Hi, welcome back to Life on the Rock. I'm Doug Berry along with Father Mark. We are your host of this fantastic show that spans the globe.
It does, doesn't it Father?
We help.
Well, the intention, because EWTN stands for
Spans the Globe, By the Grace of God, this fantastic network started by Mother Angelica
many years ago. And we have with us tonight a fantastic group here. We have the Kurtz
family. We have John, and we have Donna, mom and dad back here. And then we have two of
the children and a few others kind of floating around. And we have Father Kevin here. You're
kind of the spiritual director and family kind of all around mentor and I don't want
to say guru, but.
kind of seems to fit the idea. But this is an amazing situation. I'm thrilled to have
you guys on. We're going to talk about adoption, we're going to talk about foster care, true
guardianship, and really your journey and how you've come to have this family and this
whole
ministry, this mission, is really quite amazing. It is very, very amazing. So welcome. Good
to have you all on the show here. I think first we should just ask the question, John,
how many children do you have?
At this moment, there's 20 in the household,
ranging from a year and a half up until their 20s.
Okay. Now, none of these children are your biological children, correct?
We have no biological children.
Okay. So this is all adoption, but you've done foster care,
which you really refer to as kind of a guardianship care, if I'm not mistaken.
Children were adopted through foster care, and some of them currently that are with us
now were never in the foster system, but maybe were doing guardianship because their biological
parents or parent asked us to help them with their care.
Let's go back and just kind of start from the very beginning.
I mean, 20 children, that's phenomenal for a lot of people.
And for you, we talked earlier about this,
and you were thinking, well, we're kind of used to it.
Well, obviously, because you had them for so many years.
But where did this all begin?
I mean, a little bit of background about both of you,
your marriage, how you came together,
and what prompted you to adopt that first child,
and now how it's come towards that today.
Go first.
Well, I think it was
Prior to meeting John, I had worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta.
The thing that I was most affected by, even though I went to the home for the dying and even the orphanage,
the street children. I think I was very profoundly affected by the fact that so many children
lived on the street. Other people lived on the street too, but I was, when I returned
home what I remembered was the
befriending children in the streets but they would just come around and we would
go for 50 cents I could feed
10 or 12 at the local market. It was a totally unusual experience. I had that wonderful opportunity
of being able to go there and volunteer for a few weeks. Later on when I met John, when
I came home, I just felt like I could adopt, I could help those children through bringing
them over. I asked my mother at the time, I was a teenager, could you adopt this one?
I really got friendly with this one little boy. I got nine years old. I'm sure we can
find it and she was just encouraging me to wait until you know you get married
and maybe you can adopt but pretty much I'm done.
her golf later on when I'm here to
And she's amazed now because she's part of this clan that we've developed now.
She's always been very supportive.
what God's called us to do.
He's very strong, yes.
So then you two meet and John is the love of your life and he's the light that shines
in your day and he completes that very romantic, fantastic terms I'm saying here.
But it's true, isn't it?
You two met and I know you said that she was the best part of your time at college, better
than the degree you received, I think you said.
I didn't receive a degree.
Oh, you didn't?
Catholic you okay okay but when you met there was something there and you two
just you seem to really you knew she was the one
The Lord really laid it on my heart. I mean that that's you said we shouldn't go over three minutes. That's a 10-minute story
But now that
I knew right away. I knew right away. We were both religious studies majors at Catholic U, and I had just, well she was in Calcutta.
I was serving in several Catholic missions. First in Kentucky, then Mississippi, eventually Oklahoma.
And also worked a lot at that point, at that time, living in Washington, D.C.
I spent a lot of time working with the homeless in inner city D.C., working in the shelters, overnight shelters, working.
in the soup kitchens, and I was a carpenter, so before I went to Catholic U, so I was doing
a lot of repair work in the different clinics, and it was those experiences that kind of
blew my mind.
I had, you know, just seeing the children, the children, you know, particularly when
I was in the missions in the South.
I just had not seen so many kids without dads and moms.
And I grew up in a household where my parents were a tight Catholic couple, nothing but
love in the household, very close to all the siblings.
I grew up in this wonderful Catholic family and I just didn't know that there was that
much suffering.
When we met, we were talking about the possibility of adoption.
Even as we discussed the possibility of marriage, I mean that was on our hearts.
And obviously you were both affected by the different experiences you had doing charitable work and so forth in the streets and working with kids.
So when you got married you found out you couldn't have any children then.
So then how did the first adoption come about?
What brought that?
She's sitting right here, and your name is Rosa, correct?
And how old are you, Rosa?
And you went closer there, you were 23.
You were the first one.
How old were you when you were adopted?
One and a half.
And do you remember anything about that?
No.
Because if you said yes, I think we got an amazing case right here.
So how did it come to be that Rosa came into your life that you would decide to adopt her?
We were part of a praying community that gathered regularly and a couple was there and they
were making some connections in Mexico with children in orphanages.
So when they shared what they felt the Lord was calling them to do, we were one of the
first couples that approached them.
Living Bridges is the non-profit now that's set up from that, but we were one of the founding,
I guess not founding, but the pilot couples to kind of go and...
paved the way for future couples so many children have come from
from that organization. People have to be wondering right now, at least I would be
and I was when I first heard your story
what prompted you to go from one to now
where you're at with 20 children? I'm imagining that you didn't think let's
start with one
this is working out great, let's adopt 19 more.
In a nutshell, what's that journey like that gets you to where you're at?
Trusting God, giving our lives over to the Lord and saying, you know, we want to be and do
what you've called us to be and do and a daily prayer and
and we were already committed to the Lord and so we just knew if he brought us
together there was a purpose
if we didn't create a family the way we thought things might work out
then he had another plan we were just following his lead
So we were open, staying open to God's will.
I've always been very devoted to God's will.
I had a great devotion to adoration
before the Blessed Sacrament,
even before I was at Catholic U,
and just would spend hours during the day,
if I could, just praying before there,
and just, yay, you learn what a loving Father we have,
and what an awesome God he is,
and so you don't want to miss a thing.
So you're like, whatever you got,
I just don't want to miss a thing.
Well, and as we were talking earlier, John, you had said something which struck me, you
know, because I see this whole, you know, this whole story as really an example, you
know, and I know Father asked you about that.
this too in dinner there. This is faith in action because we Catholics, we know the right
answer is the Catholic pat answer of we know that God provides and we know that God's in
charge and trust in divine providence, but it's different when we are challenged and
we all are challenged at one time or another to really have that rubber hit the road and
really see if in our hearts in those moments of darkness and struggle and challenge whether
or not we really have faith real deep.
gut faith and and you've been with this family off and on for what 11 12 years
and you've seen this I mean what what can you say about as you've seen this
unfold over the years
That's crazy, but the Lord's crazy.
And, you know, when you look at the difference in the world and the kingdom, the way the
Lord operates is, He operates on His own terms, and He does what He wants to do.
And the bottom line of our faith is that our Father is a good Father, and He provides for
His children.
The question is, do we really believe that?
I mean, do we, like you said, like when Robert Mizzero, like, do you really believe that the
going to provide for you.
And what I've learned through my friendship and my brotherhood and my sonship with the
family is learning more just to trust, like okay, like that God's really going to put
bread on the table.
He really is going to dump a lot of money to pay the really big bills right now because
the
It's going to happen, you know, you've got to pay these things.
And over and over again, the Father just proves that He's good.
And it's like He's trying to win our love, you know, like we just don't trust.
We just really just don't trust Him.
You had said earlier, I think, something to the effect that He holds out to the end sometimes
to really test us before He drops us those gifts that we need.
And something to the effect of, I think John was saying that last minute you needed X amount
of dollars before you were going to have to sell the farm and the horses and everything
that went with it.
And not that you have a farm or horses, but just figuratively speaking, ladies and gentlemen.
And last minute, God swoops in and drops the gift almost to the dollar amount that you
need, which I know EDB 10 has a history of that, right, Father?
That's happened here for years, hasn't it?
So mothers live by that divine providence for many years.
But but you you said you that that has happened to you a number of times
I you said something earlier that people have asked you about your business plan or your business model
We don't have one. Yeah. No. No. No as Donna was it you know if we pray about something
or if we're in prayer, if we're living a life of prayer and something comes into both of
our hearts with a tremendous anointing, oftentimes it might not look like the thing to do in
this world.
You know, it might be a heavy burden financially or it might be a heavy burden even emotionally.
But if we pray, we feel we should be doing it like if it's a child coming to our family.
In times past, it might have been a move that we had to make physically.
If there's an anointing on it, we go with that.
Is there a business plan?
As a non-profit, we are set up with a board of directors.
And that's their concern.
And they help us, they take care of that.
But between the two of us, we're not real good at that, are we?
We're in God's business, we're in the business of praying, making sure that we do have resources
around us, and if God says do it, then He'll provide for those.
want to sound like well, we're totally on discerning there's definitely we look at each situation as it comes up and discern each one in
That regard it's hard to have a of a plan because that would mean that you come up with the idea
We wait like the Lord invites we pray about it if it seems like it fits and it will
It might have the possibility of work and we don't want to you know, there are
Situations where we've said we we don't think that that might work, but I know father you
said earlier that you've seen things where God has unfolded things over time, but there
have been times where they had to kind of wait and let things kind of develop before
God really shows his hand.
Is that not been the case?
Yeah, I think, you know, one of the first things as they get into adoption, you know,
such a general topic, and they start, as they're unfolding that, there's, they're trusting
in the Father.
They're also learning about themselves and who they are before the Father and what that
means to be adopted sons and daughters of the Father.
And I think, for me, as I reflect upon that, learning that adoption doesn't mean not real.
So to be an adopted child doesn't mean you're not a real child and isn't I mean
This is this just the fact of their faith that we're adopted sons and daughters of the father
we're still real sons and daughters and that the Son of God actually shares His own sonship.
He doesn't consider us less. He calls us friends and brothers and sisters, you know.
Well, speaking of that, you're the oldest of the brothers and sisters in this family.
I mean, you're the one who's been here the longest for getting me to get that right.
Shaking your head, no.
You were here at the beginning. What's it been like?
You've seen so many people come through because not only do you have 20 in the family,
but you've had others come through that you've cared for for a time and they've moved on.
You've seen all this. Rosa, what's this been like for you?
It's been a really beautiful thing, but also a good witness to the faith, to see how God
can provide for all his little children in every situation, and those who have been really
wounded, those who have not yet even known parents, all of us.
It just knows that God has us in the grass with His hands.
And for me, seeing it all, just knowing that He not only took care of me and made sure
that I had parents before of reason, but just making sure that we all have parents.
And He will always have that place where we'll find some, like, home.
Well, and you mentioned something that brings up a point that people I think need to be
aware of is that you didn't all come into this family as little babies and hasn't always
been necessarily the perfectly peaceful situation.
You've had brothers and sisters that have come from some pretty broken backgrounds coming
into different ages, and so there's been a real challenge
for you all as brothers and sisters
to really make the choice,
and we talked about this earlier,
you've all had to make choices
to really cooperate with God's grace
and live in this family.
Natalie, how old are you?
I'm 19.
19, and you have been,
how old were you when you joined the clan?
Three weeks.
Three weeks old, okay.
So do you remember anything about that?
No.
Good for you.
Okay, so you've been around quite some time and you've seen this, have you had the ups
and downs in the family?
You've seen where you've all had to make the decisions to cooperate, what's that been like
for you?
Um, sometimes it's a struggle, but I mean, like, it always, like, I can't imagine it not being how
we are now. Like, I mean, I can't imagine the family without a single member that's involved
in it now. And, um, it's just like a miracle, I guess, because, like, everyone just grows to
love each other. And it just makes the family.
Well let me ask you, you're 19, let me ask you this, what is the root of keeping your
family in that, in that true, that true love?
The Eucharist and Daily Mass and the Rosary play a big part in that.
And does everybody just willingly go along?
Does everybody always drop everything when mom and dad
say it's time to pray.
And dad says, OK, we're going to confession.
We're going to mass.
And everybody, oh, great.
We're looking forward to that.
You have the struggles, don't you?
Yes, there are the struggles.
It's your all obedient to dad, aren't you?
Yeah.
hahahaha
Outstanding.
What are some of the different outreaches you have as part of the St. Joseph's house,
the initiatives?
There's a school you mentioned, right?
Well, you can imagine that if we have children coming into the household over 20 years and
coming from backgrounds such as children coming older from Mexico or a little bit younger
from Estonia or coming from Foster Care in Texas.
They're coming from all different backgrounds, and some of them from very difficult situations,
some harsh, maybe some just, you know, very, very challenging.
Some kids come in with very, you know,
coming from very positive backgrounds that we kind of need
like a special educational entity to take care of that.
I happen to be sitting next to one of the greatest educators
that probably in America.
I think I can say that.
And Donna was a teacher, you know, before we got married
and when we were married early on.
And talking to Catholic students.
school system, and when children came, when we started to begin with Rosie with Natalie
and David who's back home and the folks who came in the beginning, she'll tell you, she
always says that she thought she was the first Catholic home schooler in the world at that
time, in the 1980s, didn't know a whole lot of them.
So it began, as we began homeschooling, we began to really learn about, you know, the
know how do we do this and she should speak more about that's really a
correction.
23 families, he said coming in.
Well in 2002 St. Joseph's house initiated St. Philomena's which is essentially a homeschool
cooperative but it's more than that and we call ourselves a hybrid school.
It's a full curriculum K through 12 and again I started but she should pick up with that
because I end up saying something slightly I'm not an educator you know she's trying
to teach me to be one.
No, we do use a curriculum that's classical.
It helps the kids to think.
It's very critically.
So it's very focused on a lot of reading,
and they have learned that.
Latin and the faith is definitely a part of it.
So a bunch of families came together and we implement the mother of Divine Grace Kricken,
which is through Laura Burke, was who became our school's consultant.
She's very, very helpful.
And in a way, we call ourselves school homers, because the kids-
come for two to three days a week, have classes with volunteer teachers and parents, some of
them parents, and then get assignments that they work on independently. It's like an independent
study program. On the other days, they're working independently at home and the parents
can supervise and help them along.
So how many students do you have in the St. Philomina?
We're now about 90, 90 students this year,
a little bit more than 90.
Okay, 12.
Mm hmm.
And so, yeah, and so it's a set curriculum we have
syllabi and everything, and we help the teachers too
to learn how to teach in a classical tradition.
A lot of books, you need a lot of books,
so we have a lot of books.
And you know, include, you're reading everything in history.
You're reading biographies and historical fiction.
It's not like a set textbook.
You immerse yourself in,
in the era and then you know also bring in the faith and the saints of that
times and they're reading biographies of saints it's wonderful it really is a
lot of fun and how many of you graduated then
Oh gosh, I didn't have that statistic, but several years of graduation, so there's like,
well, are graduated, Natalie graduated, and Rose graduated, and you know, several other,
so I guess maybe, I don't know, 15, 20, and then some...
Still going strong then?
Yeah, it's been, we're on our seventh year this year.
Are you able to have an outreach to like some people that maybe street kids that you had the initial inspiration from Calcutta
be able to fulfill that like in Philadelphia or something?
Well, I guess when we talk about the woundedness of children that sometimes need hums, they're
coming either from foster care or from difficult family situations, we have often prayed about
and taken on some, you know, children who their parents may even be asking us to help
them, you know, with different, difficult situations.
run to a break here. Ladies and gentlemen, please don't go
away. We got much more to go with the Kurtz family
regarding adoption, foster care, and really just
the mission, the outreach of what family is really
supposed to be. So please stay with us. We'll be back after
this.
Join Dog and Father Mark when they talk to Dr. Brant Petrie about the resurrection.
Hello, I'm Father Frank Covon, Director of Priests for Life. In the United States and
throughout the world, the women of the Silent No More Awareness campaign continue to grow,
more and more people coming out in the public arena and saying, I regret my abortion.
Pray for these women, because they counteract the lie of those who say that abortion helps women.
They also profess the healing power of Jesus Christ in the mercy of the Church that welcomes
back even those who have had their children killed by this procedure after they repent.
Pray for the women of silent no more and let's all end abortion because we are a people of
life.
This week on The World Over Live, a new shepherd leads the faithful of New York City.
Join Raymond Arroyo as he interviews the 10th archbishop of New York, the most reverent Timothy Dolan.
What impact will the new archbishop have on the diocese of New York and the rest of the country?
That's this week on The World Over Live, only on EWTM.
Each week, EWTN goes on offense against difficult issues facing men in today's world on Crossing
the Gold.
I'm Danny Abramers, join us the next time on Crossing the Gold when our All-Star team
tackles the true nature of our relationship with God and how recognizing Him as our Father
brings us closer to Him.
There's a winning game plan next time on Crossing the Gold.
Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern on the Global Catholic Network, EWTN.
Welcome back ladies and gentlemen. I'm Doug Barry along with Father Mark, your hosts of Life on the Rock great to have you here tonight
Father, we forgot to mention we have a special guest with us here on the table
We do. At the end of the show, we'll bless our audience with the first-class relic of
St. Faustina. It's a piece of her bone. So we will be blessing everybody with that relic
at the end of the show. During this week of Divine Mercy coming up for Divine Mercy Sunday.
and we also have I hear a couple of special birthdays today. Donna who's
birthday? Someone close to your family. Happy birthday Maggie. She's home with
some of the other children. And how old is Maggie today? Maggie is 18. 18. Wow.
Happy birthday Maggie. Thanks for
Helping keep the fort down there.
Now Maggie shares this day with someone else
very prominent in our faith.
Who would that be?
Hope.
It's about an expert day tonight.
Today is about an expert day for him.
Round of applause, boys.
Thank you.
All right, now we have two more of your lovely children here with us.
We have Dominic and we have Ora, or a pronobes, which is not spelled away, but
OK, you've learned Latin, you're 19, correct?
Yes.
And what does it all pronounce mean?
Pray for us.
pray for us. Good job. Way to go. Way to go. Okay. So, Dominic, how old are you?
I'm 14. 14? Yeah. And how old were you when you came to the Klan? The curse
fires. 12 hours. Yeah. What?
Wow, I keep getting younger with this when I ask.
All right, 12 hours, and I have to ask,
do you remember anything about that?
You do.
I like this. It's got wind. I like this.
Alright, so Dominic, what's it like? You've got older sisters and brothers and you've
got younger. You're in the middle. What's that like?
It's kind of hard, but everybody's like, they'll tell you what to do, but that's okay, because
you need people telling you what to do to get everything done around.
I'm there.
Yeah.
Simply put, but well put.
You need people telling you what to do to get things done.
It's true.
There have to be leaders, but there have to be followers, right?
Very good.
All right.
So, and now you are making decisions as a young man.
You're 14.
You're growing.
You're getting strong.
Body, mind, soul.
You're going to come to my camp.
Camp Gargano?
I wish.
Yeah.
We'll work it out.
We'll get you there.
And tell me then, as a young man growing in the faith, you know, your mom, dad, and you're
teaching you the faith as well.
What do you find about your Catholic faith, from what you've learned, that really hits you most, it really stands out as being the most important aspect of your faith?
Probably that you don't really need, all you need to do is listen to what they tell you. You don't really need to know that much about it.
You need to know what they're teaching. But all you need to do is obey and it's done.
Like you're doing it.
the right thing. Well you need to do so bay and it's done.
You know what? That's actually very clear because you know in Matthew 19 when the rich man approaches Jesus and says good master
What must I do to enter into everlasting life?
Jesus says if you wish to enter into everlasting life, you must follow the commandments obey and it's done and
The rich man says I do that and then he says now sell everything you have give it to the Kurtz family
and follow me and that's when the man walks away because he's obviously attached to something
but you know you've got it down right then so it's just obedience humble faithful obedience
very good and or if we could get the mic to you now or you are how old 19 19 now this
is where things change how old were you when you joined the family 15 15 there you go alright
so 15 years old you come into this whole new life what's this like I mean it must have
been a massive change for you.
it was, it was a massive change. I came out of like a situation where I was, um, I rebelled
against the faith and I was like 13, 14, 15. So I rejected it because all I saw in it was
just rules and fear and, and that's all I saw. So I just rejected it and I went my own way and I
I got into a fair amount of trouble and so my mom was looking for a place for me
so she brought me to St. Joseph's house and it just changed my life because like
When you go to St. Joseph's house, it's you learn that it's not about you. It's not about me
It's like it's about serving other people and growing up. I was really
I was really selfish. I was kind of raised in a very selfish way and
When I was at St. Joseph's house like you just learned to give yourself away
And that's where I found God in my life because I found him in myself as I gave myself away when I learned and I saw
sacrificial love around me and I I chose my faith and I just chose it
I said this is something I do want because it's beautiful and that's
Father, that seems to be, you know, the description we talked earlier about is that, you know,
the grace that God provides is the Father, you know, gives all these great gifts and
we have to cooperate with them and, you know, for, for order to say there that she chose
at this time.
I mean, that's a critical thing for us as Christians, regardless of your domination,
we have to choose to cooperate with God's grace, don't we?
You know what?
I have one.
he's wired. I think it's really vital I mean it's it's it's the there's this
there's this moment of where we have to really embrace our baptism you know
most of us are baptism baptized as children we don't remember it and but
there comes a time when we really need to embrace that I think don't remember
this because he does he was twelve hours old I've seen it.
Sorry, so the time does come then, as you say,
when we have to consciously, of our own free will,
say, yes, I'm gonna embrace and make this my life.
Well, we just had like an Easter Sunday, right?
We renew our baptismal promises.
And if we really take those promises seriously,
do you reject Satan?
I mean, do you really, really?
It always works and always empty promises.
And then do you believe in God the Father,
and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?
And I think like in the early church,
in this early sacramentaries,
When the bishop would take the catechumens out, he would have them face the West, the darkness, and reject sin,
and then he would have it actually spit into the West.
Spit now on the Prince of Darkness and turn around and face the rising sun.
Hoping no wind is coming from the West.
It's a bit of care.
But to really embrace how long ago was that that's fantastic. I mean the the visual the symbolism of that
I mean that's powerful face the West spit that direction
You're basically you're letting Satan know I want nothing to do with you
This is after years of catacuminate catacuminal training. You know we're talking at least
three years of really saying, yeah, I'm ready to give up the world, and I'm really ready
to embrace Christ.
And it was only then that the people, then they were brought into the faith and baptized
and really brought in.
I think too, you know, it was kind of coming out here when you all talk about the faith
and especially your story or coming in and embracing the faith in deeper ways that the
family
Sometimes we don't think of it as a place where the gospel needs to be lived.
That's where we're first taught the gospel, and that's where we exercise,
and we have that daily opportunity to love the people around,
to serve the people around us, to extend ourselves, and that's living the gospel.
You know, John Paul II said that the family was the vital cell of society.
And I say to my own children, they should be watching and paying attention to this right
now if they're not.
If we can't do it here in the family, how's it going to get out into society?
If we can't practice charity and love and make those decisions, as you've talked about
you and your brothers and sisters here, if we can't make the decisions to be charitable
and cooperate with God's grace here, how are we going to do it so easily out here?
Why is it, Ora, do you think that many people treat the cashier at the grocery store sometimes
nicer?
than they do their own brother or sister.
Have you ever noticed that, by the way?
yeah because they don't well I guess they want to with people that you don't
know you kind of want to make a good like appearance like so you and and if
you don't know them you don't have like much against them to like be into the
I guess for a while they
It's a choice. It's a choice to love every day. So that's what I saw when I that struck me like just it's it's not anything about how you feel towards people. It's you choose to love, you know, your brother says you choose. I say Dominic is my brother, you know, because I love him as my brother. That's, you know, that like he's not I'm not even like a Kurtz. I'm I'm under them. I'm under guardianship. I'm I'm not even a Kurtz.
You're not officially done. Yeah, but.
And I do, I see all of the Kurtz's as my brothers and sisters because I choose to love
them as such.
Mm-hmm.
Now, I know, Don and John, that there's going to be a lot of people who are asking questions.
How do you feed a clan this big?
How do you get around town?
How do you take care of all the daily activities?
And because of the length of time for the show, which I think we should turn this into
a reality show for Catholic cable network, you know, just following your family around
for six months, and let's see what you really like.
I'm excited about that, aren't you?
When do you know?
No.
But your website actually has, and I know we've had probably up on this
screen, the website, they can go there and there, there's information laid out on your
website, saying Joseph House, about how you, how you, you know, everything from transportation
to meals.
Right.
It's all there.
So if people want to know more about the day to day life, they can go there.
I know that wasn't something you really wanted to focus on in the time that we had here.
Well, the main point is that God provides, like if he's calling you to do something that
is, you know, requires his assistance because it's his heart for his children and you've
discerned that it truly is the Lord, he will provide.
And so he has worked out the day-to-day provisions.
We do a car and we do, you know, sometimes it does seem like, I mean, we're definitely
definitely not.
you know, living high up the hugger,
lived joyously, but he has been so faithful
in his provision, food, clothing, et cetera,
that it is a wonderful story.
So, I mean, yeah, and you have to learn how to serve.
We have a lot of servants in our house.
And they always, I was telling them,
if you want to feel better about yourself,
serve someone, do something for someone.
My mom always said that God bless you for that mom. Thank you so much for always saying that to me
You want to feel better about your own struggles
care about someone else you care about someone else's problems that time you
know i i i i think you know the press right now is making this big deal out of
the octa mom
we got to throw this out there she got nothing on you guys
i mean seriously this and i'm not trying to you know you know make it you know
puffed up here but
but this is about faith and john i wanted to ask you specifically about this
you know is time ticks away in the show goes far too fast
especially for this
You're the head of this home, you're the spiritual head of the home as the Father, the image of God in the home.
This is something that falls upon your shoulders. I'm sure your prayers, your struggle with faith.
John of the Cross talks about dark night of the sense, dark night of the soul.
I mean, you have to have gone through and still go through these difficult moments.
Is there anything you could say to other men out there right now?
who might be struggling or questioning or thinking about
uh... or just encouragement to them about
about what we meant are supposed to be
and what our role really is at that home with this big burden at a broad
shoulders be a good strong christian men these days
okay what would you want to say that to others about that
i'd say to to dads to men
uh... let go let god
uh...
Not easy to do because I know my nature is I want to do everything
I mean, that's just my makeup and that's been my struggle my whole faith life because I just like to accomplish things
I like to build things
things I like to see things done and I want to do it. And that really is an obstacle. That's
a huge obstacle. And I think a pivotal moment in our family's history, for sure. When we first
got married, we went to Mass every morning together. It was really worked out real simple.
There was no kids. Easy to go to Mass every morning. And about 15, so years ago, just heard
the Lord really lay on my heart. I was self-employed general contractor. I had 8, 9, 10,
11 kids.
in the house and how are we going to survive here, going to keep bringing in the bucks and
hustling the jobs and meeting with contractors and getting things done.
I heard the Lord just starting to say to me, you've got to all go to Mass every morning
together, the whole family.
You've got to do that.
It was just an economy.
Don was taking kids to Mass.
I wasn't going with him because I was the provider.
I even calculated it and I calculated it and I said, Lord, it's going to cost this much
every year for me to go to Mass.
punched it out on the couch, and I said, that doesn't look real practical.
But ultimately, he hit me.
I mean, I rolled over one morning in bed and I heard a word, you know, I heard stop it.
And I knew what it was.
I knew it was Lord saying, I can't listen to you anymore.
You know, I'm listening, but I'm a little tired of listening to you.
You know what to do.
You know what's right.
And I rolled over and I said, Donna, I'm going to Mass, we're all going to Mass.
And we haven't broken that.
So, really, you know, Father, you talk about the fact that we have to let God be the Father.
And that kind of sounds like what John was challenged with at that point.
And still, daily, I'm sure, we're all challenged with that, is to not want to have control
over these things.
And your heat provision has come.
I just want to jump over there.
And it was the Lord more than made up for all the dollars
and cents that John punched in there.
And also, no one should feel guilty if they're fathers
and they're not going to mass.
But it's like an invitation.
We were talking to Father about this earlier today.
We knew that God had put that on our hearts
because of the woundedness of some of the children
that we had taken on.
So we're like, Lord, what are we going to do?
We use therapy.
We, you know, we do all the other things, but what's really going to heal them down deep in the heart of who they are in their soul.
And he's just a brain to me, brain to me. We started going to daily mass and adoration.
Then that was years before, but we were pretty faithful to that, except for that he wasn't necessarily coming.
coming with us, but he was getting all the feedback when he got home from work about
you know all the struggles during the day. So it was really when we all started going
together and really receiving the grace together and really the Eucharist has been profound
for us in terms of healing of woundedness. But then we've learned it how it heals our
own woundedness.
Well, and I know the amount of time we have and have had we haven't gotten into even really
scratch the surface about the situations with each of your children and personal lives and
such.
But ultimately you're saying the Eucharist, source and summit, let go and let God trust
and divine providence and...
The weapons of the Blessed Mother and Residence.
We don't want to get hurt, but we don't comment about it, right?
Well, we're getting short on time here.
We definitely want to encourage people to go out to sjhouse.org, www.sjhouse.org, learn
more about the Kurtz family, and more about adoption, and just your whole story, it's
phenomenal.
And there's much that we can all benefit, you know, we're all the body of Christ in
this earth and we definitely want to work together.
the kids that weren't here you know we just asked them what would you want
people you know to know about you know you and about other kids that might
help and what would you say and so maybe we'll put those on the website
I know I know good idea some of that has really been helpful for them and they
almost all of them mentioned how much the faith has helped them how much
immersion in the the mass when they go through some rough times you know the
rosary the bless mother mass the Eucharist that are Asian
well and i know i think we would demand time and it would just seconds left in
john i know we said this early and and i just i i think we have to address this
and is that
you know you saw children on the streets you saw children struggling
why the root cause uh... it in adoption is so precious and so important
and foster care is necessary and so forth but ultimately families
Moms and dads need to get their act together.
You know, ladies and gentlemen, moms and dads have to get their act together.
We as husbands of fathers, moms and dads have to be loving in the families.
Love our children, love our spouse, and love the Blessed Sacrament.
Next week we have with us Brant Petri. I believe I got that right.
All right, Father, can you give us a closing blessing with the relic of St. Faustina?
Okay, well, through the intercession of St. Faustina,
may your heavenly Father shine His face upon you
and give you His peace and that you may come
and know God's mercy and trust in that mercy
in the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
We'll see you next week.