the rules, cross all the t's dot all the i's, do you actually live what you believe? Do you actually believe that? Do you actually Are you actually working on this particular advice or actually that? Like he called me up privately and said, I wanna know what is your When was the last time you actually had a conversation with our Lord?

[01:00:43] I know you go to mass.

[01:00:44] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[01:00:44] Dylan Drego: I know you say all the prayers and I do all that stuff, but do you actually have a relationship with him? And I was like, no, I was just found out exposed. He goes, try it and come back to me. You're too good to not grow closer to God. You are of infinite value to Him.

[01:01:05] I remember that conversation till today. Wow. Right? So the educators matter, I would say, it's not just imparting knowledge. Huge.

[01:01:16] Yeah. You have to almost be inspired by these people.

[01:01:20] Troy Van Vliet: We are currently working towards getting Catholic liberal education in our school. So basically, which is infiltrating faith into all the subjects all the time, including math, including the sciences, including physics, including everything, because it can be woven into everything in every subject and especially the sciences prove the existence

[01:01:58] Dylan Drego: of Yes, they do.

[01:02:00] Troy Van Vliet: And we do enough of that. And instead we end up even in our Catholic schools where kids leave and go, well, I believe in science. I don't believe in God. Wait a minute. It's the other way.

[01:02:13] God is science.

[01:02:14] Dylan Drego: Yes. Science came because it's God's science.

[01:02:17] Troy Van Vliet: We're discovering science. We didn't invent it. Yeah. And, so basically through that, we should be discovering God. Yeah.

[01:02:26] And, but that's not for the most part, it's not taught, it's not how we teach and it is something we need to do. It's something we're working on right now with our school. I know at St. Anthony of Padua, they've they're been working on that program there for about four years now and it's tough to get all the teachers on board. Now we're currently a small school.

[01:02:47] We've got enough of our teachers, they're like, okay, I get this. How are we going to do it? And it's work, you you have to kind of reinvent the wheel. It's like, before every class, you got to think, okay, how am I going to weave this into what we're talking about today? And other than just saying, you know, well, praise God, isn't this You can't just say that after math class and expect everybody to see.

[01:03:11] Dylan Drego: It's work that's worth doing and it's work that's never been easier to do. That's another, like, so it starts with what you believe. We do this with our kids all the time, right? Like your attitude towards something is going to make the job, whatever the job is way easier, quicker or slower or whatever, right? So you have to almost believe first before beginning that it's easy to do and it's never been easier to do.

[01:03:40] Science especially, I think is sort of like, to me, it's fascinating. History is another piece. History and science are sort of two sides of the same coin because they will reveal to you everything that we've actually, like we've always known or figured out or thought. Then now it's being corroborated by a historical discovery all of a sudden or a scientific discovery and it corroborates the teaching. Everything from, you know, they can't explain at conception where light comes from, but there's a spark of light that happens when they view it under a microscope.

[01:04:11] Mhmm. To the the act forget whether it's an amino acid or whether there's a piece in our DNA that holds everything together and it's in the shape of a cross. Like there's things and then you map that onto scripture and you go, he declared it there. But even when it comes to how we teach religion as a topic, my grade nine religion teacher and I at one time had a two hour discussion. I just stood there and talked about After I graduated, we talked about what's wrong with religion classes nowadays.

[01:04:52] And I was sitting there going, well, what's the goal? Mhmm. If the goal isn't right, you're not gonna I don't care what you end up putting in the class. If the end goal is just simply to impart knowledge, but not have a transformation of this person, draw them closer to Christ, then we've missed it altogether. Mhmm.

[01:05:08] So that needs to be the goal, is that at the end of this class, science, whatever it is, are we is this person going to leave closer to our Lord or further away or the same? Because if they're the same, stagnation stinks. If you're staying the same, you're losing. You're actually following behind. Yeah.

[01:05:28] Because you've now lost, you have less time to make up that gap. Yeah. So in a religion class, for example, I kinda wish they had started with the roots of scripture. If you look at, I don't know if you're aware of this, but there's a whole body of going and reading, just start with Genesis, Genesis one:one. The word in the beginning is actually just one word.

[01:05:57] Okay. It's bereshit.

[01:05:59] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[01:05:59] Dylan Drego: And when you read the letters of how that is pronounced,

[01:06:04] Troy Van Vliet: you

[01:06:05] Dylan Drego: will discover that all of salvation history, the entire plan of what God was going to do is actually spelled out in that one word. Because in the Hebrew, every letter has a symbol, it's hieroglyphic Mhmm. And it means something. I kinda wanna look it up just to show it to you right now because it's really cool. This is not the invention of human beings.

[01:06:34] You can see God's divine hand, his orchestration, his perfect surgical precision. The first, the Torah, the first five. You look at the the books of the Bible, the way that they're ordered. Mhmm. The names and genealogy, the num the numeric number of the threes or the fives or the sevens Mhmm.

[01:06:54] Or the eights, the number of times that they show up repeatedly, like in succession Mhmm. Will blow your mind. It's math. It's math to such degree that the best computers on the planet today cannot replicate that. They cannot, can't even come close to orchestrating something.

[01:07:11] Like we have chat GPT now and Perplexity and Gemini and all these things. Get it to try to write one paragraph, never mind an entire book doing that sequential numerical coding in repetition and still have it make complete sense in different languages. You just can't do that. Wow. So when we look at Catholic Education and bringing Catholicity into this, I'm like, it's already there.

[01:07:41] It's never been easier to bring that in. Right? We just have to believe that it's Yeah.

[01:07:48] Troy Van Vliet: Believe that you can.

[01:07:50] Dylan Drego: And then the work becomes easy.

[01:07:51] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to fill in the blanks. Well, when you don't know how to do it to begin with, that's where some of the reluctance comes from, right? Yeah. And then, but that has to be taught, you know, and there are now leaders that are out there teaching that this is how you do it.

[01:08:05] Yeah. So we had the first introductory class for our teachers, it was about a day long breakout session and it was very well received. It was very well presented by Kate. What's Kate's last name? Kate Kate Eyre.

[01:08:24] Yes. Forgot about that. I forgot her name. Sorry, Kate. She does wonderful job and she's doing this great job at St.

[01:08:31] Anthea Patois, so at the elementary level. So, and we want to do, and Star of the Sea, I believe is going to be doing it as well at the elementary level. So, and we want to bring it in at the high school level. So, and it's not something, it's not something you have to bring in, you know, it's like you either you do or you don't, it's something that you can slowly infiltrate in so that, you know, you can start at one lesson at a time, one lesson per week, you know, and just start

[01:08:53] Dylan Drego: thinking Have it be inductive too. Inductive just meaning like you figure it out as you go along. You're interested in learning and developing the faith, then it becomes easy for you to do. As a teacher, my first question would be, are you doing this yourself? Are you growing?

[01:09:09] Yeah. Are you yourself learning? Or is this just a job? That's the first thing because you only really need to share what you've learned. Mhmm.

[01:09:18] For me, I don't get paid to do the Latin pod like Latin prayer podcast. This was I did it. I mean, I have a Patreon page now that people

[01:09:25] Troy Van Vliet: I know how that feels by the way.

[01:09:26] Dylan Drego: Oh yeah, of course. Yes. This is the most under like most work that you'll do for the least amount of money. Seriously, like the amount of the tech that's involved and know how and all that thing, it's you need to know a lot. But when you stop and think like it's easy for me to do because I'm not having to stop and think, okay, what should I teach today?

[01:09:48] It's so easy because it's just like, what have I done in the last seven days? If I'm not learning and growing, then I have nothing to share.

[01:09:56] Troy Van Vliet: Right.

[01:09:56] Dylan Drego: But if I'm actually interested and I just go on this little journey of let me grow as a human being closer to God and figure out how his beautiful, you know, truths all throughout creation intersect with the work that I'm doing. Yeah. All of a sudden now it becomes a piece cake to just share what you learned. You stop learning and you stop growing in that relationship, then you have nothing to share. Right?

[01:10:25] That's the first question I'd ask the teacher is go, what do you do? And here's a whole bunch of places that you can start to go learn for yourself and only share the things that blow your mind and there's a lot of them. Like, was my mind was blown when I started looking at, oh, the Hebrew is written this way. And then I went and looked at it, oh, the Latin is written this way and we're only in the first line of scripture. Like I'm There's so a whole book to go and do this with.

[01:10:54] Right?

[01:10:54] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah.

[01:10:55] Dylan Drego: There's it's fun there, and that's just math, and then there's science, and then there's history, and then there's all these like there's historical discoveries that are being made that verify or corroborate things that are biblically written there. Like, there there's tremendous work being done by the Colby Institute Mhmm. On creation and the science of how you should read or how the churches taught about various truths of the church, how history corroborates that or science corroborates that. One of my favorite ones is the immaculate conception, which is a dogma. If you look at how that's laid out, lots of people will go, well, that's not possible and, you know, that doesn't make any sense scientifically and whatever, and it doesn't even really make sense spiritually, or if you look at scripture, it doesn't make sense.

[01:11:49] He has an entire one hour talk on the immaculate conception proves the Bible is correct and vice versa. Like they're so intertwined and connected. The proto evangelion Genesis story, go listen to it. It's available for free through the Colby Institute. And they've done tremendous work on on how science impacts that.

[01:12:10] If they want to know, it's actually really easy to share what you're excited about.

[01:12:16] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah, isn't that true? And it's like you said earlier, it's never been easier to research. It's never been easier to find out the information that you need. It's one quick question. You don't even have to type.

[01:12:26] Dylan Drego: No, dictate it, dictate it into your phone and it'll give you everything.

[01:12:30] Troy Van Vliet: And it'll talk back to you if you want it to. Totally. It'll tell you, yeah, everything, you know, AI is a conversation today. It's not a

[01:12:37] Dylan Drego: No, I mean, it's been a big part of the work that I do with clients and social media consulting is learning. I think a lot of good Catholics need to take up this cause of re educating themselves on what the church has always taught and believed and to use technology in this manner to get to strengthen arguments, to strengthen your understanding, to deepen your devotional life, like go look, go research all the devotions of your patron saint. How did they pray? What did they do? What was important to them?

[01:13:07] What did they write? And you can ask for the TLDR. TLDR is too long, didn't read. You put that into any AI, it'll just spit it out in bullet I teach executives now of pregnancy resource centers, nonprofits, how to maximize, especially almost all of them are Catholic, but how to maximize the use of AI to grow you Mhmm. And then to hack and optimize execution.

[01:13:34] Because there's no reason if you have this as a tool, it's like Saint Thomas Aquinas, he would dictate to four secretaries at the same time.

[01:13:41] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[01:13:42] Dylan Drego: And people would imagine, man, if he had like 10 secretaries, how much more could he have written? But I look at AI purely as my digital secretaries.

[01:13:53] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[01:13:53] Dylan Drego: That's what they are. They have a function and a job. In fact, I even spoke to the Vatican's point person on AI and technology. Wow. Father yeah.

[01:14:05] This was when did we would been last year sometime, we've had a couple of conversations, but he we wanted to look, I wanted to make sure that if I'm gonna teach executives or presidents of organizations or business owners, you know, how to use, how to learn, how to grow, that we're not doing it in a way that is contrary to what the church would have us do. Like we don't wanna abuse it, but it's a tool. It's not evil. It's not gonna take over the world. If you believe that God is the author of souls, there's no way that this could have sentience.

[01:14:39] It's that like, you know, it's just Right. Let's be real. And regardless of what technology does, you still have your soul to answer for. So you have to do it right and don't abuse it. But use it purely for research purposes to make you a better spouse.

[01:14:56] Yeah. To make you a better whatever your job is.

[01:15:00] Troy Van Vliet: It's not your friend. It's not your pastor.

[01:15:03] Dylan Drego: It's not even your therapist. Like stop using it for therapy.

[01:15:06] Troy Van Vliet: I'm feeling sad today. What can you tell me to stop?

[01:15:13] Dylan Drego: Just change the question. Sure. You're feeling sad today, you know. What would the saint version of me do? Beautiful.

[01:15:20] Right? With this sadness. And if you were gonna go to AI, go research your saint and how what did they have to say about dealing with sadness? Like you can still use it to put you in the best position to win. Yeah.

[01:15:35] Right. Or to close the gap from where you are to where you want to be or should be in your journey.

[01:15:40] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. 100% information has never been so readily available. Yeah. And we all have these, well more than an encyclopedia, but endless amounts of information available anytime, anywhere and as much of it as you want, you know. Yeah.

[01:15:57] Dylan Drego: There's another aspect that maybe I'll I'll kinda just toss this as sort of a last piece into, you know, where Catholic education intersects with this is prayer. Because the heart of the teacher or the individual, you know, whether you're a teacher or not like myself, do Catholic education in a different way, a different medium, but everyone's doing Catholic education, whether they realize it or not. If you're a practicing Catholic, you are a witness to the world. And, you know, in the gospels, Saint Peter tells us, be always be ready to give an explanation for your faith, always be ready. Well, we have to take that seriously.

[01:16:37] We can't just go through the motions. At the same time, that's not a substitute for your prayer life. It's not a substitute for So the prayer is sort of that anchor at the end of the day. Some beautiful line in the Screwtape letters written by CS Lewis, where are you familiar?

[01:17:00] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:17:01] Dylan Drego: I forget which chapter it's in. It's probably about two thirds of the way into the book where Screwtape Uncle Screwtape talks to his nephew demon, Wyrmwood, and says, the man should never realize his ultimate practical calling is this. After having worked by the sweat of his brow for the entire day, he's born the heat of the day, comes home, he should wash his mind clean of the whole affair, submit the cause to heaven, and then immediately turn his attention to whatever's in front of him, be that his spouse or his family, his kids, whatever. Wash his mind clean of the whole affair and submit the cause to heaven. It's a best definition of prayer.

[01:17:54] Think about how consumed we are about the intricate details and we pray rarely and when we do, we pray as if God's not aware of what's going on in our life. Sorry, we call our blessed mother, our blessed mother. She knows all the details, like she's paying attention to everything. And so the practicing repeatedly this man, I don't have control over where this is gonna end up. All I can control is how I think about this, my attitude and the activity that I have.

[01:18:23] And so for the activity, what would the saint version of me do? And for my attitude, what is how how do I posture my heart towards this thing? Really, I just need to put it back in God's hands. Maybe I'll offer an Avina or two, or maybe I'll go to adoration and maybe I'll ask my benefact, my holy benefactors in heaven to pray for this particular thing, or maybe I'll go have a mass set, I'm gonna use all those tools at my disposal to try and, you know, turn the tide in my favor. But ultimately, it's just you and God.

[01:18:55] It's just your it's just you and Him. It's that relationship. So in the end, when it comes down to you, you just have to have a conversation with Him and bear your heart to Him and grow closer to Him. This is a means toward your sanctification. And you are a witness.

[01:19:10] Everyone's watching. Your kids are watching, your spouse is watching. And if you're not married, you don't have kids, the world is watching. The saints are watching. They're all paying attention.

[01:19:22] We're gonna be played the movie of life in the end. We're gonna get a chance to view it. And we gotta live in such a way that we're gonna be proud of how we we played that movie. I use this with my sons all the time, like if you at the end, in the end when God shows you the movie of your life and he shows you this moment right now, are you gonna be proud of how you acted? Are you gonna be proud of how you behaved?

[01:19:49] Are you going to be the superhero? Are you going to be the saint? Are you gonna live that way? The choice is yours. So this this moment in time matters.

[01:19:59] It's a witness. You are educating the

[01:20:01] Troy Van Vliet: world. Second.

[01:20:02] Dylan Drego: Very second right now. The whole world is watching. And don't think for a second that any moment of your life cannot be used for your sanctification

[01:20:12] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[01:20:13] Dylan Drego: Or for the encouragement or the evangelization of someone else. Every bit of it, because you're you play the game the way you practice the game. So when no one's watching, you're practicing how you're gonna play the game. Yeah. Right?

[01:20:27] Yep. So we have to, like I love the title of your podcast, The Catholic Education Matters podcast. It does. First, your own education. Yeah.

[01:20:39] And then everybody else's.

[01:20:41] Troy Van Vliet: Yep, yep, exactly. Yeah. And there's many matters in Catholic education. There's many and which we've got to experience and explore on this podcast, which has been absolutely fantastic. So, and we should probably wrap it up here.

[01:20:58] That was a great chat. Thank you so much for joining us here today, Dylan.

[01:21:05] Dylan Drego: You're very welcome. And I thank you for the opportunity to be here. This is just a, it's been a joy to be able to reiterate or articulate what I live and believe and how I live and believe it. And if it's helpful to even one person out there, then it's completely worth it for me.

[01:21:20] Troy Van Vliet: Well, of these things start one conversation at a time, you know, and like you had said, when we're out there in the world living our lives, it's how we, you know, talk to the person taking our order at a restaurant or at a coffee shop. You know, we're going be talking to them for a matter of seconds. Did we engage? Did we actually leave them feeling better about their day or about what they do for a living? Did we approach it with gratitude and just that one little interaction can make a difference?

[01:21:50] Dylan Drego: It could change the trajectory of someone else's life in ways that you'd never Can I leave you with one last

[01:21:57] Troy Van Vliet: tidbit Yeah, on absolutely?

[01:22:00] Dylan Drego: You know, this is not always the best indicator, but there is sort of a spiritual constellation or some type of physical constellation when you get these little mini indicators that you're you're kind of on the right path is when so one thing that I do not do is I do not swear. Do not curse because it's the language that the demons use. Go there's there's recordings of how demons speak. There's one in particular from an exorcism that was there was permission to record it. And when you go look at the transcript, you look at how they speak, you'd be shocked.

[01:22:33] Shocked at how similar it is to the way the current state of our world speaks. And so I don't don't ever curse. I don't swear. I made that decision a long time ago when I watched other people do it and I said, I'm not gonna be that person. And then when I discovered all these things about the demons, I remember driving.

[01:22:53] It was a twenty hour drive. We were going up to Fort Saint John with a person that's not Catholic

[01:22:59] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[01:22:59] Dylan Drego: At all. And two questions came up. The first one was, okay, this is really weird. Dylan, we've been driving for seven hours so far. You haven't dropped a single, like, f bomb or anything.

[01:23:15] Like, you don't you don't use anything. Like, why? I don't get it. Yep. What don't you get?

[01:23:21] So you never you never do that? I'm like, no. And you won't believe me if I tell you why I don't do it. And then it came out that I'm Catholic and I explained all these other things and he goes, Catholic. Okay.

[01:23:33] Now you got me even more confused. I'm like, what? You actually believe that stuff? I'm like, yeah? I was, dang.

[01:23:43] You must really believe it. And I went, yeah, I really believe it. I really believe He goes, couldn't you have picked something else? Like, I mean, Catholics are being attacked by like absolutely everybody right now. I'm like, yeah, if I was looking to be liked by the world, sure.

[01:23:59] I could have gone to any number of other things that would make my life easy, you know, or more liked, but it's just not true. I'm Catholic because I actually believe It's like Chesterton said, there's no I actually believe what the church teaches. And to choose anything else would be me lying.

[01:24:21] Troy Van Vliet: So,

[01:24:23] Dylan Drego: you know, you'll know because you are a witness to the world. Yeah. Even when you're not aware of it.

[01:24:30] Troy Van Vliet: Wow. Yeah. Interesting observation from somebody cause quite often people don't even pick up on that, you know, cause it's like a common language, but if people don't swear, they don't.

[01:24:42] Dylan Drego: It's happened to me a few times now, even when, a very good friend of mine who would take the name of our Lord in vain

[01:24:50] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah.

[01:24:51] Dylan Drego: Regularly, and I would flinch, like full on flinch, and then I would make I would make the sign of the cross on my lips, and I have a spiritual contract. Spiritual contracts are a really cool thing. Look it up. So that if I do this, that the divine praises are said to make reparation for that sacrilege that just took place. So I would try to do it discreetly.

[01:25:13] This person pulled me aside and going, what are you doing? I'm like, okay. And then now I was like, now I gotta tell them and that's why we pray for the virtue of moral courage when we we pray the sorrowful mysteries. The third the third sorrowful mystery is the crowning of thorns where we pray for the fruit of moral courage. I'm like, okay, God, Let all the moral moral courage come now because I needed to explain this.

[01:25:34] I don't wanna do this, but I'll do it because I love you. And I go and I explain it. And the person goes, I won't do that again. I won't do it again. I'm gonna work.

[01:25:42] I'm gonna make sure that I don't do that again. It's important

[01:25:45] Troy Van Vliet: explain it to him? What did you say?

[01:25:46] Dylan Drego: Well, I just said that I believe that our that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ is God. This is God. And that when his name is blasphemed, when it's when it when it's taken out of this this it doesn't give him the due glory Mhmm. That it does tremendous harm. It does tremendous harm.

[01:26:09] And regardless of what harm you might not think it does any harm, it does tremendous harm to me. It would be if I used your mother's name like a swear word Mhmm. Every single time something bad happened or something went wrong. Mhmm. If I used your wife's name or your child's name that way, how would you feel?

[01:26:25] Because I never really thought about that. I just did it because everybody else does it. I'm like, I know. The world is under the control of the devil and the devil wants nothing more than that to be done. So I can't tell you to stop it because I don't have authority over you.

[01:26:42] I can ask you not to do that. Right. And that's what I'm gonna ask you to do this. Say no more. And he said, every time I do it, I'm gonna do 20 push ups.

[01:26:51] I'll get it I'll get it out of me. No problem. And till today, he doesn't do it anymore. Wow. Right?

[01:26:58] So you can be a witness when you know, when you have a defense for your faith. Yeah. When you understand it enough. Yeah. It doesn't even need to be polished.

[01:27:07] It can just be human. Yeah. Right? So

[01:27:10] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. And if you can be bold enough even to pray in a restaurant before you have a meal, others see it. It's funny, I did that just recently, at a lunch. No, it was a breakfast. I was with my mom and my daughter.

[01:27:25] And so we said grace before at the restaurant and this table beside, she goes, it's so

[01:27:31] Dylan Drego: good to see you guys

[01:27:32] Troy Van Vliet: doing that. Yes. We did two

[01:27:34] Dylan Drego: before you came.

[01:27:36] Troy Van Vliet: That's awesome. Same Yeah. Team. That's great. So we have to, we do have to put it out there because it'll do one of two.

[01:27:46] It will upset some people. It will inspire other people And it'll bring out curiosity in some people as well. So we have to be bold enough to be able to do that and put our faith in. And just like you did with the gentleman that asked about, Yeah. That's just a beautiful way of subtly, getting somebody to ask you a question about that.

[01:28:16] Dylan Drego: Yeah. I I was trying to be discreet about it. I didn't want him to see, but it happened enough times that he was, he kept catching it and going, what are you doing? It was like something on your lips or whatever. And I'm like, no, kind of.

[01:28:28] And then I had to go down that rabbit hole. Right. But it was worth every bit. I'm glad that I did it because for his sake, think about that. We we are also helping them, like I don't know if he's gonna ever convert and become Catholic.

[01:28:41] Yeah. But if he just stopped doing damage for his own, like this is a sacrilege, you're you're just, you know, you're you're making it worse for yourself by continuing to do that. So I'm just out of love and charity for you. Don't do it. It's not good for you, you know?

[01:28:57] So, yeah.

[01:28:58] Troy Van Vliet: It's the voice of the devil.

[01:28:59] Dylan Drego: Amen. Yeah. We gotta we gotta We are that opposition. We are God's instruments and he's gonna use us.

[01:29:06] Troy Van Vliet: So Yeah. That's awesome. It's good.

[01:29:08] Dylan Drego: But it's been a joy. Thank you so much.

[01:29:10] Troy Van Vliet: Thank you. And we'll have you back again if you would be so kind to

[01:29:13] Dylan Drego: join If you're willing to listen to me ramble about stuff like this, then absolutely. Happy to do it.

[01:29:18] Troy Van Vliet: I love it. I don't have to do much when you're, when you're here. Everybody's going to want to hear what you've got to say, David which is absolutely Hunt, same way. I have to say much at all.

[01:29:29] Dylan Drego: Okay. Well,

[01:29:30] Troy Van Vliet: I asked him one question and that was, can you tell us about your conversion? Which wasn't on the list of questions. Wow. And he was thrown off in a minute there and then, and then away he went in like forty five minutes or an hour later.

[01:29:42] Dylan Drego: Yeah, that's awesome.

[01:29:43] Troy Van Vliet: It was beautiful. It was beautiful. So anyway, yes. Thank you and thank you all for joining us, today once again and also please, please like, subscribe, share this with your friends. And, if you put a comment down, that also helps too.

[01:29:59] We'll definitely take a look at what you've got to say. If there's any questions, comments, anything like that, love to hear from you. So, all right. Thanks everybody. Have a great day.

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