Welcome back to the very first hot topic. Nigerians have an advice to brace up for even tougher days as electricity tariff is about to be increased by over 40% in a development which may eventually end forms of energy subsidy in the country. There has been a monthly subsidy of about 50 billion era in the electricity sector because of revenue shortfall. But come July, this subsidy may just go, a subsidy on petrol was done away with. I've been joined by wisdom chap Jumbo, a public affairs analyst and a journalist to discuss this very important unfolding matter. Good morning to you, wisdom. Good morning. You're welcome. Thank you. So this question of affordability is coming even as the grid remains unreliable. Well, that's true. One issue Nigerians have always complained about is affordability. They don't even get this power they are even paying for and this tariff keeps going up. Tariff has also been a long standing issue over time. Every year, nearly every year we get increasing tariff but we need to understand that this tariff increment is tied usually to the realities, our economic realities. Human inflation is going up when the cost between the Naira and the dollar goes up. You can't but have the cost of tariff go up. That's because nearly 70% of all the power equipment in the country are imported. So and the tariffs are measured against the dollar. So presently now that you have the dollar floating and subsidy out comparing what the dollar rate is now, initially, sometime early in the year or last year, these tariffs were measured against around 460 CBR rates at the time as we used to have it.  Well, it was said that we've been said that to inform our electricity is actually more expensive than Nigerians are paying for it currently. Do you see this bringing Nigeria closer to filling that gap? Well, I mean, there are different categories of customers and how the discourse looks at it and how they pay for this power. If you receive around 20 hours of power, you're around the band A category of customers so you pay more. So we need to understand that as power will improve, if you have steady power in your house over a period of time, you should know that you will be paying more. And it's a different category of customers that receive around 12 hours of power. They place them around the band C and D. That's how the discourse and regulators place them. They also pay a certain tariff. So as you receive more power, as you go up that band, you pay more for it. We should see that happen in nature like I explained before because of the economic realities and you really cannot isolate this discourse from the realities we have in the country because they are also in need for business. So these things we see will happen and this is going to the realities we are presently in. Yeah. Well, economic reforms are inevitable but 40 percent, some may say that's way too high. If you're looking at the fact that Nigerians are having to deal with removal of subsidy in petrol, the floating of the mirror and now this one all coming at the same time, 40 percent may be like a killer for Nigerians. Do you share that view? Okay. Let me give you this little analysis so we sort of make sense of how this looks. So customers, I mean, following the multi-year tariff order in 2020 by NEC, Nigeria's Regulational Commission, NEC was approved by them, was supposed to run between 2022 and 2026. So they set a multi-year tariff, was supposed to run from last year. Now this, what they set now means customers pay around 16, in 2015 for example, 16 Naira per kilowatt. I'm trying to make sure I get the figures correct now. So presently that amount has gone up to around 55 per kilowatt. So if you look at this now, it has gone up. So with what is going up now, I'm trying to just get the numbers right. Customers will begin to pay around 71, 71, 72. And that's across the banks, both banks, A and B. Again, it now applies to a different bank as you look at it. So the 71 now that is between, presently now with the increment we are projecting to look as announced, bank A will begin to pay around 71 to 80.  And this review comes up every six months. So every six months NEC has this review to look at the economic realities and be able to say, okay, maybe this is what's based on performance. Look at the numbers and realities. Maybe this is how we should increase it. So it's bound to happen. But I've given you a breakdown of how we are fed between like 2015. So in the last eight years, downwards how this has gone. And this current tariff we are in now, I mean from last year, is bound to change because of the realities. Again, these discourse cannot operate in isolation. They also need the money because if they don't operate, if they are not able to operate, we won't have the power in the first place. Well, these reviews that they do every six months, have we ever had them reviewed downwards? No. I can remember, I mean I can recall but depending on the band you are in, sometimes it could come down. I can't say for certain of the numbers now. But I'm sure it could come down. But again, I think the main issue we should be addressing is endurance need to be metered. The issue of metering is still a big problem. So you still see us, some areas across Nigeria, they don't even have meter. You apply for the meters for a long time, they've not gotten it. So if we do meter Nigeria's, we can even measure the accurate number of amount they need to pay for the power they get. And most places don't even get power at all. So we need to tackle the issue of metering, which is a very big problem. Why have we had this metering gap? Why have we had it? It's been a major issue of the time. Why do we still have it? For every system, they are obviously inefficiencies. And I will say this issue, we are still struggling with metering is an inefficient issue, inefficiency issue for the sector. That, I mean, they need to address quite quickly. I mean, I can't speak for the discourse, maybe they need to come speak for themselves, but an answer this question, why do we still have metering issues in the country at this time? Because you're even run at a loss if you cannot meter Nigeria. I have a meter in my house and I have relatively fair power supply where I live, which I pay for. So if you can meter the citizens, how do you measure this? So this goes to answer this question. I mean, literally should be something that you apply for today and you get to more. And it should be something that we don't need to be discussing so much. So I think you can credit that to an inefficiency issue in the system. All right. Is this potentially just one of those growing pains the country has to suffer? If this administration is serious about growing the economy and providing functional infrastructure? I think unfortunately, yes. We need to be able to bear this. The President Tunibu has inaugurated the National Economic Council. And I'm hoping that the council will sit and look at this issue of electricity and tackle it head on. But the good news is, if you recall, the Nigeria Electricity Act was recently signed in. Once that kicks into play, we have a decentralized approach to power. So it means states, we take charge of power in the various states that may likely relieve the grid of the pressure because currently the grid is even produced around 3,000 plus megawakhs. I mean, even with about 17 power stations we have. So when we decentralized that to the state, these states will take control of that. With the law now, they can generate, transmit and distribute power in areas covered by the grid in the various states. Again, with the kind of policies they put together in the various states, that will help them to tackle this issue of power in the various states. We are relieving the grid. And with the new law, I mean, they are very good positive sides of the new law, a page was written for renewable energy. So it means we can leverage renewable energy sources like solar to be for power in the various states. I want to see how states are going to leverage that again. Legal state is already doing that. Yes, legal states, federal states, Kaduna, are way ahead of other states. But I want to see, since there are new governments in place across the country now, I want to see states rise up to the occasion, make policies, make laws in their various states that will tackle this. By the time they begin to do all of this, maybe we can even have a cushioning effect because every state is specularity. Yes. Again, we are relieving the grid. With the new law also, you can even, if you produce power independently, you can give back to the grid, which is what we currently don't have. So there are many positive sides of the new law, new electricity act that I think sector wise, people are excited about it and we hope to see. So that will be the cushioning effect of this issue of tariff. So legal state takes hold of their state, reverse state takes hold of their state, they do state. So every single state begin to decentralize this law and we can see changes will happen, hopefully. I think that's the only way, but until the state takes charge of this law, I think NEC will still be regulating for the country. Oh, I think it's just about two areas now that they have provided solar to. Those who are in areas where they have not received any kind of palliative are asking, what about us? What sort of palliative should be given? But John, what you just said now, because all this coming at this time is definitely gonna put a lot of strain on the pockets of Nigerians. Those earning powers are not strong enough to carry these at this point in time. What should states be doing? And indeed even the federal government. So I'll tell you something. For example, renewable energy now. I mean, people that suffer this whole issue now, people at the bottom line, the last man, the people in the rural communities. And when they're in the last population. And they're in the last population. So if government begin to invest in things like mini-grid in these rural areas to cushion the effect as long as the sun is free, solar is gonna work, it's gonna produce power. If we begin to put more investment because developers, the mini-grid developers, they need money to set up mini-grids. So if the government can do more in that area, especially at the state level, we can see more. If government can also put in money to distribute solar home systems in those rural areas, I think it's going to help a lot. Because some of these homes in rural areas, what they need power for is just to charge their phone, have a bulb in their house. We don't have so much to sort of power. And solar home systems can easily solve that problem for them. So government needs to look into this area more if they need to cushion the effect. And of course, work with the players in the sector. Now I'm talking at state levels. Work with the players in the sector. What can be done to cushion this? What can we do? We need to be innovative in the ideas we put up because it is tough. And you believe you may, if we get power right in Nigeria, as I'm hoping that we are trying to, you make life easy for Nigerians because we spend so much on power. I mean, I was just hearing from the news in the earlier segment of the show that, that there will be 7.5% tax on diesel soon. I mean, I heard that one of the newspapers earlier today. So when you begin to tax diesel, that sort of carries all the goods from the markets into the main towns and everything, then there's an issue for us. You know, the subsidy was already removed from diesel, which shut the price up to 780,000. And now if you remove subsidy on fuel, you have to tax diesel again. You are costing more pain. And now most generators, most companies, they get diesel to fuel because they have to generate their own power to run their business. So when you remove the costs, many private organizations spend to generate their own power. When that cost can be off, you can see that they can even use their money into employing more people. And I mean, the economy can even grow. The barber, the barber in the house, the barber shop on the street can be able to pay by his prepaid, open a salon and don't have to go and buy fuel. And I mean, you are boosting the economy in that way. So I'm believing that the economic councils, you know, graded by President Thunambo recently, will be able to sit, you know, and it's a council with the governors to look at less, beginning to act. Wouldn't it be innovative to solve this problem? Once you solve the problem of power, believe in me, I'm sure you must have solved 50% of the problems Nigeria's are facing. You haven't signed this electricity a billion to law, this recent signing. Should the government have probably waited before removing this subsidy? I think so. Although we all agree, subsidy must go. It's long overdue. But I think- I'm not sure if we all agree that subsidy must go from this sector. From this sector. From the power sector. The power sector. I'm not sure that we all agree on that. Yes, most Nigerians agree that subsidy should go in petrol because of all the corruption there. But in the electricity sector, I'm not sure that all Nigerians are on the same page with that. Okay. I think first of all, as at May, the Guardian reported that the government alone is, I mean the government, nine agencies of government and ministries are owning this goes about 75 billion. Yes. They are the greatest owner of debtors. Yes. The Guardian reported that. The electric companies, yes. Let's pay this discourse this money. Maybe if we pay them this money, we can go a long way to begin to solve this problem again and make them even work, you know. So, but if subsidy should power, you need to pay for the power you use and power is expensive across the world. Perhaps the government were to pay off their debt. Pay off the debt, yes. And not remove the subsidy. Do you think you would have made a difference and maybe remove it later if at all? I don't know. But in the removal of electric subsidy, you need to have a cushioning effect. There needs to be a gradual process to this.  And so I've been taken by storm as it were right now. That's what I'm saying. I was trying to look at the first subsidy and how it was removed, even though we all agree that it should be gone. I think there should have been an approach to it. Although it has been off the budget and was supposed to go off by the end of June, by the way, you know, but the way it was said and the way the effect hits the system is what might be the issue with many people. But there needs to be a gradual process. There needs to be engaging of stakeholders.  There needs to be a communication approach to people to make citizens understand the need why we need to do this. I like to say, this is something that should have been gone 10 years ago, you know, and we are doing it now, but there needs to be an approach to it. Not just take citizens by storm the way it was, as it says. So, but if we solve the issue of power, I repeat again, we would have solved 50% of the problems Nigeria's are facing. If you hear the costs, most banks, for example, and most corporate organizations pay to generate their own power on diesel, you see, it's a business on its own. It's a business on its own. A diesel supplier can live in a bag of rice every year because he makes a lot of money, for example, from that supply. But the companies, you know, bear the brunt, and it's a lot. So if companies can spend less on power, a lot can happen with that money to employ more people, put back into their capital for the business, and run more effectively, the SMEs can even flourish. SMEs are even the worst that suffer from this. You know, if you run a small business, or you calculate the cost at which you need to fuel your generator, either by diesel or by petrol, just to keep your business running, it's something else. So this is something we need to address head on. And I want to believe strongly, looking at the New York Nigeria Electricity Act, that it's going to be a long-term approach to finally solve this problem. But let's just hope that, you know, fixing this wouldn't make the cost of paying for electricity almost the same thing as having to buy fuel and diesel for your generator. I'm not sure you can get to that point. That's where the question of why 40%? So I'm not sure you can get to that point. Do the maths. Like I also like to say, people that use solar, I use solar, a lot of people use solar. If you do the maths, the power you get from your discourse, I'm not sure it can be as expensive as how much you spend to even fuel a maintain your generator. I mean, power from the grid is always cheaper.  You know, so even if, I mean, I know a lot of organizations can pay that money because the more you get the power from the grid, the more you need to pay. But I'm not sure it can be more than the cost of getting a generator and powering it. I'm not sure. No, no, I disagree on that. So, but strongly where we fix this issue of power, organizations get their power from the grid, they can pay less and that's our work. Solar, for example, do the cost. Already upfront cost seems to be high. But when you do the cost comparison over time, diesel, for example, what it was three years ago, isn't the same now. But the solar panel you bought three years ago can last you for 20 years. The battery, depending on the kind of battery you get, can last you for seven years. So you can see the cost. So, because those are the two components that make the solar expensive in the first place. You know, and all that you can do again as a country is begin to put in incentives, you know, to make this solar component even way cheaper. You know, in country manufacturing, for example. Exactly. Yeah, if we can make this in country, we can drive down the cost, you know, and that even makes it more cheaper. I imagine that now that states can now generate, distribute, that a lot of them, as you've said, they become more creative. Yeah. And so they may, and part of the campaign promises by the presidential aspirants is to make Nigeria a country that manufactures as against a country that imports depends solely on imports. I imagine that some of these things may start springing up. Manufacturing companies are going to start springing up and those who are struggling may become strengthened. Now, market price stabilization may soon bring this prices down, isn't it? But the question is, how soon are we gonna see that happen? I don't, we can't really tell how soon. But I think that is the idea. I mean, in the long run, like I alluded before, the cost might even normalize. When there's competition within the space, that will also help to drive down because when there's increase in demand also in this competition. So in the long run, things might, but we need to be able to produce the things we need to use in country because what makes things go high, the cost of dollar, effects issues, I mean, our ports, even to import things can be really, yeah, but the bottlenecks. And size duties, which has been increased. Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, they are crying about that. So all of these also affect power. Like I said before, nearly 70% of all the equipment that makes, you know, that the power sector use. They're important. They're important, you know. So what is even increasing the cost of solar, for example, is the panels are important, the batteries are important, everything are important. And when you add the effects issues, everything has gone up, you understand? So, and as it is now, that's where we are. When the dollars, no more CBN dollar again, everybody is, I mean, it's an open market now. You go, look at how it has gone up to about 600 or something. So you can see that. Even 700. Even 700. What I saw in the paper today, 700. I don't even know how much it closed yesterday, you know, but it affects every single thing in the economy. So if we don't begin to look towards producing internally, then this cost of effects will continue to affect every single thing. So other approach I may recommend for the National Economic Council is, let's look at how we can drive more localized production, localized manufacturing, you know, build more solar assembly plants, build more battery assembly plants or production plants, you know, begin to look how we can make this more into the country. What are the things that needs to make that happen? I want to believe these are the things that the states, when they are putting together their electricity policies, they will try to look at how they can drive in their various states, the electricity markets, to see how they can localize a lot of things. Well, subsidy on itself is not bad. I keep going back to that. Because I've done some research and I know that some societies really do subsidize different aspects of the economy of their life so that the citizens do not have to pay 100% for certain things. So where are we getting it wrong? Maybe we are not subsidizing the right things. Maybe we need to see how we can take the money since subsidy is out now from petrol.  Those are the things that take the bulk of money from citizens. How do we subsidize those things to make it easier for citizens to survive? So even though subsidy is not a bad thing, which maybe I don't even disagree with, but we need to be subsidizing the right things. So as a country, we need to ask ourselves, are we subsidizing the right things at the moment? Should we not look at, where we need to put money to subsidize? This education, the cost of education now is pretty much expensive. Can we put in money there? So many out of school children. Can we put in more money than healthcare? The health sector is one thing that I hope the president administration will address in the long run. Can we put in more money there to subsidize the cost of healthcare?  Even now that for us subsidies out, everything has gone up. Especially now. Can we put in more money in transportation? Can we have more public mass transit? How can we put in more money into that sector to subsidize it for citizens to be able to manage? So I think these are those areas. Maybe we're not subsidizing the right things. We need to put money in the right place. Oh, thank you. wisdom chap jumbo for your time on breakfast this morning. You've certainly shed more light on this very important issue that's unfolding before us. Thank you. While you're still watching the breakfast on Plus TV Africa, we'll take a break and come back with our second hot topic. Please stay with us.


Thank you so much Scott. Thank you all. It's a joy a blessing to be here I think it's okay to walk isn't I supposed to walk through Mary to Jesus is I think that's how it works So that that's how I took it. So oh, this is I love this theme Although I have to say I was duped when I was first invited. I thought this was all about Encountering Jesus in the dessert And I came and there's just been lots of fasting I don't know what's happening here Oh, this is so great to see everyone back together Here like this. This is a this is amazing After after being a year off from many conferences and pilgrimages It's so fun to see people gathering back at church gathering back for conferences I just let a pilgrimage to Rome last month again, and it just feels like okay We're starting to get back to normal, but it's been a challenging year for all of us And I'm excited to get into this theme of into his likeness the idea of how can we be transformed not just in the good times But even in the desert, and that's what I want to do here So speaking of pilgrimages, how many of you been to the Holy Land anyone been to Holy Land? Okay, who wants to go to the Holy Land? All right, I'm gonna take you there this morning We're gonna go there this morning at least in our imagination. Are you ready? I want to take you one of my favorite spots when I lead pilgrimages to Israel one of the first places I go is up on the northern part of the Sea of Galilee, and it's where a dramatic scene took place a conversation between Jesus and Peter Jesus and Peter and Jesus asks Peter a very Personal question. He says this Do you love me? Do you love me now at first glance that should be like a no-brainer That's that's you know, this would be of course Peter loves Jesus This is Peter the guy that dropped the fishing nets behind and followed Jesus as a disciple for three years Of course, he loves Jesus This is Jesus the Peter who who has made the rock upon which Jesus was gonna build his church of course Peter loves Jesus But if you read this in John's gospel Pope Benedict once reflected on this that the the particular Greek word that's used here for love Would make Peter pause You see the word that's used here is Agapau based on Agape love, which is this total Sacrificial love the love that Jesus modeled for us on the cross Jesus doesn't use in John's presentation of this. He doesn't use Another word like Philia love, which is this basic ordinary human friendship. That's not the word Jesus uses. He uses this higher level of love total unconditional perfect self-giving love Now even that word I gotta I gotta tell you if you're if you're reading the Gospels and you look at Peter's life I think earlier in Peter's career Peter probably would have just jumped at that. He was said, oh, yeah, of course Jesus Yeah, I love you with Agape love But something happened a few days ago before this scene on holy Thursday night Peter we know denied Jesus three times and Here is this is Easter now Jesus is risen from the dead It's after the resurrection and this is the first biblical account We have of a one-on-one one-on-one conversation between Peter and Jesus.  You denied your Lord and Jesus is risen. Everyone's all excited. They're jumping up and down But then all of a sudden, you know things are settling down and Peter looks you in the eye and says hey Pete Let's have a chat Who do you think it? Uh-oh and then the first question asked of you is Do you love me? Do you love me with this high-level Agape love? I Think that makes Peter pause I Think Peter is a different Peter now He's a humbled Peter. This isn't the earlier sanguine Peter Remember the Peter that would just jump at everything right? He was the Peter at the last supper at the last supper just a few hours before he denies Jesus He says Jesus I'll go anywhere with you. I'll go to prison with you.  This is a Peter that is not overconfident This is a Peter that it has more honesty more self-awareness And he comes back and he says Lord, you know that I love you But if you look at the Greek what's fascinating is that the the presentation of this scene it has Peter saying I Love you with the word felio Felio love that ordinary human affection Fine good, but far from perfect He's basically saying Lord you of all people know you of all people know how incapable I am of this Perfect total self-giving love you know how I denied you and So this is an honest humble moment for Peter and that Jesus comes right back and asks the second time Do you love me with feel you with without get me love and Peter's like, oh, why are you asking again? No Lord? You know That the best I can give you is feel you love and finally the third time Jesus asked the question He changes the word he changes the word for love. He doesn't change the standard But he's going to come down and meet Peter where he's at and he says Do you love me with feel you love? So he's willing to take whatever Peter can give and then Peter comes back and says Lord You know everything You of all people know how incapable I am of a God. They love you of all people know the best I can give you is this weak Imperfect feel you love now. Why am I telling you this story because what's most amazing about this story and about what? We can learn about Discipleship especially discipleship in the desert is what happens next the next part of the story is the most amazing part of the story once Peter Comes to Jesus as he really is not as he'd like to be not as he hopes to be but as he really is Weak imperfect with lots of faults now. Jesus can really begin to work with him and work in his soul He's going to take Peter's weak imperfect feel you love and Transform it With a God they how does he do that? He goes on these hells Peter. What's gonna happen? He says Peter One day he gives his prophecy one day you will go where you do not want to go You will be led where you do not want to be led and when your arms are stretched out What's he talking about? He's giving a prophecy about Peter's future martyrdom Peter's future martyrdom in Rome when he's gonna be crucified Upside down in Nero's Circus one day Peter will live this heroic total self-giving love But it all began right here on the shores of the sea of Galilee I think this is the most significant moment in Peter's life This is what what spiritual writers might describe as Peter's second conversion He had that initial conversion early on when he was first called by Jesus But now when it comes to a deeper awareness of his own inadequacy And he comes before the Lord the Lord can finally begin to work in him in a profound way Peter is going to be changed from this point on you look at the story Peter's a different man The same Peter that denied Jesus three times holy Thursday night Then all of a sudden you're gonna see him in the next couple of scenes the next apostles leading the apostles Who's the successor for Judas the Holy Spirit comes he proclaims the gospel the 3,000 people they're baptized all in a single day He goes to prison as he wanted to early to but now he really will go to prison Multiple times and it'll go all the way to Rome and be crucified The great st. Peter the rock upon which the church is built our great a hero Apostle It all began right here in this moment Before Jesus when he learned to come to Jesus as he really is That's the heart of what I want to talk about today now. I want to share with you Some something's very dear to me How many of you Love religious art anyone love religious art. I love it. I just got back from Rome as I mentioned I love being able to show people the beautiful art the Vatican museums and many of the churches I'm gonna share with you here one of my favorite pieces of art This one is right up there with Caravaggio Raphael Michelangelo for me. It's this one here if everyone can see this was drawn by my little daughter a little Eleanor drew this for me So it's just a just a bunch of scribbles right and You know if if you know, I she gives this picture to me She gave this to me many years ago and and I asked her what is this? She says that's you daddy What'd you think of a dad that would just rip it up and tear it to shreds You know, don't you ever draw a picture for me until you get it exactly right? No, no good father would do that, right? As a dad, I see more than just my daughter's scribbles I I see I see her heart that she's wanting to draw her daddy a present What's that to give her daddy a gift? I? Think our Heavenly Father looks at us the same way So here's my question for you.     We're gonna talk about that because it's in the desert of our lives the desert of our spiritual lives our moral lives our Relationships it's in the desert that God wants to meet us and can transform us in the most profound ways in Discipleship if we if we let him but before we get to all that I just want to highlight though that the father Sees more than just your scribble lines He sees your heart. He sees your good intention and and he'll meet you there And then you can transform your scribble lines of your life into a beautiful masterpiece If you dare to meet him in the desert, so that's what we're going to talk about in In this presentation here this morning on this on this day. Let's begin by turning to our lady We will go through Mary to Jesus Asking her to intercede for us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  The Lord is with thee Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death Amen in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen You know, there's been a lot of talk about discipleship over the last five seven years or so You're hearing it a lot from our Holy Father Pope Francis his first major document was all on the idea of being a missionary Disciple that created a lot of buzz a lot of conversation about being a disciple But it wasn't just him it was emphasized by Pope Benedict emphasized by John Paul the second You're seeing many diocese setting up committees about discipleship. How do we build discipleship in our diocese? Many parishes forming committees and teams thinking hey, how do we do discipleship? We're gonna do so so lots of talks about discipleship these days You can go online type discipleship you'll find seven keys to be a highly effective disciple Or here's five ways to do discipleship in the parish, and I love all the enthusiasm all the recreativity I think this is a crucial theme for our church in these days But I'm concerned that all this talk about discipleship is more just talk and not grounded in the word of God Is not grounded in scripture and what God's inspired word in scripture teaches about discipleship And what the tradition in our Catholic faith has told us about discipleship and what we find in the Magisterial Teachings about discipleship, so what I want to share with you today. I want to be very clear on this We talk about discipleship all the time and focus we've been doing this for 23 years But what I'm gonna share with you is not Edward Sri's ideas about discipleship or Curtis Martin or focus or anything else What I'm gonna share with you is this is just from God's inspired word This is from the tradition and if I had to pick one key word one key word that sums up the heart of Discipleship it would be this word right here imitation invitation the Disciple imitates the rabbi Let's talk about this for a little bit What is a disciple the word disciple in Greek?  You don't have much of a relationship with your professor You just have to do well on the exam at the end of the semester and get a good grade That's not biblical Discipleship so don't think of professor student relationship today. That's not the kind of student. We're talking about a Disciple was someone who had a teacher a rabbi But they didn't just show up for class and take notes They shared life with the rabbi They lived with the rabbi. They shared meals with the rabbi. They prayed with the rabbi They studied with the rabbi They served the poor and the suffering with the rabbi and the goal was imitation The goal wasn't just to memorize the rabbis teaching. That was a key part. Don't get me wrong There's a lot of memorization going on but the ultimate goal was to imitate the master's whole way of life So you're watching the way he prays you're watching way he debates other rabbis You're watching the way he lives and it was his whole way of life That was meant to rub off on you and you were you're called to to to live the life that he was modeling for you I think about what Jesus himself says Jesus in chapter 6 verse 40 of Luke's gospel says that when a disciple is fully trained He becomes like the rabbi himself He becomes like the rabbi himself That's the goal if you're truly trained as a disciple you become like the rabbi So just my friends right now just imagine being one of those disciples imagine being Philip or Andrew James John You're one of those disciples What are you doing? You didn't just show up for class with Jesus when Jesus called people What did he do when he sees Matthew in the tax collector's office does he go? Hey Matthew? Hey go go sign up for classes at the synagogue with me take on Monday Wednesday Friday at 11 a.m You know take my class so what he did he said come follow me When he sees Peter and John on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and they're fishing What does he say to say hey John go meet me up on that mountain tomorrow at 3 p.m I'm gonna give this amazing sermon on the mountain there and bring a notebook take a lot of good notes I'm sure they were all taking good mental notes Maybe somewhere even writing things down, but but the key thing is That's not what they did. It wasn't just simply show up for class.   So while Jesus taught many things And surely you're gonna remember his teachings You remember people's actions even more. Don't you actions speak louder than words And so while Jesus talked about praying prayer is important Every day you're watching Jesus get up early and go to a lonely place To go pray and you start noticing that like that's really important Jesus talked about being light to the world Going out to the lost sheep of the house of israel But then you watch Jesus himself constantly going to the sick to the suffering To those that were lepers to those that are outcasts always go into the peripheries You're watching Jesus have this urgent pressing need to go to the lost And that that would inspire you you watch Jesus he talked about forgiving for you know forgiving and loving your enemies But if you were st. John and you were there on good Friday and you watch Jesus as he's being nailed to the cross say father Forgive them They know not what they do that's going to leave much more of an impression Than the lecture he gave on forgiveness It's the whole way of life. It's like parenting Being a we got lots of parents here, right? It's such a daunting task being a parent You know, especially when they're older and their teenagers and they're smart Yeah And they notice your weaknesses more You know like they imitate you like I can teach my kids all about patience and kindness and service But they're going to learn all of that by watching mom and dad and how they're patient with each other And and how they are serving and how they're kind that's where they're going to learn about it Like I remember a couple years ago. I was getting frustrated with my kids And I was just like would you stop getting mad at your little brother? I'm like, well why are they getting mad at your little brother because they're watching dad lose this temper right now You know, so they imitate us for better or for worse Uh, but imitation that's where you learn the art of living you learn the art of the virtues by imitating others And we are disciples of jesus our rabbi is jesus christ and we're called to imitate him and his virtues There was a great rabbinic saying that said this that said if you find a good rabbi Cover yourself in the dust of the rabbi Isn't that beautiful image so you can picture like a rabbi might be walking through the town and there'd be You know the line of disciples behind him walking very closely The idea is you want to walk closely to the rabbi if you walk close to the rabbi The dust from his sandals may pick up and start to cover your garments But it was a beautiful image to describe you want the dust of the rabbi's way of life to cover you We want the life of jesus his love his patience his generosity his kindness his sacrifice We want his whole way of life to cover us. It's all about imitation That's why st paul st paul when he is Writing to his disciples in corinth. What does he tell them? He says memorize all my teaching He emphasizes that in his letter to the chrithians, but he also says be imitators of me As I am of Christ The art of discipleship is all about imitation is about imitating our master jesus Now i'm going to switch gears on you. So we've talked about rom We've talked about the sea of gaoli and the holy land. I'm going to take you on a world tour We're going to go somewhere else now. Has anyone ever been to london anyone been to london here? Okay in london. It's fascinating if you did you go on the subway the the tube the underground you go into the subway system in london And you go down there and you see these three words everywhere They're on the walls They're on the platform on the ground you hear them in the speakers and audio voice saying these same Three words over and over again. I I don't understand it I've been on subway systems all around the world here in the united states. I've been in rom I've been in paris. I've been in Bangkok and I don't see these three words all over the place There's something about england where they're really nervous and what is it? Mind the gap. Why are they worried about mind the gap? What is it? They know because there's this gap between where you are on the platform and where the train is And they're worried if you don't mind the gap what might happen you might fall So you have to mind the gap My question for you is do you mind the gap? The gaps that you have in your life Do you mind the gaps you have in your relationship with god? Let's start there Do you mind the gaps in your prayer life? Like do you do you pray consistently every day? Every day no matter what? Or do you pray when it's convenient when it fits in your schedule when you like to pray? Are you do you fail in consistency in prayer? Do you mind the gap or maybe you just read things in prayer you turn your holy hour into study hall and you just read things You're not you don't take time to listen to god And allow him to speak to you.  How about your gaps in your marriage? Are you aware of the ways that you fall short as a husband? Are you aware of the ways that maybe you need to love your your wife better? And be more thoughtful of what she needs and what she's going through Are you aware of the gaps that you have in your marriage? And are you doing something to try to bridge those gaps? Are you aware of the gaps you have with your children? Maybe there's a certain child you have a strained relationship with maybe a certain child needs more of your time more of your Attention, are you aware of those gaps and are you working on it?  You're not just a catholic going through the motions You're not just a catholic that shows up at church on sundays throws money in the basket volunteers every once in a while You're not just an orthodox catholic that stands up for all the truths But what's happening on the inside? How do I know i'm really growing in holiness? How do I know i'm growing as a disciple growing in my friendship with christ? How do I know that? I mean wouldn't it be really cool if there was a holiness thermometer? I mean you could just check in every morning and go oh good. I grew in 14 degrees of holiness last week awesome You know, it'd be really awesome if there was something like that The key is imitation Ask yourself don't ask yourself Did I did do I listen to catholic radio? Do I watch ewtn? Do I do catholic things in my parish all that by the way is awesome It can enrich that friendship with christ, but that's not the mark of our true identity as a disciple If you're a disciple you're minding the gap in your life if you're a disciple you're thinking about these two Crucial questions. Are you ready? Here's the first one first question. What am I made for? What am I made for? I am made for transformation in jesus christ I'm made to be transformed to to be to be clothed with his life to put on christ as saint paul said To think like him jump all second describes discipleship as someone who thinks like christ loves like christ serves like christ I'm taking on christ qualities. That's what i'm made for jesus himself says that we're called to be perfect as our heavenly father is Perfect. That's what we're made for Now here's my question how many of you have reached this stage of perfection anyone here? Because if you did I want to meet you because that means you're a saint And if I touch you I can become a second-class relic and that'd be really cool We're made for perfection in jesus christ, but none of us are there That's why we have to ask the second question The truth about myself Where am I right now? So here I am this is edwards three here in 2021 But I've got Some good qualities I sincerely I really do love jesus My faith is is very important to me and my I love my wife. I love my kids. I love my friends love my colleagues I love the students I teach I love the people I serve. I really do But I also know that that love is tainted by selfishness by pride by many sins many weaknesses Many hurts from my past. There's things that just get in the way From me loving like christ loves allowing christ to to transform me So I have a lot of good qualities. I have a lot of things I need to work on a lot of gaps This is where I am right now. This is the truth about who I am This is what I'm made for I'm made to be transformed in jesus christ How do I get from a to b? How do I get from where I am right now to where christ wants me to be that my friends is the journey of discipleship This is what discipleship is all about it's about being transformed or as st. Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 3 18 It's about being changed into his likeness From one degree of glory to another We long for that change. We long for that transformation We want to share in christ like this How do we do this? Being aware of our gaps is the first step and I want I want to press this issue with all of you Just a little bit here because one thing that we see sometimes in our our crazy modern world where we live in such a secular culture And you look all around and you're just saying well, I mean everything's falling apart We don't get anything right. We don't even get bathrooms, right? How are we going to figure anything out in the society? And we could get really discouraged but we could also kind of pat ourselves on the back and say well I believe in god I mean a lot of americans don't believe in god. I believe in god I don't just believe in god. I go to church every sunday Well, I'm in the 90th percentile now I even go on the holy days.  I watch these catholic videos. I listen to these catholic podcasts I watch catholic tv. I listen to catholic radio 95th percentile I'm doing really good and I'm generous. I give money to my church 96 percentile I stand up for all of the truths of the catholic church I stand up for all those tough teachings on human life about abortion. I stand up for the definition of marriage I stand up for for belief in genesis 127 that god made us male and female men. I'm 99th percentile right now I'm doing really good And don't get me wrong. It's quite heroic to do all those things in the kind of culture that we're living in I just want you to know All of that's essential But it doesn't make you a disciple in and of itself The bigger question is what's happening on the inside Anyone watching olympics right now? I've been watching a lot olympics Imagine if I told you, you know, I should be on that olympic basketball team Really I should Because I'm really really good at basketball. I can't believe the the u.s. Olympic committee didn't choose me He said wow, dr. Sri. We didn't know that about you. I said, yeah, I'm really really good And you say what what what makes you so good? Because I'm I'm really really good at following all the rules I'm amazing. I don't go out of bounds I don't double dribble I don't travel with the basketball I mean really the u.s. Needs me Yeah, you all are laughing at me and mocking me as you should Because you know that simply following the rules doesn't make you a great basketball player. It's essential, right? But it's just the starting point. It's just permission to play the same is true in our walk with jesus Simply following the rules is not enough. It's essential. Absolutely. We should be willing to die for the truths of our catholic faith But that's just permission to play The real question if I want to be a great basketball player, do I have the skills of being a great basketball player? Do I know how to shoot do I know how to block out do I know how to pass dribble all those things? Same thing in the christian life. Do I imitate jesus christ? That's the essence of discipleship And this whole biblical language of discipleship is so catholic This is just the way that the saints have viewed our catholic life What book did saint teres read the most? I need any little flower fans out there What was what was the book she turned to over and over again? It's what it's the second most famous book in the world. The bible is the most read book. What's the number two book? The what The what of christ Ah imitation Right, the great spiritual classic. It's all about imitating jesus. Are you seeking to not just be an orthodox catholic? A catholic that does the right things says the right things Believes the right things all of that absolutely essential But is there something more going on in your heart?   Are we taking on? The imitation of christ, okay now let's get to the heart of discipleship here I want to talk about how do I experience this transformation if I want to experience this change What do I need to do the first thing is? Am I striving to imitate christ? That's the key Do I really have that going on and one thing you find is that whether maybe I bet many of you had conversions? You know a long time ago. Maybe it was in your high school. Maybe it was when you're in college Maybe it was when you first got married or you first started having kids some of you It's been in recent years. Maybe some people just entered the church recently as well But whenever you have that lights on experience and like all of a sudden just everything changes And you just want to follow jesus and you want to just start growing and holiness and imitating and what do you find? You find that the christian way is really really easy No You find how hard it is How difficult it is To follow christ It's kind of like you know my kids when we go to the mall this always happens I don't know why this happens, but it's the craziest thing So we go to the mall and then all of a sudden one of the kids sees it and they just take off and they start running toward it And then the second kid notices the older brother running and then so then they start running then the third one They all start running. What is it that they see the escalators? They love the escalators And my kids are so fascinated with the escalators. Which escalator do they want to go up? They want to go up the downward escalator. They think it's so fun to go up the downward Oh, no, you're embarrassing the three family. Would you please stop?   You're not having to battle against anything You're just going along with the culture you're going along with your own weakness your own passions And it's just taking you down But once all of a sudden you get that lights on conversion I want to follow Jesus, you know, and then you have to take us a little extra effort and it can be hard I think about my daughter Josephine She's older now, but when she was five I remember we left her with some babysitters and The we came back after our evening out and asked her how things were going She saw, you know, there are a bunch of different families coming all together and there were all these kids playing And we said how was Josephine doing and the babysitter said oh, there was an interesting moment They were all kind of dog piling on each other and then Josephine jumped on top of the dog pile And all I said was just simply oh, Josephine be careful That the babysitter is telling us the story and and then Josephine jumps out of the dog pile really quick he goes okay And looked really scared and the babysitter said Is everything okay, Josephine and Josephine says I've been trying to be good And then the babysitter says How's that been going for you Josephine? And Josephine almost breaks out in tears. It's really hard It's true not just for little kids, but even us adult children of God. It's hard to be good It's hard to go up against that downward escalator, isn't it? And so when we strive to imitate Christ We come to realize that the Nike approach to spirituality the Nike approach simply will not work remember Nike's slogan Just do it sometimes. I think we think I can just do it And that's simply not the case So what do we do though? What do we do when we hit those moments? when We're like Peter And we've we've run up against our own weakness Well, we feel like little Josephine. I'm trying to be good, but we can't What happens then? Whoops, I'm gonna go forward here. This is my little daughter Eleanor That's a couple years ago. She's she's a little bigger now But tell the fun story. Have you ever seen a kid take their first step? That's really fun when they take their first step. Have you ever seen a kid though? I think even more exciting than the first step is their first jump Have you ever seen a kid take the first jump learning to jump is hilarious? It's just so funny because it's so how do you teach someone to jump? So she's like a little over one and and I remember all the older siblings had her in the living room They made a big circle around her They're trying to teach her how to jump and they're all jumping and Eleanor's just sitting there going like this Not knowing how to do this thing and they said okay.  She just walked away. She's like no jump.  And when you face that You you you can be tempted like Eleanor to get discouraged You get tempted like Eleanor to get discouraged and to To think that you just it's just not going to work and you'll be tempted to give up This is the most important moment In discipleship. I mean there's the foundational moment of when we're first called But when we run up against our weakness our limitations as disciples when we're striving to imitate christ And we realize we can't What do we do in those moments? That's how peter felt on the shore of the sea of galley. This is how Eleanor felt in jumping What do we do in these moments? I want to share with you an insight from one of my favorite saints saint therese of this you She wrote to her sister They were they're exchanging letters and the sister was describing how she just felt Frustrated with her own weakness. The sister was saying, you know, I've got All these weaknesses all these gaps. She needs the word gaps but that idea here And it feels like a mountain.  She says it's a beautiful line. I love this image Because I think that's that's where many of us are at that we we can come to recognize. Yep I've got these gaps. I've got these weaknesses. Then what do I do? I just can't overcome them I'm not changing. It's not it's not it's not being fixed and we can be discouraged. Why am I not taking off? But the lesson we want to learn from the saints and what therese describes so beautifully here is that god doesn't want to meet us up here in this Imaginary ideal vision we have for our lives that I should be the perfect catholic man this perfect catholic husband's perfect catholic father I should be this now. I am called to perfection But I have to face the reality that that's just not where I'm at and god doesn't want to meet me up here. Why?  When we can come to him broken as we are and allow him to enter in That's when we experience the deeper transformation Where he begins to heal the roots of our sins He heals the roots of our our weaknesses and imperfections. That's where the real transformation takes place And so what we want to do is realize that yes, we should be striving to imitate christ discipleship involves this Intense upward movement. I'm going to give everything to follow jesus But in the end we realize as teres says that's only so much And we're going to fall short And we have to come and allow god to come down and meet us in the valley of humility And it's there that we experienced how loved we are Not for what we do not for how much we give not for how much time We spend in the chapel not for how many decades of the rosary pray All of those things are good they enrich our spiritual life But we are loved simply for the sake of who we are as beloved sons and daughters And jesus wants us to know that fundamental point so profoundly at the core of our being Do we know how loved we really are by god? It's a love that we cannot earn Love cannot be earned You can't earn the love of a parent You cannot earn the love of a coach a teacher a boss and you certainly cannot earn the love of god It has to be received Love can't be earned. It has to be received And it's received most profoundly in those moments like peter In those moments when we're in the valley of humility and we allow god in our weakness To love us and it's there that we experience how much we are forgiven That jesus no matter what we've done no matter how many times we've done it no matter how many times we fall Every time we turn to him especially in the sacrament of reconciliation We go into that confessional and we experience this free total love this forgiveness And it's there that then we begin to be healed and transformed Now I want to tell you about again. I'm going to tell you about my my favorite saint here. Therese Do you know about therese's conversion story? Do you want to know about therese's conversion story? I love the story of therese and her conversion. Did you know? Therese used to play in a punk rock band and did drugs and found jesus. No, that's not what happened Therese was not a Protestant minister who became catholic Well, but therese her her conversion story would never become a lighthouse catholic cd You know, although I think it should because it's beautiful conversion story that we can all relate to It's it's a story about the ordinary types of miracles god wants to work in all our lives Here's her story So when she was very young about four and a half her mother died before her mother died She was outgoing confident joyful. She was really close to her mom But then her mom died and that all changed she became very insecure timid and she really struggled in controlling her emotions And and she was very pious and spiritual and she knew that this was a weakness even from a young age And she's constantly trying to work on this idea of controlling her emotions But every little the littlest thing would set her off somebody says something She did something wrong and she feels bad about and she would just start crying She couldn't control her emotions and then she felt bad about the fact that she couldn't control emotions So she would cry for having cried about her weakness. You know, so it was a real problem This is continuing all the way until her teen early teenage years She's 14 years old and she's still struggling with this and one day It's christmas eve and she goes to mass with her her family for the christmas midnight mass And if you've ever done midnight mass with your kids anyone ever done that Are you a little grumpy after midnight mass supposed to be christmas? But you're just exhausted and the kids have wiped you out and you know So so anyway the the father comes home and he's in a little grumpy mood I can I can understand it and um and there's this tradition They have in france of putting the shoes out on christmas eve for the little children And and then you put and then you put the the the presence into the shoe And and the and the father comes home and sees that teres put the shoes out And teres is going up the stairs. She's going upstairs I don't know teres is coming downstairs and her sister saline is going up the stairs and they both over here the father Out loud grumbling and complaining about the shoes The father's saying oh, she's 14 years old. Does she really need this at least this will be the last year So teres hears dad complaining about the shoes. What would teres normally do? Cry break down in tears And saline sees this and sees that teres's eyes are welling up with tears and saline's like Wait, wait, don't go downstairs. No, no don't don't ruin christmas. Just just stay up here And then all of a sudden teres finds this inner strength holds back the tears Goes downstairs Sees the shoes opens it up and just is joyful and then jumps in her father's arm says Thank you daddy for the presence the dad is like sees the excitement of the daughter and he's happy again And saline is like did that just happen Teres normally would totally break down at this moment now teres describes this as her conversion moment She describes this as the christmas miracle The miracle of god's grace in her life now some of you are wondering What's so miraculous about that? Those of us who've raised teenage daughters know when a teenage girl learns how to control her emotions. That is pretty miraculous But for all of us we should see That what was going on in teres This is the miracles the ordinary miracles that work the god works in ordinary people's lives That when we're struggling with someone she battled for four for ten years struggling against this weakness Bringing it to confession making sacrifices and then one day God's grace works in profound ways and she was from that point forward changed That should give all of us hope Because maybe we don't struggle with that kind of thing struggling with tears. Maybe we struggle with anger Or maybe we struggle with lustful glances Maybe we struggle with pride and always thinking we're right. Maybe we struggle with with uh selfishness I always want to do what I want whatever we struggle with we've got these weaknesses god can come in And transform us if we dare to meet him in the valley of humility Let me read this quote From teres. She says we must do everything in our power give without counting the cost practice virtue at every opportunity Deny ourselves constantly prove our love by all kinds of attentions and marks of affection in a word Do all good deeds in our power for the love of god. That's that upward movement of discipleship But then listen to the next sentence but Since all that is really very little it's important to place all our trust in him alone Who sanctifies all deeds and can sanctify without them? That is what the little way of childhood is all about Yes, we should give everything but in the end we're going to realize how much we fall short and when we do We allow god to encounter us in the valley of humility We allow him to meet us in our peter moments or a little elinor moments allow him to meet us and experience his love His forgiveness and his transformation Now if I had more time and I know that that was a dangerous line scott says that's always dangerous when a speaker says that But i'll just throw this on the board There's four key things that you need for your life If you want to experience this transformation. I'm not going to have time to go through it I cover it in the book that I wrote they have in the bookstore here. It's it's called into his likeness Just the title this be transformed as a disciple um The four key habits of a disciple these aren't again This four random things. This is what the earliest disciples dedicated themselves to after pentecost This is what the early church turned to For centuries whenever the catholic church summarized what is the catholic faith all about it turned to these four Things in our modern era. We have a book that summarizes the catholic faith. What's it called? How many sections of the catechism are there? Four four pillars. Where did those four pillars come from acts 242? So when i'm sharing with you again, I want to be really clear This is from the heart of the church. This is what the church is saying We need and I like to think of these as four encounter moments These are different ways that we encounter god first one is in prayer I'm going to talk about that more in our in my workshop this afternoon But you all know the need for daily prayer not just saying prayers But encountering jesus every day being faithful to prayer is more important than any feelings you get from prayer More important than praying when you are you know, it fits into your schedule But being faithful every day is an act of love and we encounter jesus when we're faithful to daily prayer Secondly the sacraments acts 242 describes. This is the breaking of the bread Which is the eucharist the center of all the sacraments We need to have a sacramental life to receive in the eucharist regularly going to the visit make visits The blessed sacrament going to confession regularly every true disciples should go to confession at least at least once a month If there's anyone here that doesn't have enough sin in one month's time to bring to confession again I want to meet you come to me. You know, let's let's let's talk because you're a saintly person But we all have to keep going regularly to not just be forgiven But in the sacrament of reconciliation, we receive grace to overcome our weaknesses The the next habit is fellowship And the church has always seen the importance of having good friends other brothers and sisters that we are running with us People that support us in our faith life and also encountering jesus in the poor in the suffering So the works of mercy were often put into this third category of the habit of a disciple And finally the apostles teachings. This is so important right now Because so many the issues that we're facing in our culture are our intellectual issues What is a human person? What makes us happy? What is love? What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be a woman? There's all these intellectual challenges that we face today and we have to form our mind regularly With the truths of the faith and not just take in what netflix and youtube and instagram is feeding us all the time We have to really form our minds because there's a battle going on for your mind The culture wants you to think a certain way And if you're not careful about your diet of what you're taking in in social media And what you're taking in with music what you're taking in and what you're taking from hollywood on screens All those things you will be led away by by the culture We have to fill our minds with the teachings the apostles the teachings of our catholic faith So those are the four habits of the disciple wish I had more time to get into those But those are a little more straightforward. You can read more about them In the book I wrote here called into his likeness Let's close with a glory be in the name of the father and of the son the holy spirit amen glory


Do you want to talk to other Doormonster fans and us for free? You can do that in the brand new Public Doormonster Discord channel. There's a link in the description, so check it out and enjoy the video. This video is sponsored by Dice Dungeons. Stick around after the show for a special offer. Have you ever wanted the mirror mirror on your wall to say that you're the fairest of the everyone? Ever wanted to paint with all the palette of the breeze? Or wondered when would your reflection show what you're like within? Do you have a surplus of gizmos and gadgets, but still want more? Well, have I gone happily ever after for you then? Because in 5th edition, there's rules for that. So you want to play a musical cartoon princess. Makes sense? What's not to like? You get to play a strong, motivated female character with style, confidence, potentially despotic authoritarian control over every waking aspect of your subject's lives, along with all the eternal infamy and or adoration that entails, and a heck of a singing voice. There are obviously dozens of ways we could go about doing that. But for today, let's just start with two. Well, first things first, let's figure out the most basic core qualities of what a musical cartoon princess is. That is, what is the most absolute, tiny, minimum set of features we can claim make a character recognizable as a musical cartoon princess? What is our princess skeleton?  Probably. There's definitely some room for a conversation on what strictly makes someone a princess proper, and probably even room for one about if you even have to be a royal at all. But I'm going to leave that to y'all in the comments. Nope, we're just going to take the noble background and call it good.  No exceptions, full stop. And in fact, I would say that you not only have to be able to sing, but that you have to be able to sing so effectively that it causes actual changes in the world. And that leads us to the pretty inevitable but easy conclusion that both of our builds will have some number of bard levels. And very lastly, every musical cartoon princess needs some kind of connection to some kind of non-antagonistic animal sidekick. Honestly, looking at our source material, you get everything from fully sapient nigh humanoids all the way down to actual livestock that just has nowhere to go. So we're not going to hard commit to any one version just yet. While we could just march out this princess skeleton with one or two more catch-all features and call it good, I think we can do better. Even if only exactly one step better. We're going to develop this out two ways. First, we'll lean into the intersection of our character's royalty and her world-altering singing ability to come up with a personal charm slash political intrigue princess who knows her way around a spell list. And second, we'll pick up on the idea of an animal companion to help build out a princess who takes matters into her own hands and rushes out to the front lines ready for combat. All right, let's start setting up a politics princess. Our plan here is to maximize charisma and then dig, dig, dig every ounce of payoff out of it that we can. As it happens, both spellcasting and politics work best when we are able to move to a place where our enemies cannot punch us. So we'll have decks as a secondary priority to keep us nimble. Plus, it does wonders for our dance numbers. Like I said before, bard complements all of these goals basically perfectly. So that's what we'll do. In the first two levels of bard, we get two class features that turn those little melodies we like to hum during our camp chores into extra value for our party. Bardic inspiration lets us cheer on our allies in the form of a D6 they can add to an attack, save, or skill check. And Song of Rest gives out additional HP to allies using a short rest to heal up. Level three is pretty busy for us and that's great. First up, expertise lets us pump up two skills. That means one of them doesn't matter and the other one is perform because if anybody deserves to hit those high notes just right every single time, it's us. Next, we finally get to enroll in the Bardic College of Glamour. And that immediately gives us two new features. We can now put on an enthralling performance which forces an unsuspecting audience to pass a wisdom save or be charmed by us for a full hour. And if we have a rough time hosting said performance and need a bunch of friends nearby quick, we've also got mantle of inspiration which lets us use bardic inspiration to give temporary HP an opportunity attack free reaction movement to all the allies who can see us whistling while we work. The true crown jewel of this build comes online at level six. For a minute a day, we can use mantle of majesty to at last take our rightful place as queen and cast the spell command as a bonus action every turn for a friend. And if the target of one of these commands happens to already be charmed by us, like say due to a particularly enthralling recent performance, they don't even get a save. Just like that, we've gone from picking up shifts as a criminally neglected scullery made to crafting a whole new world order. Incidentally, if someone thinks of getting clever and tries to topple our empire by in charming our own party out from under us, we've also just picked up counter charm to snap him out of it. As one last note to finish off our political power queen, let's look at a few spells worth having. Charm person is a duh and we've already gotten our mileage out of command, but never underestimate just how much bloodshed you can avoid by casting calm emotions or zone of truth at just the right moment. And just to check off that one last core princess quality, what better way is there to send official misses throughout the land than with animal messenger, huh? All right, let's get back to our princess skeleton to work in a very different direction and build up a frontline battle princess. Step one, three levels of ranger to be extra specific, three levels of the unearthed arcana revised ranger because those updates are going to be particularly helpful for us. This time around, we hear a bit more about being suited up for the rage of close combat. So let's flip our priorities on decks and charisma and pick up a finesse weapon. We get to pick a ranger fighting style at level two. I would suggest defense to help make up for the D8 hit dice we'll be picking up soon, but some characters will definitely have a good case for archery. Our first real pickup, however, is the perfectly tailored combo package of natural explorer and primeval awareness. At level one, natural explorer does for us pretty much exactly what you'd expect it to. Thanks to the countless hours we spent in our formative years foraging, hunting and dancing our way across one wilderness or another, we are both completely immune to rough terrain and literally unable to become lost in the natural world. Then at level three, we awaken a primeval awareness that lets us innately communicate with every single critter, run about in a wing of a thing of the world as kindred spirits. And I mean, that is pretty cool, you know? But there's just no telling how far a squirrel will go along with the conversation about all of your princess problems before completely losing interest the same way people do. What we need is wildlife that we can force into being emotionally invested in our struggles. And that's exactly what we get from joining the beast conclave. We're supposed to pick a very specific kind of animal companion from a very limited list but if our DM has put up with this character concept for this long, I have to imagine they'll probably be okay with reimagining one of these stat blocks as our dream pet. Whatever it ends up being, our companion is no slouch. It gets its own movement, its own attacks, even its own spot in the initiative. It's nearly an entire second mini-PC and that's gonna help us out a ton when at last we see a fight. At this point, we are almost there on our concept of a rough and tumble adventure battle princess. From level four and on, we dive back into bar. Levels one and two we take the same as before but once we get to level three, we will join the College of Valor. For doing so, we get combat inspiration which allows our party member to add any inspiration dice we give them to the two combat numbers that they couldn't before, damage rolls and AC. And that's a good thing because apparently those two are the important ones. So there we go, two royal women with life-changingly excellent singing and a way with animals. Both definitely card-carrying cartoon musical princesses and both with completely different strengths, roles and motives. And neither of which, now that I think about it, possess any ability to provide government administration or guidance whatsoever. Anyway, I'm sure there will be those of you that think I have totally missed what these cartoon musical princesses are really about. And to that, I say, let it go, let it go. Ooh, that's really bad. Yeah, yeah. Ta-da. Hey guys, and this is the part where I talk about the video that wasn't this video. It was the last video, which was close to a week ago. Actually, we're getting better. The last video was using a reach weapons in Pathfinder. Huge number of suggestions, and I just wanted to go over a few of them and why I didn't pick some of them. So the number one feat I saw mentioned was stand still, which looks super, super cool because it looks like anybody at times when he comes in your threatened range, you can just bam, stop him and they just don't go anywhere, which is exactly what we were trying to do, right? The problem with stand still is that it actually in the text says adjacent squares and not threatened squares. So we can have a reach out to the moon, but they still gotta be right next to us for it stand still to work, which sucks. Ask your DM.  Why not?  A lot of you suggested whips. I would love to make whips work. Whips take so much effort to make work. The problem with whips is they have a natural 15 foot reach, which is great, but they don't actually threaten any of it. They do not leave the damage. Sometimes you can get away with using a scorpion whip. That's really, really table dependent because scorpion whip rules don't actually work. And Pyser's just kind of ignored it, but technically what you're supposed to do is take whip mastery and then improve whip mastery and then you threaten five feet and then another five feet. So you're still only at 10 feet after two feet and you're using a whip. I can't make whips work it very easily. And then last, the dreaded second diagonal. A lot of you called me on this and that's fine. So in the donut shapes, you'll see that there is two solid squares around the character when they get large. Technically speaking, the second diagonal is 15 feet and not 10 feet because in Pathfinder, your first diagonal counts as five and your second counts as 10. So you get 15 feet over the course of the diagonal and technically you're supposed to like cut in those little squares because the measurement actually runs out in the middle of the square, blah, blah, blah. I let my players threaten the second diagonal soon. It's really just table dependent. Just make sure that you know how your DM is gonna run it when it comes up and then it's fine as long as it's consistent. We'd like to give a quick shout out to our sponsor, DiceDungeons.com. You can use our code DormMonster on their website to get 10% off your order. They've got a bunch of great stuff there. They have marble dice. They have metal dice. They have little tokens for your characters like little coins that fit on battle maps. They have cloth battle maps. They also have these gorgeous rosewood boxes and I think it's all great.  DiceDungeons.com, do it. Anyway, thanks for watching this one. Watch the next one and the one after that. I won't make any promises about the third one.


Ten, nine, eight, we have a goal for main engine start, we have main engine start, four, three, two, one, zero, and lift off, lift off of the face shuttle, and it has cleared the tower. Welcome to the flight deck of discovery. We're 260 kilometers above the surface of the earth, traveling at 8 kilometers per second.  Nice view, huh? What's this? Hey, a macadamia nut, must be lunch. Banana and pudding, this must be dessert. One of the fun things about flying in space is that things float. That's because we're in a free fall orbit about the earth. The space shuttle orbiter, myself, the nut, and my pudding are all falling together. We're weightless. So if this can of pudding is weightless, why did it hurt when it hit my head? The answer to this question requires a little research. Let's imagine that I can send this nut and this can down to a laboratory on earth. Some catch. As you can see, the can of pudding weighs 100 times more than the nut, but weight can be confusing because weight depends on where you do the weighing. On the moon, the nut and the can weigh only 1 sixth of what they do here on earth. And here in orbit, they both weigh the same, zero. So why is that? It's because weight depends upon the gravitational pull exerted on objects. The earth is very big, so its gravitational pull is very strong. The moon is much smaller, so its gravitational pull is weak, and objects weigh much less. Here in orbit, we're in free fall, and that makes it seem like there's no gravity at all. So objects have different weight depending upon where they are. Well then, what does that have to do with the bump on my head? The answer lies in the fact that even though the pudding can has no weight, it does have mass. Mass is the amount of matter that is packed into an object. All objects in the universe have mass. Weight can change, but not mass. The mass of this nut and of this pudding can remains the same no matter where they are in the universe. Even here on the orbiter, the can of pudding has more mass than the nut, so it hit me with more force. So why have we spent all this time explaining mass to you? Well it's because you have to understand the concept of mass in order to understand Sir Isaac Newton's three laws of motion. And that is what this show is really all about. Newton was a pretty smart guy. About 300 years ago, he came up with the first mathematical formulas to describe things in motion. We couldn't have traveled up here into space without a good understanding of Newton's three laws of motion. So what's the first law? Every material object continues in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it. Couldn't we come up with a simpler way to say that? An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an unbalanced force and an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Thanks Professor Astor. That's much clearer. You're welcome. Now for a demonstration. Here's the can of pudding. It's at rest because it hasn't had any force applied to it. So let's apply some force. Now our object's in motion and it will stay in motion at a constant speed in a straight line until it's acted on by an unbalanced force, like a head. Don't try this at home. Now on to the second law. It explains the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration. Force is a push or a pull, and we already know about mass. Acceleration is how fast an object changes its speed. Here's our can again. We'll use this little air puffer to apply a gentle force to it for a short time. See? It doesn't accelerate very much. Now we'll apply a greater force. That did it. It really accelerated that time. The greater the force, the greater the can's acceleration. But how does mass come in? The mass of an object affects how fast it will accelerate when a force is applied. If you apply an equal amount of force to two objects, the object with the most mass accelerates the least. Here are two cans of pudding, tapioca and butterscotch. If we apply the same force to both cans, they should both accelerate the same and travel at the same rate of speed, right? Let's try. What happened? One can seems to have accelerated more. Was Isaac Newton wrong? Wait. Here's the problem. Someone eats pudding out of one of these cans. Without pudding in the can, the can has less brass, and thus it accelerates more. Newton explained that force and mass are related to each other by acceleration. A force is a push or a pull on the can. More force gives more acceleration. Mass resists acceleration. If we gave the same push to two objects, the one with less mass will accelerate more. So here's our equation. On top is the empty can and below the full one. Force equals mass times acceleration. So Newton wasn't wrong. Okay, who ate my pudding? Now, what about Newton's third law of motion? For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Well, that's very easy to show up here in space. What happens when Lacey pushes against Greg? The force in each astronaut is equal and opposite, so they go off in opposite directions at the same speed. But once again, mass plays a role in it all. Let's try that again, but this time let's make it two against one. The two crew members on the right have more mass together than our crew member on the left. But the force is still equal when they push off of each other. What do you think will happen now? Well, you're right. Lacey really goes sailing through the mid-deck. Well, let's do that again, this time in slow motion. Lacey has less mass than the other two crew members, Don and Greg, and therefore he has a greater acceleration and travels faster. Let's run through these three laws of motion again. An object at rest remains at rest unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. The acceleration of an object depends upon its mass and the size of the force applied to it, and for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Newton's three laws of motion are not just formulas or words on paper. They're all around us in everything we do.


Acute pulmonary inflammation is the central feature of COVID-19. However, patients with severe COVID-19 can also suffer from cardiovascular and neurological complications such as microvascular thrombosis, cardiac injury and loss of taste and smell. The mechanisms how the virus SARS-CoV-2 affects heart and vascular cells, including those of the blood-brain barrier, are only poorly understood. The COVASC consortium, a group of four research project leaders and 10 project partners, connects experts in heart research, vascular biology and neuroimmunology as well as invurology. Together, we investigate how and if the vascular cells are prone to be infected by the SARS-CoV-2. Our work with SARS-CoV-2 will be carried out at the Swiss Institute of Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine, SITEM ENCEL, in a biosafety level 3 laboratory, managed by the Institute for Infectious Diseases, University of Bern. Here, we infect vascular cells as well as cardiomyocytes directly with the virus in state-of-the-art cell culture systems and monitor their immune response and gene expression profile. Results generated in this high-level biosafety laboratory will then serve as a basis for further studies in animal models, which also allows us to study long-term outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infections. By shedding more light also on the long-term effects of COVID-19, we're one step closer to helping patients achieve a full recovery from COVID-19. The National Research Programme 78, initiated by the Swiss National and Science Foundation, finances this project.


Hi, my name is Wesley Anderson, wildlife specialist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. Alabama is home to over 40 species of snakes. Whether you like them or not, snakes are an important part of our environment. One of the most common questions is whether a snake is venomous. Instead of just relying on the eyes or the head shape, always use multiple characteristics. All snakes have distinctive patterns and colors, so the combination of those colors, along with the body shape, along with the head shape, that determines which species it is, and therefore whether it's venomous or not. Even though Alabama has dozens of species, it's really only the six venomous that everyone should be able to identify. Venomous species include copperheads, cotton mouths, and the eastern coral snake, along with three kinds of rattlesnakes, which are the pygmy, timber, and eastern diamondback. Snakes fill important roles in the environment. For example, rat snakes are aptly named because they eat rodents, like mice and rats, and offer free pest control. Many snakes, including our vipers, will be more active during daytime, spring and fall, but most active at night during the hot summer months. Backyard habitat management is the best way to reduce snake encounters near the home. The tidier yard is kept, like keeping the grass short, trimming back shrubs, and moving objects off the ground, the less appealing it is for a snake. Also be sure to keep the area under the bird feeder's tidy and pet food secured to reduce attracting rodents, which in turn may attract snakes. There are no at-home remedies for snake bite that actually work. The most important thing to do is get to the hospital. There's no proven product on the market that effectively deters snakes. Instead of wasting your time with snake propellant, tidy up the yard and crack open a field guide about Alabama snakes.