Hope everyone's having a good day. I hope everyone had a good afternoon. It was nice. Maybe they get a little downtime, right? Just Okay, let's show of hands. Let's do a quick poll. How many took some extra time to pray? How many took a nap? How many took a walk just really enjoyed? I mean like seriously this is like one of the seven days where the sun shines and there's no clouds in the sky that we get every year So you were here at the right day. God has blessed us with some wonderful weather because we didn't have much of a spring This year it seemed like it was like 40 degrees every day and all of a sudden it was like 80 degrees And to have it go back down to the 70s and not be too humid true a true blessing and they have such a sunny day God is so good. And so We're just gonna enter in this is the second session of the life of the spirit It's life in the spirit, you know yesterday I talked about it being this this all-encompassing experience It's not just a one-off kind of retreat or a seminar that we go through and check the box And okay did that receive the that grace? What's next? What else you got for me? You know truly life in the spirit is the Gift that God has given each one of us and has given the church to animate all that we do from our evangelistic work to our Transformation to becoming more like Jesus But today I do want to talk about baptism in the Holy Spirit and then at the end we're gonna take some time just to Surrender and empty ourselves You know Saint Mother Teresa And I think I might have shared this yesterday one of my favorite saints for is God can only fill that which is empty So if we want to receive more grace the question is what are we letting go of? What is in us that needs to go so that there's more space within us and not only that but but to ask the Lord to expand the Capacity of our hearts to receive him And I think God wants to come very near to us in a very intimate way and breathe his life into us To restore and to renew and refresh our spirits But our cooperation with that movement is absolutely essential as it is with the grace of any sacrament as I said yesterday life in the spirit Has its roots everything flows from our baptism so what we are asking for is a renewal and also a new affusion a new outpouring of the grace of our baptism as we move forward together and We're really blessed today because John Paul is here Everyone's waving John Paul. He's behind the piano. He's this is a man of many many talents. He plays the guitar He plays the piano. I've even seen him play the radio in his car. He's pretty good at that So we're lucky to have him with us this afternoon He's gonna lead us in a song of just bringing our hearts our focus back upon the Lord and his spirit So why don't we all stand together and just spend a few minutes worshiping the Lord and giving and putting ourselves in the Lord's presence I Jesus we praise you We bless you Jesus we praise your holy name Jesus, thank you for your presence We ask you to please bless this time together Send your Holy Spirit down in a powerful way Holy Spirit you are welcome here. I Want to fall my heart.  I want to fall Worship you God To give you glory if you pray if you glow in this place You're welcome in this place You're welcome in this place You're welcome in this place Welcome in this place You're welcome in this place Have your way have your Bless the Lord oh my soul shout shout out and bless the Lord oh my soul That's with me and me shout out shout out and bless the Lord oh my soul shout out and have your Thank You Lord God I just want to invite us you know to sing a song together is one thing, but I love the song Where where where David cries out let's sing a new song to the Lord. I Think one of the gifts that the Spirit gives us is the ability to worship God from the heart And it's only when we can let go of what Might be blocking us in our minds and this be free as Children to adore and praise God that the Spirit is continually released in a deeper way in our lives I believe that through this experience for this time together the Lord wants to put a new song in our hearts a Song that no one's ever sung before because it's your song given to you by the Spirit to honor and glorify God To worship him from a depth of spirit from from deep within And so John Paul's just gonna continue to play for the next couple minutes We're just gonna invite you as the Spirit leads you you can either say it or sing it However, you want to do it just to speak the praise that's in your heart to God To not be afraid not to be worried about am I saying it right am I singing it right? Do I have a good enough voice to sing like this for God? You know one of the gifts of the Spirit that I think was misinterpreted in our church through the 70s 80s And even up to now is a lot of people have learned to sing without moving their lips Which is pretty amazing But I like old-school singing where we actually open our mouths and noise comes out and even if it's off key The Lord delights in it. If you're like, I'm ashamed of my voice. I don't sing the best You know what it doesn't matter because if you don't if God doesn't like it He'll change it. All right miraculously make you sound like Pavarotti or something like but if for now He delights in it. He's just happy to hear you sing from the heart So we're just gonna ask John John Paul to say have sing that have your way again And then we'll just break into some spontaneous words of love for our Lord, whatever the Spirit puts on your heart Just come Holy Spirit. Let us sing a new song unto the Lord Praise to you Lord Jesus Glory to your holy name Lord God. We want to sing a song for you Lord Hey, have your holy spirit. We love you Come Holy Spirit.   I give you my heart of praise All the praise and glory. Let's do your name. Oh Lord We sing out our hearts to you. Oh Lord. We love you Jesus Holy is your name Lord God.  Oh Lord Thank you Jesus. Holy is your name. Oh Lord. Thank you Jesus Thank you Lord God We praise we worship and exalt you Jesus We love you Lord God. Just tell the Lord you love and we love you Jesus We welcome you Holy Spirit to fall upon us now have your way spirit You are the master you want to form the interior man you want to strengthen us the inner man You want to pour into us boldness and courage confidence in who you are a New sense of hope a new sense of trust a deeper faith to believe in the miracles that you want to do in us and through us We say yes to all of this Holy Spirit have your way Thank You Jesus We praise you and together we pray all 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. Amen. Thank you Alrighty anyone here from Chicago or have ever lived in the Chicago area? Alrighty people from Chicago love Chicago In a way that people who aren't from Chicago don't understand I Have a cousin that lives in Chicago. I love going down to you know the Up and down I grew up in upper, Michigan So I grew up half an hour from Lake Superior half an hour from Lake Michigan And so the Great Lakes are an important part of my life. I love going back up there I'm leaving on the 29th to spend a week with my dad and my brothers and my sister up there Vacationing my grandmother when she passed away left us the house that she grew up in she remodeled it fixed it up Made it of like a little summer home And it's right on the bay in Grammar Ray, Michigan in a little village of 400 people Has a gas station a hardware store a grocery store and a craft brewery That makes the most amazing blueberry wheat beer because they use fresh blueberries that grow up in the upper upper Peninsula So I'm going to eat white fish and pasties for a week and drink a lot of blueberry wheat beer with my family and just Enjoy the beauty of God, but for people from Chicago, you know, like you got to get your class at Chicago hot dog Your Chicago deep dish pizza. There's food everywhere But for me, you know when I when I think about Chicago, I think about the year 1871 does anyone remember what happened in 1871? I'm looking at you guys from Chicago. Yes, the Great Chicago fire What's interesting about the Great Chicago fire is that it started, you know, if everyone knows that the Chicago River flows down through the middle of the city and At the time in 1871 the the river would turn and flow into Lake Michigan But this river was also where all the slaughterhouses were It was also the river in which most people dumped their their waste And so in around the late 1800s the Chicago River was really nothing more than a boggy You know flow of slow-moving bog of sewage I actually seen pictures of ducks standing on the surface of the river And they called it the stinky river because it was so bad when the fire broke out It broke out on the lakeside But it spread because the surface of the river actually caught on fire because of all the fat and waste and disgusting stuff That was in the river and it spread to the rest of the city you know even after ten years after the Chicago fire was oh had had Burned itself out, you know, and they had rebuilt and so much, you know There was nearly a hundred thousand people had died from illnesses carried by the diseases in the river and They were even considering what to do with the city There was there was talk of even shutting down the entire city Maybe even moving it away because it wasn't sustainable because the river was flowing with all the sewage into Lake Michigan Right and that was where the intake for all the water supply from the city was coming from so all the sewage was flowing from where They were drawing the water that they were supposed to live off of and it was polluted and diseased and filthy and putrid and it could have been that the end of the city until an Amazing group of engineers came up with a plan And they built a number of dams and locks on the part of the river that connected the river to Lake Michigan and Actually changed the flow so that now water would be flowing into the river But where was it going to flow? Well, they built a 28 mile canal from the downtown Chicago down to the Des Plaines River That then flows into the Illinois River and then into the Mississippi and then down to the Gulf of Mexico They literally changed the flow of that river in order to save the city I mean they took years and years to build they they moved tons and tons of was at the time It was the the largest engineering feat done in the country and they did it all because they had to reverse the flow They had to save the city and when they were done fresh water was flowing in and cleaning out all the sewage They also put in new restrictions on what could be dumped in the water They did a an amazing job turning the whole city around and now it's it's the magnificent city that we know that it is And when I read this story online, you know, like I was very fascinated by it And it reminded me of Ezekiel 47 Chapter 47 Where the Lord comes to Ezekiel and he shows him this image of water flowing from the temple And this is what the Lord says to Ezekiel. He says son of man. Have you seen this? And led him to the banks of the river and he said the water flows towards the eastern region and goes down into Arabah and When it enters the stagnant waters of the sea the water will become fresh and wherever the river goes Every little every living creature which swarms will live and there will be very many fish For this water goes there that the waters of the sea may become fresh So everything will live where the river goes And this is where I what I really think you like when we talk about baptism of the Holy Spirit You know, we are constantly bombarded by a world That's under the control of an enemy that what seeks to steal kill and destroy Destroy your relationship with Christ kill your joy Rob you of your sense of purpose to constantly discourage you and hold you down and God wants to reverse that flow in each one of our lives You know that that grace of the baptism needs to be joined by a new flow To move our hearts to take what is dead in us and make it come alive So that wherever the spirit enters into us it touches becomes alive and produces fruit And not only for us, but for the people that we serve For those of you who are priests you previously ministry for those of you who are deacons to your ministry as a deacon For those of you who are in seminary Who are preparing to be priests This is what it all up is all about is allowing this flow of grace to flow in you and through you Is come, you know the simple belief that I've come to learn through my own faults and my own foibles and ministry is Ministry is not nothing more than the overflow of what you first let the Lord do in your own life And if you are generous in the way you let the Lord work in you You will have an abundance of grace to overflow in the lives of those that you serve And so the call for us as much as it is to go forth is to yield To let God first have his way in us so that then he can do his will through us And when we talk about baptism in the Holy Spirit, that's exactly what we're referring to that yielding That allowing that that that spring of grace that was poured into us at baptism the graces that we got through Confirmation the graces that we received through every Eucharist We've ever celebrated and been a part of to well up in us to change the flow of who we are To bring life to this world You know the term baptism in the Holy Spirit is controversial because a lot of people say well, we have baptism It's a sacrament. It's one of the big seven It's the one that takes you from being a pink little pagan as a baby and makes you a child of God It does everything that you need to have happen It gives you this outpouring of grace this sanctifying grace this This dynamic always with you grace that is there to sanctify and you make you make you like the Lord Jesus Christ So why is it necessary for us to talk about baptism in the Holy Spirit as another thing? It confuses people is there another expression we can use I would I would propose that we don't need to look for another Expression to talk about what we mean when we say baptism in the Holy Spirit But look at the words of Scripture and what have been affirmed by different saints and popes throughout our time Jesus starts talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit in Luke chapter 12 verse 49 when he says I've come to cast fire Upon the earth and I wish that it were already kindled Even as Jesus thinks about his work as redeemer He knows that his work is completed with the coming of the Holy Spirit that the final phase of our our kind of Our religion and religion is a word in the Latin just means to you know the ligament the connector That's where the LIG in religion is the same LIG that we use when we talk about the ligaments that connect our muscles to our bones the last part of our Connection to God of the last part of our religion is God's spirit than being manifested and poured into our hearts in a dynamic way Not resting upon us like it did in the Old Testament, but indwelling of the Holy Spirit and Jesus sees this as casting fire in Acts chapter 1 some of the last words he says to his apostles before he ascends is he says while meeting with them He enjoyed them not to depart from Jerusalem But to wait for the promise of the father about which you've heard me speak for John baptized with water But in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit So baptism in the Holy Spirit is a biblical phrase That signifies this coming of the Holy Spirit upon us and He goes he completes his thoughts when he says but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth And have we not seen the fulfillment of these words the churches everywhere the universal presence of the church preaching the gospel to all nations That's funny because like he says in Matthew chapter 28 go But before you go you got to wait and doesn't that seem like it there they were in this constant tension between okay I've got to go there's things to do there's work to be done But I got to wait upon the Lord this waiting upon the Lord is so vital For we have to be equipped and empowered to before we can go we need to receive St. John the 23rd And in the launching Vatican to said renew your wonders in our time as through a new Pentecost His prayer for the church was there would be a new Pentecost a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the church And we saw this spring up where you know We're you know we're literally an hour from what is considered and is got ground zero for the charismatic renewal of the Catholic Church in America the Ark and Dove and If you haven't had ever you've never had a chance to visit the Ark and Dove I highly recommend you go there and if you have an extra hour or two on Friday You know before you have to drive home And if you can make the trip go there and just there's a there's a special spirit That's upon that place and some of the priests who are here from the the diocese epistle will tell you that it is their go-to place for refreshment renewal and retreat and this this This renewal this renewal that started there is spread across the country now There are millions of people who've been who've received baptism the Holy Spirit and Are living out their life in a spirit in a more dynamic way because of it St. John Paul the second in looking at the renewal and you know He had the ability to see it from its infancy and its formation and into the 80s and into the 90s This is what he said. He said the institutional and charismatic aspects are Coessential as it were to the church's constitution It is from this providential rediscovery of the church's charismatic dimension that before and after the council a Remarkable pattern of growth has been established for ecclesial movements and new communities It's so amazing that you know like I love how he says this the institutional the sacramental life of the church It's like one long that needs to be breathing deeply we need to be going to the to the sacrament of reconciliation We need the Eucharist we need our ongoing rootedness in the sacraments of the church But there's also this charismatic along that needs to be Breathing deeply with so for the human to be you know 100% healthy We need to healthy lungs for the church to be healthy. We need to healthy lungs one breathing deeply of the institutional grace and those channels and another Breathing as the spirit wills and and as he graciously provides this grace. We receive it and I love what he says He goes it's a providential rediscovery It wasn't an invention It wasn't a watering down of pure Catholicism It was a rediscovery of a pattern of living that was first lived out by the early apostles in the acts of the apostles And it's not been it's not like it happened ended with the acts of the apostles and was rediscovered in the in the late 60s early 70s There had been many times of great renewal There were times when you know the monks would record that they would be chanting their prayers and at the end of the formal chant The written chance that they would pray together They would continue to chant in tongues as the spirit was moving through them That they're they're their communal prayer left led to communal praying in tongues in a very beautiful way And this was springing forth in different religious communities across the world at different times But I think it really came to life You know for for us in this modern day because the Lord knew that we would need special graces to meet the challenges that we're facing right now as Individuals trying to live pure holy lives in an impure unholy world And to lead and build and renew a church that has suffered from internal decay an external attack I mean there's no doubt that our enemy is strong when 70% of Catholics claim Don't don't have a clear understanding that they don't believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist That's that's diabolical deception that scales over the eyes kind of stuff You know that that's a you know a falling down of the lies of the enemy that blinded people to see who Jesus truly is Could you imagine if every baptized Catholic had an encounter with Jesus Christ where they understood that in that tiny white host was every was the fulfillment of every one of their hopes and dreams and They built their life upon the worship and reception of that and Everything else in their life became secondary to that singular pursuit of loving Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament Where would our church look like if that was the case? I believe I'm a I'm a I'm a I'm totally optimistic You know that that God is going to do something amazing that the best days of the church are not behind us You know God did not lead us this far Just say okay guys. I'm sorry. It's the graces run out last one out the door turn the lights off. All right It's been fun We've had a good run Let's let's let's fold up our tents and go home Now I believe that the Lord is still going to work in power And I think his grace and power are going to be revealed even more so as we courageously and bravely Say yes through the power of the Holy Spirit to meet the challenges that rise before us That rise before us like the giant right rose the Goliath rose before David and David had to listen to them jeer and taunt and Run down God and run down him but in the end There was one person standing there holding the head of the other For all to see that's pretty BA. Yeah, I got the head of it.  It's bigger And the beautiful thing about this life in the spirit this Baptist spirit is we don't have to be strong We just have to put our faith in a God that is ultimately strong Pope Benedict the 16th. He said in effect Jesus's whole mission was aimed at giving the spirit of God to men and baptizing them in this bath of regeneration And I love that because you know when when when we when we look at the completion of Jesus's work as Savior in his Humanity and he dies upon the cross and he says it is finished. It is the work of The Lamb of God, but he said look, I'm not done yet.  You will receive power when the advocate comes. You will be transformed when the advocate comes Peter will become the rock everything that I said will happen will happen the promises that you know That the call I've put on your life all the grace that you need to fulfill it will be given to you Do not doubt but wait and believe And this was on the the Regina Chalia of Pope Benedict the 16th in May of 2018 And he concluded his comments to the audience to say saying these words today I would like to extend the invitation to all let us rediscover dear brothers and sisters the beauty of being baptized in the Holy Spirit Once again, we hear that word rediscover Let's rediscover this let's find this treasure. That's late late hidden You know, it's kind of like all right We're kind of like the bumbling Nazis in Indiana Jones. We've come across the Ark of the Covenant. Do we dare open it? You know, I mean like we've rediscovered this amazing power It stands before us. Do we have the courage to open our hearts and let it flood our lives? You know to penetrate us, you know, if you've seen that movie Indiana Jones, you know I'm the way they open up the Ark of the Covenant and lights are shooting out it You know, it's pretty pretty graphic, but you see this light flying into people and they're like, wow Yeah, it ends very badly for them, but it ends very well for us It's baptism in the Holy Spirit But I love that he says let us rediscover the beauty of being baptized in the Holy Spirit He then he goes let us recover So he says let us rediscover and let us recover awareness of our baptism and confirmation Has anyone ever seen the movie six cents with Bruce Willis? He's dead the whole movie I'm sorry if I just gave it away. If you haven't seen it yet. You deserve to have it spoiled for you. I'm sorry But that's the way most Catholics live, you know, it's like you're up here I'm sure this is even more so for you as you're dispensing communion. I see dead people They just don't know they're dead, you know, like they're their faith has not been activated It's like they really we have this brand of zombie Catholic That shuffle through the motions out of habit that the Lord is looking at and saying no, no I want you to recover Eucharistic amazement.  I want everyone on fire I wish that you were already rekindled, but it hasn't happened because of the normal flow of human events We should receive these sacraments as children and then we should have this grace fostered and nurtured and build up in us And we will be taught well and prayed well with our parents, but that's just not the experience of most Catholics The domestic church is in decay Yesterday morning, I wasn't with you because I was just like 15 minutes down the road is Catholic family land And there were like 750 people family members there Celebrating the Eucharist night and I spoke with them about the need for prayer But you know, but I see these Catholic families are looking to they're struggling to striving to find their identity and maintain it After I got done speaking I talked to a woman Her greatest ache right now in her life and it's deep a deep deep wound is her daughter just she just completed a doctorate in transitional sexual Identity She now identifies wants to be called they or them not a hearer. She I'm a they It has rejected everything about the Catholic faith She won't come and have dinner with her family if they're serving meat because she thinks eating meat is cruel And that's her line of morality abortion Absolutely got to have lots of abortion But to eat a meat to put meat on your table is sin, you know in her mind You talk about the blindness of the enemy and his ability to deceive and pull souls into hell here on earth We have people Who probably are more like mary magdalene than the mother of god more mary magdalene is running around men and women Who are just under the influence of pure evil Blinded by it And what we need is a church In the in an imitation of our lord and savior that can cast out blindness That can open the eyes of the blind who are working on that level of power Pope Francis himself You know, he's been very challenging to the charismatic renewal Because he says it's not good enough to just have a renewal if the renewal is not at the service of the church And if the if the renewal is not about helping other people discover this gift Then it's not really a renewal and at the gathering of all the different Ecclesial bodies and movements of the church that that that operate in the power of the holy spirit and their leaders He said you the charismatic renewal have received a great gift from the lord Your movement's birth was willed by the holy spirit to be a current of grace in the church and for the church That's the thing you know if you're going to be given this great gift of the holy spirit It's not for you You know, it says in first Corinthians chapter 12 every gift is given to one for the benefit of another Like we get gifts from the lord not so we can say look what I got from the lord. He loves me. I'm special You know, we're being activated to use those gifts to serve And he goes on to say he goes what is the very first gift of the holy spirit It's the gift of himself the one who is love and makes us fall in love with Jesus And that love changes our lives. That's why we speak of being born again in the spirit He finishes concluding his remarks by saying I expect you to share with everyone in the church The grace of baptism in the holy spirit So once again, we need to understand that baptism in the holy spirit is an experience that has been given to the church To release and strengthen the effects of baptism and confirmation in our lives It is a current of grace that try transforms the human art and forms the church And when we look at the theology of our sacraments, we can also see a very clear understanding of why baptism in the holy spirit is so important In the catechism in article 1302 it says it is evident from its celebration That the effect of the sacrament of confirmation is the special outpouring of the holy spirit as once granted to the apostles of the day of pentecost That's great. Well, what happened on the day of pentecost? The room that they were in was filled with wind tongues of flame descended from heaven They stepped outside proclaimed the gospel Peter stepped up gave his first homily three thousand people entered into the church became believers They were speaking in tongues There are all these signs and wonders and conversion was happening because the spirit was moving in such great power I wonder if we've ever seen a confirmation ceremony at our churches that look even similar to that In any way shape or form But the same grace the same power that was poured on the church on the day of pentecost Is what comes down and fills and is stirred up in the hearts of every young person But that needs to be fostered that needs to be that there needs to be a personal response to that grace because we know that the sacraments are not magic Dispensing the sacraments. You're not a magician You're offering a gift that gift needs to be received That gift needs to be unwrapped that gift needs to be used by every baptized catholic So that you can become all that god made them to be and if they choose to reject or not respond Either through sin or through negligence We know that that's that the sacrament doesn't have its full effect It says in 1127 In the catechism it says celebrated worthily in faith the sacraments confer the grace that they signify As fire transforms it's into itself everything it touches So the holy spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to its power and I would also add He will transform whoever subjects themself to his power Puts themselves humbly beneath the power of the spirit Overshadowed as it were an imitation of our blessed mother That's that's not a posture that you enter into casually To put yourself under the power of the holy spirit to put them to be subject to his power Is an act of the will the deepest parts of our heart need to be activated as we pursue the holy spirit And most people are not there Most people are not aware Have never maybe never received the catechesis of needing to personally respond with a heartfelt. Yes We know that there's two parts to every sacrament god's part in our part God's part is opus operantum The promise that god says that when you When you administer this sacrament in a illicit and valid way No matter what it is the grace is there So that's that's a great relief for those of you who are priests, right You may not be right to 100 right with the lord But every time that you get up and say the prayers In a valid and illicit way and dispense the sacrament of reckon of a sacrament of community reconciliation Whatever marry somebody grace is present because god that's god's part your god's instrument to bring that grace but the other part Which is just as important to the to the to the life of the church and the and the to make these sacraments come alive Is the opus operantis The person receiving their part That's where we're in the proper state of mind a proper state of receptivity A proper state of the soul namely free from mortal sin Our hearts and minds attuned to god a will Desire us of what god desires to give us in that sacrament And when we line up who we are with what is happening in front of us amazing things happen When I was baptized in the holy spirit the the most important thing that happened to me was the mass came alive If I had a dollar for every mass I received in in such an ill state I'd be a rich person The first 18 years of my life going to mass tuned out Unaware that there was a a mystery A heavenly banquet taking place that if I had the eyes of faith I would have seen the saints and angels praising god around the altar You know if we had these eyes of faith to see everything that's contained in the mystery of the holy sacrifice of the mass So when it comes to baptism and confirmation, what is the operantis? What is our part? Well, number one its faith We have to believe We have to say yes to that A faith that isn't just okay as a concept but a move in my heart like saying okay god I believe and I want what you have That faith that becomes receptivity I hunger for what happens happening there. I want this The third thing is we need to have a repentance of our sins, right?  He doesn't knock down the door He knocks on the door. He waits for us to open it to enter in by invitation only there's a door You know in your heart and it only opens from the inside And god will never kick it down And it's our surrender to that and that's the hardest part Just letting go doing a trust fall into the arms of god and say spirit have your way And believing that our god is going to do something in us that that will blow us away That will make us more of what we were created to be And we must be willing to respond In the bible there's there's many different ways that people receive baptism in the holy spirit And that's one of one of the things I want to make very clear as I wrap things up Because we're going to turn our hearts to prayer here in a second is that there's no algorithm for this There's no formal process by which people receive this. This is the spirit's work You know, I've prayed with a lot of people to receive the holy spirit But I've never seen I've never been able to personally baptize anyone in the holy spirit. Why because that's Jesus's job Jesus is the one that baptizes people in the holy spirit We pray for this release of grace and the lord comes through the spirit comes through and and great things happen But it is god's desire and god's will At one point, you know, uh You know in acts chapter 8, you know, they heard that that there had people had to come to believe in Jesus Had given their hearts to the lord when peter and john go to them Uh, they they went down that they might receive, uh, the holy spirit for had not yet fallen on them For they had only been baptized in the name of the lord Jesus So there was once a time where you were baptized into communion with christ and then received baptism in the holy spirit So there's there's there's one way we see it. Um You know, he goes to another place in acts chapter 19 He says, how are you baptized and the believers there said, well, we were baptized when the baptism of john for the repentance of sins And they asked him, uh, you baptized, uh In the holy spirit and they said, uh, we didn't even know there is a holy spirit So catechetical issues plague the early church. They're they're nothing new But you know that the point and i'll say in all this is that You know, we we stand before the lord like without a formula We can only stand before god with faith And with the expectation that he's going to be who he says he is and do what he says for me, I was 18 years old and um And I think I shared this yesterday Maybe I didn't but I at 18 I had my major conversion in the confessional I had uh Witnessed when I was in junior high school my grandfather dying in a car accident happened out in front of the in the street out in front of the uh The uh School that I was attending and I was on the front lawn his car got hit burst into flames spun out of control Ended up on the front lawn of the school And because of that my grandmother became an alcoholic.  I said, I don't know I haven't done this in a while And I hadn't I hadn't gone to confession since my first confession He said, well, what is it that you want from the lord and I explained to him. I just said I'm miserable I'm angry.  I'm frustrated He said, well, why are you on this retreat and I began to explain and tell my story. This is all that I Had gone through, you know, and my sins included, um, you know lying to my parents shoplifting alcohol smoking weed dabbled in pornography You know a lot of impurity because of that in my life You know just negative humor and cutting people down. I was sarcastic. I was mean.  I was definitely not going to heaven And as I was confessing these things I started crying and the priest he was very nice He came forward and put his hand on my shoulder and he started tapping and as I lean forward His stole hit hit my arm or my face and I grabbed it because I thought he was handing me a handkerchief So I I actually At the moment of my conversion before the lord zapped me with the holy spirit for the first time Hocked a luke on a priest stole. So I mean like god can work through anything I still think the priest was very cool about it. He laughed But anyway, when he prayed the prayers of absolution, I said was there anything else you I need to say he goes like Because I didn't know the you know active contrition or anything at the time. He just said are you sorry? He led me through it. I'm like, yeah, I want to be right with god He said do you promise to to live a new life for god? I'm like, I want this new life So he prayed the prayer of absolution and it felt like I just came alive Like the paddles had been put to my chest and I've been brought to life I walked out of there a living man A son of god with a new realization and it always had been in me, but it would have been awakened in that moment God came very near to me and breathed his spirit into my lungs The next morning The man who founded net ministries because this was a net retreat came up to me said I was praying last night And I know that the lord touched you deeply and I want to invite you to be a missionary with net in the fall I'm like, you're kidding me. I just like I have no formation I mean, I just finally figured out after 18 years that god is real and that he loves me and I don't know anything other than that He said, don't worry. We'll train you. I'll be good So I had to go home and I mean like I knew this was what I mean at the second He said I knew this was what god wanted for me. So I went home and I told my parents I'm not going to college in the fall after all this was june I was getting ready to go to college in august. They looked at me my mom started crying She's like, did you just join a cult? I'm like, no mom. These people are catholic I mean, but I've experienced god's love and I'm like, I just want to do this for a year I promise I'll go to college And my grandmother cried because it was just expected that I'd go to college everyone did right out of high school and You know, like this experience was so powerful, but I wouldn't even say like God would god would just like started the process like I don't think I had this experience where I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and like everything I needed was given to me in that moment But I became hungry for more because during that training I got prayed with and received new graces And even throughout the year with my team, we would pray with one another and pray over one another And I could still feel these graces stirring up I remember the first retreat that I was that we were doing Is that at the small church in northern minnesota? This was 1983 so the new evangelization and the word evangelization really wasn't part of the catholic lexicon per se for most catholics and when we came to town the priest said to us I don't know if we're gonna get a lot of kids here. The parents heard that you were an evangelization team They think you're Protestant They're keeping their kids home. They're afraid that you're gonna take them out of the church and I'm like, really? Did you not explain that we're catholic evangelizations? Like he goes, I tried Yeah, but we did get some kids to show up And there was one kid in my small group who is this young man who was just angry and closed off during the whole retreat And we do this thing at the end of net where we just you know Do a little prayer ministry It's just asking god to bless them because they have this encounter We want to ask god to bless him and this young man sat down in front of me and I asked him You know like what can I pray for you? He was sitting there with his arms closed looking very solid like nothing Are you sure? Nothing in particular I can pray for you. No Well, can I just pray a blessing? Fine So I put my hand I said can I put my hand on your shoulder so I put my hand on your shoulder so I pray and come holy spirit And bless this young man And as I started praying for myself this image is clear as a like a picture being like Curtin's opening and here's this picture of a crossroads of where the railroad crossing on a road in the middle of a cornfield And I thought Why am I thinking this right now? I was like, you know, I'm trying to clear it out. Okay, so I guess lord just bless this young man You know and all of a sudden it was right there again in front of me And this happened two more times and finally I'm like, okay, what are you doing? So I just paused and I just Sucked it up and said, okay god I'll say it So I I said I said to him I'm praying for you and every time I started praying I get this image of a railroad crossing In the middle of a cornfield Does that mean anything to you?  What just happened? God just showed me something that acted like a key to unlock the heart of this young man so that god could pour his mercy and love into his heart And I asked one of the other guys who you know a little older than me. I'm like, has this happened to you before? I was oh, yeah, that's a spiritual gift. It's like a a prophetic word or word of knowledge and I'm like God really does this stuff He was yes God really does this stuff when we put our faith in there the power comes and god really does what he says He will do And it wasn't like I walked out thinking look what I can do now. I was like trembling Like, oh my gosh. This god his power is real But it just confirmed in my faith that this is what I was supposed to be doing with my life You know at age 18 before I went into that confessional and god touched my heart if you would have asked me what I'd be doing right now I'd probably say I'd be Practicing medicine I really wanted to be a doctor I'd been accepted at you know in a premed program in michigan. I was all set to go I was gonna do my undergrad go to medical school because I wanted to make money And medicine was one of those fields where you knew you could make a lot of money Because I wanted a big house I wanted a hot wife. I wanted all these things Instead the lord gave me himself his holy spirit Well, he gave me a hot wife. That's true Um But I would not have picked this path for my life Give me a give me a hundred different options. I would not have picked this path But god put me on this path and I'm so grateful And so I mean I like to share everything I want to share tomorrow morning I'm gonna I'm gonna speak and I'm gonna kind of tell you some of the other things that the lord has done but for More than anything what I think I came to realize is that It was in a moment of complete vulnerability When I was dealing with the weight of my sin and I had nowhere else to turn that I just let my guard down I completely surrendered and said okay lord take my sin Take my brokenness and fill me with your light. I want you more than the sin I want you more than anything. I want your spirit alive in me You know this surrender this complete emptying was in that complete feeling of poverty And having nothing before the lord that the lord was able to break into my heart and do something amazing And I think you know one of the things that The lord wants to do is Oftentimes and you probably have felt like this maybe at times during this year He invites us to go on to the cross with him right and to strip us You think of jesus being stripped of his flesh being scourged And the lord invites that into us into that like I want to strip away some layers I want to strip some of the old man away some of that worldliness some of that Sin of the flesh or some of those fears.  This is through the rest of this retreat is Whatever you've endured for him And had to suffer for him. He wants to then In a much greater generous act pour his holy spirit out upon you But what I want to do as we wrap up here. We're going to spend some time praying Is I just want you to think about not everything that god wants to do God already knows what he wants to do and what he wants to give you how he wants to bless you I think what we want to do for the last few minutes is just take some time to pray and say, okay god Where am I holding back? What have you been trying to strip for me that I haven't let go of yet? What is my struggle that that is the thing that i'm hanging on to? That I know I don't need That you're inviting me to let go of is it my pride? Is it another layer of my pride?  Well, there's another layer Peel that onion keep peeling that onion of pride. There's always another layer Okay, lord, if it's another layer of my pride take that If it's not my dependence, uh, you know my my binging alcohol is it binging television? Is it Binging whatever it is that we're you know that we're just using to kind of medicate us ourselves to help us get through these days Let me let go of those crutches and let me cling to you lord Even if I have to let go of those crutches and crawl to you jesus. I will do that Because I know once I'm with you and you have you have you and you have me in your arms I'm going to be healed So let's just pray come holy spirit


Hello Comrades and welcome back to Marxist Voice, the podcast of The Communist. My name's Jack Ty Wilson and I'll be your host for this episode. So this week we're going to be continuing our series towards the Revolutionary Communist Party by discussing the Communist press and how you can build it. As our listeners will surely know, The Communists in Britain recently launched a brand new newspaper in January of this year and we're currently on to issue three. And around the country, branches and cells have thrown themselves into the task of promoting and selling the paper, writing for the paper and most importantly, using this paper as a tool to build the Revolutionary Communist Party. So for this episode we're joined by Adam Booth, who is a member of the editorial board for The Communists. Hi Adam, how's it going? Hey Jack, thanks for having me on this morning. I'm pretty good thanks overall, bit tired after a long night in the office yesterday trying to send off the latest paper, issue three of The Communists. But I'm also buzzing with excitement and adrenaline because it's just arrived.  That's the sound of issue three. And yeah, it's a very striking paper I would say. I've said this every single time, but I think that this could possibly be the best issue of The Communists yet. I think it is. I think it's particularly powerful I think as an issue because well, comrades will hopefully see the physical copies soon. But yeah, the front cover is particularly powerful this time round. We've gone with the image that's online of Aaron Bushnell, this US Air Force personnel staff member who set himself alight in front of the Israeli embassy, I believe it was. Yeah, in protest against the war in Gaza and US imperialism's complicity and that. And it's a very powerful image that's obviously shocked a lot of people but also kind of tapped into the mood of anger that exists across society and acting as a bit of a catalyst if you like for the radicalization. So that's what we've gone with on the front cover of this issue. And I think for that reason I think it's going to be a particularly well selling issue because I think it is going to really tap into that mood of anger that exists not just in the US but in Britain as well. And I think what's really striking about this whole story, this tragedy really is what it is, is actually the enormous levels of support and sympathy that this act of protest has had. I just want to read out actually a couple of quotes from social media that are featured in the paper. So someone said, I have felt how you feel. No one seems to be listening or caring enough to stop this genocide.  And the last moment I think is very good. I think it really gets to the heart of things. It said the ignition of your body will be the beginning of a volcanic revolution to stop injustice and support the oppressed. I think this really gives you a flavor of the mood in society, not just the anger but the desperation, the feeling of a need to do something essentially. And I think this could definitely spark, it could even reignite the Palestine movement I think on a higher level perhaps. Definitely. I mean the article inside the paper makes the point that it was a similar act of self-immolation in 2011, January 2011, that really lit the fuse on the Arab revolution. And today, I think you could see, like you say, there's already big protests taking place in the US, kind of sparked by this latest, very defiant and kind of desperate act of protest if you like. And a lot of people feel that desperation, that frustration, that there has been these huge protests in Britain, a million people out on the streets and yet what has actually been accomplished, what have the politicians done? We've seen last week in the House of Commons, a complete pantomime taking place inside parliament when they're discussing the issue of Gaza and whether or not to have a ceasefire. The SNP put forward a motion trying to call for an immediate ceasefire and then Labour and the Tories kind of fell over themselves, trying to water it down, trying to make it as light as possible, whilst also still trying to appear caring and concerned about the tragedy that's taking place, the humanitarian crisis, the suffering and so forth. But none of them actually doing anything to try and stop the war, to try and stop the slaughter, to really oppose Israeli imperialism and instead just trying to score petty political points with one another and the whole thing was just nauseating, it was sickening. And I think this is really something you see throughout this whole issue of this paper is from front to back, I think you can really get a feel for the mood and the anger in society. I think that's what we're trying to reflect in this page, in the pages of the Communist is that real kind of subterranean mood that we're seeing bursting out into the surface every so often and you're seeing it over every issue, whether it's obviously the question of Gaza or yeah, these theatrics that's fast that plays out in Westminster or also you're seeing it also in this series of by-elections as well, the complete disgust with the Tories on the one hand but the complete lack of enthusiasm for Labour on the other and I think what's taking place in Rochdale this week, tomorrow, on Thursday the 29th of February, it's going to be a real shock I think for the political establishment because yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Galloway wins that on the basis of yeah, partially kind of in a distorted way again in an opportunistic way as well in Galloway's sense but actually yeah, it will be a reflection of that anger in society and that desperate attempt to try and find a real alternative to all the kind of cynicism and the hypocrisy and the lies that just spew out of Westminster and the traditional political parties and once again, I think there's a quote from the paper from your editorial actually on page 3 which I think really gets across the complete collapse in support for the establishment parties and particularly the Labour Party as well one Labour canvasser in Rochdale said the message on the doorstep was the same everywhere I went voters hate all of us and I think yeah, that really gets to the heart of things so yeah, is there anything else you think coming up in the next week of you know, politics of class struggle that we should mention before we move on? Well I think just that mood of anger is just going to get worse and worse it's going to get bigger and bigger yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there's very big protests around Palestine in London and elsewhere in Britain this Saturday on the back of the Aaron Bushnell case but I think yeah, as we head towards a general election that kind of discussed with the political establishment it's just going to get bigger and bigger I think and you'll find it bubbling up to the surface in a number of different ways next week for example, Jeremy Hunt the Chancellor is going to be presenting his latest budget it's going to be no doubt some attempts to give tax cuts for his chums and big business and his banker friends and so forth trying to appease the kind of rabid ranks of the Tory party trying to kind of curb the comeback of Liz Truss and all these other headbangers who are screaming about lower taxes and so forth what do they mean? They mean obviously trying to also cut away at public services trying to slash away at any welfare spending and so forth so that's going to just really create a kind of more of a them and us feel as well which again you've already seen in Britain a lot over the last few months and years and I think there'll be a lot of other events taking place like that there's going to be more by-elections because there's yet more scandals in the Tory party more people being suspended I think I lost count of how many by-elections there's been I think it does say in the editorial but I've already forgotten the number I think the Tories have lost something like ten seats just in this parliament which is the worst in the last five decades of any government so you can just see that every one of these is like a little mini referendum on the popularity of the Tories but the point is in all of them there's no real alternative and that obviously is what we're trying to provide as we head towards the founding congress of the RCP, the Revolutionary Communist Party yeah I think that leads us then quite nicely to the next thing that I'd like to discuss why is it that you know we the communists in Britain have decided to launch the communists obviously before we had the paper Socialist Appeal we had that for I think over 30 years I think we got to issue 400 actually which is a nice round number to end on I think but now we have the communists so why is it that we've decided to relaunch our paper and what makes it different from Socialist Appeal well I think it flows really from the discussion you had with Ben on last week's podcast obviously that was about why we're launching the RCP and there's an article in this issue of the paper by Ben again on that question on what is the RCP, what kind of party are we launching what kind of vehicle are we trying to launch with the RCP and the communists is inherently tied to this it's a stepping stone towards the RCP and we're launching it for the same reasons that we've launched the RCP in the sense of understanding that mood out there that we just talked about understanding that yearning for a real alternative understanding that there's a desire for a voice to express all of that anger to express that mood in society and obviously we've tried to do that over the past 30 years with Socialist Appeal but the situations moved on you know times have changed when Socialist Appeal was launched in 1992 it just had the collapse of Stalinism the kind of so-called end of history according to Francis Fukuyama and all the kind of neocons, neoliberals and you had the Tories similar today actually been in power for a long time increasingly discredited but you know at that point the left was kind of in retreat and the working class had just experienced some heavy defeats like the minor strike which we're also covering in this issue of the paper it's 40 years since the beginning of the great minor strike in 1984 but the situation today is completely different now we can see that you know the collapse of Stalinism was really the prelude to the collapse of capitalism it's much greater collapse actually and that started in 2008, it's continued now for 16 years since and now there's a new generation that is looking towards the ideas of communism and we want to tap into that we want to connect with that mood and say look there is an organisation out here that reflects the anger in society that feels the same that you do and is a genuine communist organisation that is going to put forward the perspectives, the programme that's needed to overthrow capitalism and you can join that and you can help us build you can help us spread those ideas and this paper is the way to do that but it's more than just a rebrand isn't it we haven't just slapped a new logo and a nice big hammer and sickle on the front page it's more than that right? yeah I think some people might see things like this as a kind of cynical rebranding exercise you get this in the corporate world if your sales are down and you're having tough times then you have a bit of a relaunch but this is the complete opposite actually our organisation is growing and it's going from strength to strength we just passed our revfest last year the 1000 membership mark in fact 1,100 members and we're actually increasingly yet we are connecting with that mood out there that new generation that's looking towards the ideas of communism but the point is we need to do it faster we need to get there quicker big events are impending in Britain and internationally and we need to build a much more rapid pace and the whole point of the paper is to be a lever towards that but it's also in order to do that we're going to have to change not just the form of the paper but the content you know in the past up till now with the 1000 members really you could describe us as more of a propaganda organisation an organisation that was really just looking for kind of ones and two small groups of people who were kind of a bit more head of the curve if you like in terms of their radicalisation the kind of conclusions they were coming to politically but now as we get bigger we're looking towards the 10,000 you know in terms of our membership and at that point we want to just be not commenting on events but intervening in them and actually trying to influence them trying to lead movements trying to you know actually initiate struggles and campaigns and in other words we've got to be more of a paper that's not just providing ideas and analysis we're still going to have that in the communism you can still see that in the first few issues the really strong emphasis on theory, on history on really clear perspectives and editorials but that's all going to be supplemented a lot more by more agitation if you like by real reports from the situation on the ground you know letters and all sorts of other content giving a full picture of the life that ordinary workers and youth face and that's the kind of material that we're including more and more in the paper now we're getting sent into us organically from our readers our sympathizers, our comrades and that's the kind of stuff we're trying to put in the pages of the communists to really bring to life the events that we're talking about and that we're analysing to really show in practice what it looks like and to really therefore give a full picture that you won't find obviously in any of the bourgeois mainstream media which is just full of lies and I think what really strikes me there is that what we're trying to do right here building a worker's press it's exactly what Lenin and the Bolsheviks were doing over 100 years ago I've recently been reading about the Bolshevik press and apparently Pravda their paper at its height in the 1910s half of it was reserved basically for letters for questions, for thoughts from ordinary workers, factory workers working women, youth and so on and it feels like that's exactly what we're striving to do today just looking through the paper here we can see this word on the street feature where comrades are recording interviews with people on the street who they meet on recruitment stalls and so on we've got letters from trade unionists and so on all of these different things allow us to keep our finger on the pulse and really see where the mood is going where consciousness is going I think it really adds a life to the paper wouldn't you agree? Definitely, I think sometimes just a short, sharp little story or anecdote can actually say a lot more than a whole article like you pointed out earlier just one or two quotes that we've included in the paper really summarize the entire process that's taking place and those are the kind of things that we want to include obviously as an auxiliary to the analysis to draw out the processes to draw out the fundamentals but yeah I think there's a lot of enthusiasm from the feedback we're getting for these shorter articles that are being sent into us quite organically, quite naturally and in fact we're being inundated with material, we want more actually Lenin said yeah not only include that kind of material but you said you should really have far too much material to include in the paper you're doing well if you can only include about 10% of what you get in so yeah I would say please keep sending that material into anyone listening do get those quotes from the interventions at the demos from the discussions you're having on the street or in your workplace and please yeah send us those stories that give a real graphic vivid portrayal of what life under capitalism is like for ordinary people and just to let our listeners know that if you want to submit something it's very easy you can just head to our website communist.red forward slash submit and there's guidance on all these different categories that will help you draft and write what you want to write so yeah is there anything else that you'd like to say on this question of you know why we've launched the communist well yeah I think the other thing that comrids and readers will hopefully see that's more prominent in the communist is to emphasize that this is the paper of an organization this is a mouthpiece of well of the future RCP that's going to be launched in May I think that identity wasn't so clear with the socialist appeal before you know now it's very bold it's very out there in the open we're very forthright about the fact that this is an organization first and foremost not simply a newspaper and therefore we've got a lot of reports actually coming in from the branches from the comrids showing the initiatives they're taking to try and build showing the successes we're having in starting up new cells and also highlighting the work of the international because that first and foremost we're not even just members of the RCP but hopefully soon to be the revolutionary communist international that's a decision that will be made at the upcoming World Conference in June but all of these highlight behind these pages is not just an editorial board but an entire organization of communists that is looking for other communists to get organized and therefore this is a paper as an organizer it is going to be not just trying to give people news and analysis and also the theoretical tools they need but giving them the organizational ideas the inspiration to go out and build showing you know how it can be done in practice and what kind of initiatives comrids can try wherever they are yeah thanks for that I think again to bring it back to Lenin you know what did Lenin say he said the workers paper is a collective propagandist a collective agitator and also a collective organizer as well he likened it to the scaffolding around the building and obviously the building that we're trying to build is the revolutionary communist party but some might say I'm going to play devil's advocate here maybe some might say that papers are outdated what do you say to that well I think the first thing we should point out is that we are more than just the paper as well we have lots of other forms of media hopefully people are listening to this podcast that we're recording right now and I don't know the statistics but I think we've built up a decent following of our podcast as well as our videos on YouTube and all sorts of other more modern forms of media if you like you've got a tiktok as well I wouldn't know about these things I'm far too old for them but the point is yeah we use social media we use every form of technology we can we're talking about potentially launching an app later this year as well very exciting these things together around the education the newspaper, the podcast and so forth so we're always trying out new technologies and using every means available to spread our ideas we've obviously got a website that's updated daily as well as well as obviously our social media showing all the activity of the branches and the comrades so we've got the full range of media at our disposal and we're utilizing it to full effect but I would say the paper has to be central in all of this as you said it is the scaffolding around the whole organization and that is just as true today as it was when Lenin wrote that over a hundred years ago because I think the point that's often missed in this discussion when this question of papers and modern media gets brought up kind of on the left is really a misunderstanding of what we're actually trying to achieve or what should be the purpose of our paper and our material that we're putting out I think a lot of other left wingers trying to produce kind of media in this day and age a lot of them I think fall into the trap of just trying to be a slightly more left wing version of the Guardians which in this day and age isn't that difficult because the Guardian is more and more obviously a mouthpiece for the kind of liberal establishment and for British imperialism in turn but I think the point is that is not our role as kindness is simply to just provide a kind of new service others portray it in a kind of more post-modernist way talking about trying to change the narrative and the discourse and this sort of thing and seeing the role of kind of influences and so forth to be putting out YouTube videos putting out podcasts trying to set the terms of the debate and this kind of thing push the overton window exactly there's all sorts of trendy ways of trying to describe it but again I think that misses the fundamental point it's events that are going to shift people's consciousness what is needed is a paper that as I say not only puts an explanation out there for why these events are happening that gives a clear understanding grounded in theory and Marxist theory but also that says look don't just be a mouth trying to change the narrative but here join an organization with hands that can actually intervene that can change the world around it because otherwise you're just a disembodied voice speaking through a microphone what we are trying to be is not just a voice speaking to people over the airwaves or over the internet but actually an organization that can go back out and intervene in those struggles and meet people not just through a screen but actually in person and get them organized I think it's very telling actually that some of the most popular material on social media is not just the articles on current events the key articles responding to the latest big events but it's the activity as well it's the comrades selling the paper actually that is very popular in terms of views and likes from what I understand on our social media in terms of what people are actually engaging with is seeing an organization out there doing something about all of this and I think therefore the paper as an organizer as well as a mouthpiece is really essential for that you can't to show people your Twitter feed or X feed when you go on a demo you need to be able to show them this uniform this banner and that's what the paper is it's something that brings all our activity together and shows the people we're meeting out on the streets what we're really about and shows them there's an organization an analysis that they can join and they can build an organization that is ultimately those ideas well I think that brings us very nicely on to the next question that I'd like to ask which is how can the listeners at home, the comrades that are in our branches how can they use this paper to build their existing branches to build new branches and cells wherever they find themselves well that's it the paper is the key really I think to this it is our uniform as I said it's our banner it's our toolkit it's our arsenal of weapons the paper gives you everything you need to go and build in reality it shows you the reports of other comrades and their activity and how you can successfully get out there and meet other communists and get them organized it gives you the ideas it gives you the arguments it gives you the full picture it gives you the explanation it gives you the facts the figures, the arguments that you're going to need to go out there and answer the points that are going to come up not just over what's happening now but about history about the ideas of communism and revolution and Marxism and it can basically show you how to build and so I think the key thing and not just as an individual but as a collective go out there get in touch with the other communists in your area if you're not already go and join one of our recruitment stalls where we use the paper to start conversations with other people who are interested in communism who are interested in what we have to say and yet the paper is the tool to starting those conversations and those conversations in turn should then be the basis for discussing what we're trying to build the RCP and why people need to get organised and really you can see some great examples of this if you go on our social media some great examples of comrades using the paper on these recruitment stalls not just selling the paper trying to flog it like you would the evening standard on these people who hand out these free papers outside tube stations in London and elsewhere that's not what we're trying to do we're trying to get the paper circulated as much as we can we want a bigger circulation we want more people to read it but mostly we want to actually start more conversations we want to use it to engage workers and young people in a dialogue and say look here's what we have to say what do you think use it to listen to what people have to say and then try and get those voices then reflected in the paper itself we're doing that really well there's great videos of comrades in West London for example getting up on a megaphone on a street sale and just giving these impassioned speeches that put forward our ideas that put forward the ideas in the paper and using that then to draw people towards us to show what the communists have to say I think we can actually play a clip of that on the podcast right now so our listeners can hear an example of the boldness, the audacity of our adopting to go out and just stand on a street bench and give an agitational speech we'll play that right now Are you a communist? then join your party today we're in the middle of founding the revolutionary communist party and we're doing this because the world is on fire literally and metaphorically the bankers, bosses and politicians sacrifice our health housing, happiness jobs and the planet for their profits we're angry at the capitalist system it can't be fixed we're going to overthrow it and we want revolution most of the left in Britain today isn't interested in revolution they aren't going to do it look at Sir Kit Starver leader of the Labour Party he has nothing but a wet presentative for the ruling classes he will most probably win but will he change anything? no, he has backed down on almost every single promise he has made so if you are a communist this is your party if you stake with anger at every injustice around the world this is your party complaining isn't enough it's time to do something it is time to take action so join no whether you stake communist party today and come speak to our comrades and fight as well as that, just a reminder that these recruitment stalls they don't need to be these big flashy events with 10, 12 comrades out at the same time we can use the paper flexibly as well all you need is two comrades even just one individual communist as well can stand outside of a tube station or a train station for half an hour during rush hour in fact many of the best sales and the best recruitment stalls that I've had have been the ones that take place at rush hour for 30 or 40 minutes you can easily speak to 1, 2, 3 even get 5 contact deals of people who want to join a branch near them essentially so yeah we can definitely be flexible about this and also as I said earlier, ideally comrades should be getting out there and selling it collectively at these recruitment stalls to engage with people on protests on picket lines on the streets and so forth but there is, as you say, nothing stopping comrades and in fact we actively encourage comrades to get out there and sell it individually, not only in these flash sales that you talked about just there but also in their workplaces in their schools in their colleges, in the universities in their communities we've got lots of examples coming in of comrades going door to door knocking on student halls of accommodation going along the street in their neighborhoods and just talking to people in their block of flats or whatever and also in their workplace just going around talking to colleagues and it's a great way of starting conversations about politics or vice versa if you get into conversations with politics with your friends, with your family with your neighbors it's a good way of tying it into something concrete to say, let's not just be angry about the events that are taking place let's get organized and using it as the basis to encourage people to join to say, look, you can join you should join this organization, the RCP that this paper is the paper of and then encourage those people as well to send in material send in their stories, send in their reports send in their anecdotes and letters and so forth, you know that's really a good way to develop the conversation further so yeah, I really encourage comrades get out there, be really creative with how you're selling it but also creative, yeah, with the way in which you get the material for the paper into the editorial board so that we can try and have it in the paper in future issues and every week I think branches and cells should, yeah, discuss what's going on around them any sort of local stories strikes that are taking place, demonstrations and they should plan to send communist reporters correspondents to go there, interview people get quotes and through breaking the ice in that fashion you can then, of course, yeah have a more broader conversation about perspectives about politics, you can sell them the paper invite them along to a meeting or another activity and so on it's the perfect tool to establish that dialogue with a wider periphery of people and yeah, you can encourage your colleagues your friends and family, anyone who's sympathetic to the ideas, essentially to, yeah, submit a letter to submit their thoughts and you could even as well write for one of the regular columns in our paper, we've got many new features now things like broken Britain where you can complain about how everything feels like it's falling apart hospitals and schools and so on transport, things like this we've got Readers Recommends which is also a feature where people can give their thoughts on the latest TV show a film, a book that they've read any sort of piece of culture, the theatre and so on, I think that's been a very popular feature so far and yeah, there are other popular ones as well like Bastard Boss of the Week if you've got a boss who's been pushing you around hours have been cut, conditions are getting worse your coworkers are getting pissed off you should write about that and let us know about it and we will feature it in the paper I think the important thing with all those columns that you just described is they're not just an opportunity to complain the paper isn't here to just vent our anger but as I say, it's there to show to others there are people out there feeling the same way as them showing the injustices of daily life under capitalism and yeah, the bankruptcy of British capitalism in particular so it's a way of actually jarring out the political points, the political lessons and as I said it should also be submissions shouldn't just be individual anecdotes or anything like that but they should also be, as you say the comrades coming together to think about the activity they've done the lessons they've learned from discussing with others from intervening in certain struggles participating in certain campaigns yeah, it should try and generalise the lessons of that so that it can help other comrades other branches to actually think about the work they're doing and how to build more successfully in all parts of the country Yes, so before we move on is there anything else that members and supporters can do to help build the communist press? Definitely, I think we need a solid foundation really to keep keep afloat obviously to increase the circulation of the paper as much as possible as I said and to have in particular a regular source of circulation income coming in and what we mean by that is subscriptions, having our regular readers subscribe is very useful because obviously it gives us that steady income that we can use to expand upon for the paper so really encourage all comrades, all readers to take out subscription try and encourage those around you to take out subscription and better yet take out a bulk subscription don't just get a paper for yourself get a bundle order 5 or 10 we've got these communist sell starter packs as well that we're advertising in the paper where comrades not only get a bundle of papers but some posters some stickers our new Leninist handbook explaining how to be a communist and I think all of that together it really gives you all the tools you need to go out and build build a communist group wherever you are a communist sell of the RCP so yeah, subscriptions are really essential bulk subscriptions even better and donations obviously are always welcome and we're having a push as we approach the RCP a £20,000 target for an RCP founding congress campaign fund that's going to help us launch the RCP and bring out all the banners and the material that we need to launch ourselves as this new party so yeah, donations are very essential and all of that's necessary because at the end of the day we don't have any other real source of income to be producing the paper we're producing we don't have any big corporate sponsors we don't have any big business backers we're not a billionaire own press like the mainstream media is we're completely reliant on our readers our supporters, our sympathizers our comrades and yeah, so we really encourage as much support as we can from anyone listening in terms of subscriptions and donations, give us those solid foundations that we can build upon as we go forward with the RCP and the communists down the rest of the you know, the issues to come some reactionaries and liberals online have accused us of being funded by the Russian state but we can assure our listeners that that is not true we are funded entirely by the sacrifice and the determination of our own members and supporters and you can help support us as well if you go to communist.red forward slash subscribe or forward slash donate you can find the links to set up a donation and also take out a subscription as Adam mentioned and yeah, our comrades have already been doing some excellent work building the communist press establishing that strong foundation that Adam mentioned I just want to give a shout out to those that have been selling an excellent number of copies of issue one I mean, so first of all we've sold over 5,000 copies of issue one which is a record breaking number London West the London West region has sold 333 copies the North West region so branches like Manchester Salford and Lancaster and so on have sold 327 and the top branch in the country is London Stratford branch that managed to sell a whopping 162 papers of issue one in fact one comrade managed to sell 105 papers all on their own which is incredible so the next and last question that I want to ask you Adam is where next for the communist? Well as I said, we've got big plans we are launching the RCP this May and anyone listening to this should obviously try and join the organization and join and come along to that congress but really that is just the launchpad for much bigger targets we want to be an organization of 10,000 really is the next aim for us 1,000 comrades is a great start but it's nowhere near enough in order to really intervene and have an impact on the kind of titanic events that we're seeing right now and that we can expect in Britain and internationally in the years to come so yeah this founding congress of the RCP the launch of the communist it's really a stepping stone towards that 10,000 and the paper we've got at the moment I think really is not sufficient actually the communists is a great improvement on the socialist I think there's extremely enthusiastic response to it that we're seeing as reflected in the sales figures you just gave there but we need more, we need a weekly paper actually and so I'd say the target in the not too distant future is for the communists to go weekly but that obviously requires more of an apparatus here at the office that we're recording in we need more comrades who can edit the articles, who can commission pieces who can lay out the paper and keep that excellent design quality high we need more comrades helping at the centre in terms of the distribution of the paper collecting in the the reports and the money and all of that means getting the finances to be able to fund more full time staff here at the office and that in turn will require getting the sales up of the paper having a greater circulation that's where the subscriptions come in that's where the sales and the initiatives we can take to sell the paper come in and that's where also the donations will help getting the finances to be able to pay for all of this so a weekly paper I think it's not too far down the line to be honest I think we could be seeing that potentially even by the end of the year hopefully by the time that the general election is called potentially in October or whenever that will be but even that is really just a stepping stone we want a daily paper we want to be with 10,000 members that's the kind of target we should sell ourselves to be a daily paper which we as I say we kind of already have online and we'll supplement more and more the paper and the website all the other material the more podcasts more videos more educational material the app that I talked about earlier all of that is I think in the pipeline but yeah as I say that really requires first and foremost build up the membership build up our forces build up our circulation build up our apparatus and and if we do that then yeah we can reach a daily paper in print and through that reach every corner of society with communist ideas become a household name before long hopefully hopefully I think if we carry on at this rate we've already got some of our videos going viral we've already attracted attention as you say online and from our other sections in other parts of the international have come under attack from the bourgeois press for their launches for their initiatives and I think yeah we would welcome all publicity in that respect yeah well on that note if our listeners want to share this podcast on social media please feel free to do so so yeah I think that really brings us to the end of this discussion so thanks very much for joining us on the podcast Adam thanks very much for having me here Jack yeah and next week we're going to be covering the events in Port Talbot and the campaign that our comrades in south Wales have been doing calling for an occupation of the steelworks and for the nationalization of Tata so yeah make sure you stay tuned to the Marxist Voice podcast to hear weekly episodes from now on covering many different aspects of party building you know past that we're going to be discussing Marxist education revolutionary finance all of these different aspects and yeah just once more a reminder to our listeners that if you want to submit a report or a question to the towards the RCP series then please feel free to do so go to communist.red forward slash submit an option to submit to the podcast you want to record your question or record your report in the form of a voice recording and then yeah please please do so we want to make this lively and interactive podcast series if you will so yeah we'll wrap it up there thanks very much to our listeners once again for tuning in and make sure you stay tuned to Marxist Voice for regular episodes covering Marxist theory revolutionary history current events and party building brought to you by the communist


From Orlando, Florida, it's theCUBE. Covering SAP Sapphire Now 2018, brought to you by NetApp. Welcome back to theCUBE. I'm Lisa Martin with Keith Townsend. We have been here all day at SAP Sapphire 2018. Keith, this venue in Orlando is so huge. It's the equivalent of 16 American football fields. Yeah, I probably should not have wore a pair of new shoes. No, but you do close your rings. So it's a trade-off, right? It's a trade-off, yeah. So the keynote this morning started out with a bang. Bill McDermott, the CEO of SAP, is probably the most energetic, evangelical C-level I've ever seen on stage. You really could feel the excitement, the momentum. They also followed that with some great announcements. You know, they've been saying for a while, been being pretty bullish about wanting to not just disrupt the CRM market, but wanting to become one of the world's most valuable brands. They want to be up there with the apples and the Googles and Coca-Cola and Mercedes-Benz, who all have products that we all see, and touch, and feel, and buy. And they announced that the brand Z rankings just came out the other day, that they're number 17, up four spots from last year. So their momentum is, they're really putting their money where their mouth is. Yeah, so SAP is the cash register of the world. 70% of the world's transactions go through SAP, but most of us don't see it. So it's amazing to see that their ranks, number 17 on those brands that are very, you know, they're, if you tell somebody you worked for SAP, they're like, oh, okay, I think I might have heard of that. Or I've heard that that was the reason why manufacturing is down because the SAP system was down. So it is a bold statement to say that you're going to go from that to a household name. Interestingly enough, part of that is becoming an ecosystem. So becoming a platform. What we've heard today was a lot of talk about how SAP is transforming from a product company. You know, a point of sale system is one thing, but to say that you've built an ecosystem and the platform around that is the goal that I think I heard today from the stage floor.  They have amassed 390,000 customers in 46 years. They've been around for a long time. This event though is massive. It's the partner area alone is huge. There's probably more than 20,000 people, not just that are here in Orlando, but he said, Bill McDermott, a million people engaging with SAP Sapphire via the online experience, that's enormous. But to your point, it's all really fundamentally due to the partnerships, the systems integrators, the technology partners, and more who have helped them on their transformation. Yeah, we had KPIT on. They said the gas has been at 20 sapphires for 20 years. The event has gone on for 25 years in some form. He remembered, initially they might have had one or two sessions. They have 12 KPIT, has 12 sessions here at Sapphire 2018. There's a huge ecosystem of partners here on the show floor. Over 500, I think, sessions in general. We had the VP of community for S4. They have 1,000 how-to videos on S, how to just do basic things in S4. Huge community, huge event. SAP is starting to make enrols in becoming, again, not just a products company, but an ecosystem company. I think Sapphire and Orlando is a great example of how they're expanding the brand. Yes, and in fact, on the brand part, that's one of the things that their CMO, Alicia Tillman, who was on main stage this morning, that's something that I've heard her talk about before. She's been the CMO for about nine months now, and she said, you know, and marketals will know, campaigns and messaging will change every quarter, six months, and that is fine. It's the brand narrative that they really started to work on at SAP. So you're seeing this best run companies run on SAP. It's sharing the value of what SAP can deliver with their partner ecosystem in terms of how it's helping customers transform their businesses, transform industries, save lives. They've done a very focused job on showing how this invisible technology is really revolutionizing the world. They're now going full force, embedding AI and really being quite bold. They're saying, I loved what Bill McDermott had on the slide this morning of augmented intelligence. And there's always a lot of concern with AI right jobs being replaced. And he talked about what he and some of the other world leaders were talking about it. And I liked augmented intelligence to augment humanity, this connection of humans and machines working together. They're really being quite bold and focused in that area. I'm just curious what your take was from an advanced analytics AI perspective. So there's a lot of talk around advanced AI analytics. At the end of the day, it's about actual business results. We're here in the booth of NetApp who has done a great job frankly of transforming their image from a storage company in the middle of a transformation to being known as a data driven company. So NetApp has gone through a similar change that SAP is looking to do from a brand perspective. Reasonably enough, we had the CIO Bill from NetApp that talked about that transformation and how data is a key part of their own transformation internally and how SAP could probably hold NetApp up as a great example of a company that's using the predecessor to C4, which was just announced, C4 HANA, which was just announced on the stage, Hypris of taking data, analyzing that data, applying AI, machine learning, more like machine learning in reality, machine learning to that data and then getting insights so that humans can make better decisions. Right, you know, on that front, I, one of the themes I heard today, Keith, from not just Bill Miller, the CIO of NetApp who was on here with us earlier, but some of their other partners, NetApp and SAP's partners, all talk about their own transformations internally as essential for them to become intelligent enterprises, which is a lot of what SAP is talking about. But I also thought that was quite valuable from an external perspective, to hear a NetApp talk so candidly about their transformation and share that with their customers who are in similar positions. I think when vendors, we'll say, drink their own champagne and there's real proof they're in the pudding, I think that's tremendously valuable for these brands and we've just heard that kind of consistently throughout the day-to-day of companies that are showing how they're transforming to then help their customers also transform. So one of the things that we like to ask on theCUBE is not just about current customer base, but what new customers are you're attracting? So one of the interesting conversations, it's one of the last ones we had with Workspan and how they're a small company and they started out the gate with SAP and how the brand is going beyond this, oh, this is a manufacturing supply chain, you must be a Fortune 500 company to even consider rolling it out to, you know what, we're a brand new company providing a data-driven product and out of the gate, we're selecting HANA S4 HANA and the platform to create this new product that's consumed by not necessarily technologists that powers an alliance platform to find and curate business alliances. I thought that was an extremely interesting interview that shows the power of expanding beyond just a focus on traditional enterprise, but the power of data and once you become a platform, how you can power your partner ecosystem. I thought that was a great example as well of a company that's only been in business for three years, less than four years, how they saw this gap in the market where they said, you know, and this is, we're surrounded by alliance partners of SAPs in this 16 football fields location that we're in and WorkSpan found that 60 to 75% of announced alliances fail, huge opportunity for them to then get in from a systematic perspective and align, you know, two companies, marketing automation systems, for example, and sales automation systems. They really saw this big opportunity and to your like, we're saying create an entirely new product and probably create a new market as a result I thought that was a really modern example of an idea that saw a huge gap and can be transformative. I asked Ahmed after we stopped rolling the cameras. All right, so you found 60 to 75% of these announced alliances fail, typically. What does WorkSpan think you can do to bring that number down? He said within two years we want to get that down to about 30%. Wow, that is an amazing stat. And not just, so let's look at the companies that are digitally transforming. So we had two guys that I wanted to highlight. One was Mike McGimney from SAP's Success Fire. So Success Factors, which is SAP's people-focused cloud and then Wolfgang Holfus, the head of SAP Business for EMEA. And they're in a unique challenge. SAP has been around for 46 years and in IT years that's like a thousand. So there's a lot of technical debt that companies are now paying for. They've back in the 90s, early 2000s customizing SAP with all the rage. Now customers are faced with they have to digitally transform their organizations. How do they do so? Well, it's not so easy to move from a customized SAP to S4. Bill trumpeted the numbers of 1800 SAP HANA customers, which is great, well over a billion dollars in sales for a memory database. However, SAP has over 300,000 customers. So there's a lot of opportunity, but a lot of challenge. So the ecosystem of partners, Fujitsu, NetApp, other infrastructure companies looking to help simplify the infrastructure so that technologists within these customer organizations can focus on the higher stack of those larger business challenges of basically pulling apart what they've built. Bill from NetApp shared how difficult their transformation was from their CRM to... Hypers? Hypers, he called it painful, a painful six months. And a lot of enterprises, I think was, what we saw today was a reality check. A lot of enterprises have a lot of pain ahead of them. Well, it's pain in a number of areas. And one of them is cultural. Yes. And I really thought, you know, you say SAP being 46 years old is like 1,000 in IT or dog years. They're like the Gandalf of IT, right? But one of the things that I found quite remarkable is 46-year-old history, 390,000 customers, but clearly they have been able to evolve their culture to be able to support what their customers need and go from just being a supply chain procurement focused type of business. I thought that was really quite... It was just quite compelling to see how they must have had to transform their culture so that they can help businesses transform. They make it look easy with the messaging and the momentum, but that was something that, for a company that's an incumbent like that, is a bit of, it might save in a model for how to do that right. Yeah, we talked to Joe Zarr from, he's the SAP VP of Global Technology Partners.  And we asked him the tough question. You know, there's been tweets and there's been announcements from all the HCI vendors.  A very quotable comment that he made was we're doing S4, we're not doing S4 on HANA because we want to, we're doing S4 on HANA because customers demand it. So SAP is definitely listening to customer demand. S4 on HANA is one of those things they have to, you know, he's tried to go stay away from the bad word of certified on, on for HANA and the validated and focused on, you know, solutions. But SAP has a little ways to go. You know, that's kind of a, you talked to any HCI customer, validated and certified for HANA is a bad word today, but SAP understands it and they're moving to certify the platform for HCI. So I thought that was a great example of them listening to customers and continuing to transform over the years. You're absolutely right. In fact, you know, if you look up digital transformation, one of the first pillars that you're going to see is you've got to become customer centric. And we saw, we really heard that a lot today. Even NetApp, when you were talking with Bill Miller about on tap in the cloud going, it's okay guys, we maybe, we have to listen to our customers. We don't, we won't be in business. Obviously people can't say that, but that's a hallmark of an enterprise that is digitally transformed. Yeah, I argue Dave Hitz was one who forced that, that kind of cultural change. You had to bring in the founder to talk to the engineers, that very engineering driven thing. And I think Dave was very direct, like, you know, we have to make the change and we won't be in business. The, the pendulum has changed to cloud. The SAP, which is not by any stretch of the mind, is designed, was never designed to run in the cloud, but they're adopting the technology for what customers are demanding. There's a AWS booth here. Fujitsu was the first one to say that, you know what, if customers need fail fast environments, that's exactly where they should go and put S4 implementations and then steady stage should be moved to on-prem or private data center hosted solutions. So the ecosystem seems to be embracing this change. Definitely. Anything that you're particularly looking forward to tomorrow for day two? You know what, I love talking to customers. So I'm looking forward to more customer conversations talking about how is this being used. We haven't really talked a lot about Leonardo much. So, you know, IOT, AI, how are these things that we, that get a lot of press? How are they being perceived by actual customers? How are they being implemented? What's the true adoption rate? Awesome. I look forward to hosting with you tomorrow. Keith, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Thanks for watching. Keith and I have been at SAP Sapphire bringing you some hopefully great informative content from the NetApp booth. Lisa Martin for Keith Townsend. Thanks for watching.