So I'm Father Paul Franks. I'm stationed here in St. Mary's, where I teach in St. Mary's College.

So Mary's College. And I want to read to you one of my favorite chapters in this beautiful new recording studio that Angela's Press has recently finished.

One of my favorite chapters of G.K. Chesterton, which is his chapter, The Five Deaths of the Faith from the Everlasting Man.

Chesterton was very influential on me, coming to the faith. I was brought up Catholic in the Novice Auto,

but I didn't practice my faith through my teenage years.

And one of the books that helped me immensely in coming back was

Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton.

So I have a special devotion to Chesterton. I find he has a special

gift for us today, which is he's very balanced. He's very broad in his view of things and in his

charity. And he is brings good humor and light and hope and wonder and all the things that we need

so badly in the world right now and particularly in the church right now because it's a depressing

time in many ways or it could be if we let it be. Tradition is under

persecution and we have the feeling that the enemies of the church, the enemies of the faith are

winning. And Chesterton writes in this chapter about the five deaths of the faith.

And his point is that in the history of the church, there have been different periods

where it was the end of an era in the world. And a kind of crisis in the world which led to a state of crisis

in the church more or less. He talks about many times when the church has been persecuted,

but he talks about sometimes as well in history where Christians just lost their nerve,

lost their conviction, lost the courage of their convictions,

and their spirit of faith. And so whilst remaining officially Catholic, officially Christian,

they watered down, compromised, attenuated Christian doctrine and practice, and how in each case, that

experiment to diminish Christianity failed.

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