Timothy Flanders: Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Welcome to One Peter Five. I am the editor, Timothy Flanders, and I am joined today by His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider. Your Excellency, what a joy it is to speak with you once again. Thank you for coming to the show today.
Bishop Schneider: You are welcome.
Timothy Flanders: Your Excellency, would you please give us a prayer of blessing before we begin this podcast?
Bishop Schneider: In nómine Patris et Fílii et Spíritus Sancti. Amen.
Ave María, grátia plena, Dóminus tecum; benedícta tu in muliéribus, et benedíctus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
Sancta María, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatóribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen.
Glória Patri et Fílio et Spíritui Sancto, sicut erat in princípio et nunc et semper et in sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.
In nómine Patris et Fílii et Spíritus Sancti. Amen.
Timothy Flanders: Thank you, Your Excellency. What a joy. Thank you so much once again. We are recording this in the final days of the Paschal time, so I had to say Christ is risen. But we are celebrating this great month of June, the Sacred Heart Month, the Eucharistic Heart Month. I am very excited because you have released this text, the Crusade of Eucharistic Reparation Manual. This is the heart and soul of our organization, Eucharistic reparation, which is the message of Fatima, the angel of Fatima, and the undergirding heart and soul of the Fatima message.
This is also the heart and soul of so much of your life, Your Excellency. Was this your first book, Dominus Est?
Bishop Schneider: Yes.
Timothy Flanders: So in this book, and also more in this book, I encourage people to take a look at them to understand where Bishop Schneider is coming from. When I teach your Credo Catechism class to adults, I always start by reading Christus Vivit to explain who Bishop Schneider is and where he comes from. He comes from the Soviet Union, where he grew up.
If anyone wants this book, we are promoting it as part of our organization. If you join the confraternity and contribute 15 dollars more per month, we will send you a copy for free. We want everyone to have this text. Whether you donate or not, buy it and give it to priests. This is such an important topic.
I would like to begin by asking about your upbringing under the Soviet Union. How often did you have Mass during those years? Tell us what the Eucharist meant to you growing up in the Soviet Union.
Bishop Schneider: I grew up in the underground Church in Kyrgyzstan. In my childhood, I remember well the secret visits of priests and the secret Masses. It was very rare. In my time in Kyrgyzstan, we had Holy Mass perhaps two or three times a year, no more.
We studied our catechism at home, the traditional catechism, especially on the Eucharist. On Sundays, my parents, my siblings, and I gathered, knelt in our house, and sanctified Sunday with prayers, Eucharistic devotions, and spiritual communion, uniting ourselves spiritually with the Holy Masses celebrated all over the world.
Even without a priest, our faith increased our love and longing for the Eucharist. Later, we had the happiness of attending Holy Mass once a month in Estonia, and we were very joyful to receive Holy Communion at least once a month.
I also remember my childhood in Kyrgyzstan when priests came only a couple of times a year, but they left hosts with my grand aunt, the sister of my grandfather. She was a very pious woman, Pulcheria Koch. She kept the Blessed Sacrament hidden in her house, and on First Fridays, we gathered there for secret Eucharistic adoration and reparation in honor of the Sacred Heart.
This marked my life deeply. Later, when we immigrated to West Germany, I was almost 13 years old. Our first spiritual suffering was seeing that Holy Communion was received in the hand and standing, like a cafeteria service. It was an incredible suffering for us. My mother wept. She could not understand how people could receive Our Lord in such a way.
Her words and tears have remained with me all my life. She has already passed to the Lord. She would say, “My children, I cannot understand how people can receive Communion in the hand and standing.”
This is why I feel so strongly about Eucharistic reparation, as the angel of Fatima said, Console your God who is so greatly offended in the Blessed Sacrament. What would the angel say today, with global sacrileges and irreverent treatment of Our Lord in Holy Communion? We must console Him as much as we can.
Timothy Flanders: Thank you, Your Excellency. It is difficult to respond to the suffering you described from your mother, who passed on this faith. I think of the tears of the Blessed Mother as well. Would you say Jesus continues His Passion in the Eucharist today?
Bishop Schneider: The Lord is risen and in heaven. He can no longer suffer in the same way. However, He is a living person. He is not a stone without feeling. He is present in the Blessed Sacrament with His soul as well as His body.
Therefore, He sees all sacrileges and irreverence. He asked Saint Margaret Mary to console Him through Holy Hours, especially on Thursdays and First Fridays. The devotion of the Sacred Heart is a reparation devotion.
Pope Pius XI wrote the encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor in 1928 on reparation and expiation. We must read it again. It is very timely and reminds us of our duty to console Our Lord.
Timothy Flanders: You mentioned the Sacred Heart devotion. Our Lord asked that the Feast of the Sacred Heart be celebrated on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi. Could you speak about the relationship between the Sacred Heart and Corpus Christi?
Bishop Schneider: The Church placed it after the octave. The octave existed from the thirteenth century until 1955, for nearly 700 years. I cannot understand why Pope Pius XII abolished it. It is a pity. We should restore the octave of Corpus Christi.
I also believe the Pope should establish a universal day of Eucharistic reparation, possibly the octave day. This is necessary from the faith and love of the Church for the living Lord in the Eucharist.
Timothy Flanders: Could you speak about lay reparation? As lay people, we often see many problems in the Church and in the world, but we do not have direct control over them. What can we do, and why is reparation important for lay people?
Bishop Schneider: We have the example of the Holy Children of Fatima, Francisco and Jacinta. They lived lives of reparation. Their minds were always directed to the Lord in the tabernacle. They offered their sufferings as sacrifices for the consolation of Our Lord in the Eucharist.
We can learn from them. We can offer our sufferings, physical and spiritual, in union with Our Lady and her Immaculate Heart, to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. Each tabernacle contains the living heart of God.
We can visit Him spiritually during the day and physically when possible. At least once a week, we can make a Holy Hour of reparation. This is how lay people contribute to the renewal of the Church. The Church will not be renewed without Eucharistic renewal and reverence for Our Lord.
Timothy Flanders: What should be the order of our response when we see public offenses against God, whether in society or even in the Church? What should we do first, second, and third?
Bishop Schneider: First, we must ask God for forgiveness in humility, knowing we are also sinners. When we hear of these crimes, we should kneel in our rooms and make an act of reparation.
Second, when there is public outrage or error, we must make a public profession of faith. For example, when Our Lady is attacked, we profess belief in her privileges. When marriage is attacked by immoral ideologies, we profess Christian teaching on marriage and family. When heresy is promoted, we affirm that salvation is only through Jesus Christ.
Third, we must promote good teaching and apologetics. We should share traditional Catholic texts that defend the faith clearly and correct errors.
Timothy Flanders: Thank you, Your Excellency. I appreciate those practical steps, especially starting with the heart. It is easy to fall into the consolation of complaining online. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Bishop Schneider: Complaining does not help. First, we must make acts of reparation in our hearts. We should not spread evil unnecessarily. We must name what is happening truthfully, but our response must be reparation, a profession of faith, and the teaching of truth.
Timothy Flanders: During Sacred Heart Month, there are public expressions in society, including secular marches and religious processions. What about lay participation in public witness, especially when clergy may be unwilling?
Bishop Schneider: Lay people are called to be courageous witnesses of Jesus Christ. A Christian must not be fearful. We should ask for the gift of fortitude from the Holy Spirit.
We must bring Christ into the world publicly, not hide our faith. Lay people have the right to organize processions with the Sacred Heart, the Cross, and images of Our Lady, as long as it is permitted by law. We should do this publicly to witness our faith.
Timothy Flanders: Thank you, Your Excellency. I am very grateful for this conversation. I am excited for Sacred Heart Month.
To conclude, I would like to read part of your prayer from the Crusade of Eucharistic Reparation Manual: the more people separate in hatred and selfishness, the more we want to love each other in the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.
What is the role of mutual charity in the Eucharist?
Bishop Schneider: The word communion means union. The fruit of the Eucharist is unity and charity. It is impossible to be united with Christ and not be united with His members.
One cannot receive Holy Communion while remaining in hatred or enmity. We must first reconcile with our brother. The Eucharist strengthens charity and unites us in love.
True love comes from Christ in the Eucharist. Without Him, we cannot love as Christians. The Eucharist is the source of supernatural charity.
Timothy Flanders: Thank you, Your Excellency. Thank you for your time. We are grateful. It is evening in Kazakhstan and midday where I am. Would you please close with a prayer of Eucharistic reparation?
Bishop Schneider: Let us pray the prayer of the angel of Fatima.
My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, I love You. I ask pardon for all those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
And now I give you the blessing.
Dominus vobiscum. Et cum spiritu tuo. Et benedictio Dei omnipotentis Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti descendat super vos et maneat semper. Amen.
Praised be Jesus Christ.
Timothy Flanders: Now and forever.