The short version of this article is that I am taking this next month offline, unless we (God-forbid) have another 9/11 or something. I am not only going to try to avoid posting and scrolling on FB, IG, X, and TG. I’m even going to do my best to refrain from writing articles or making videos and podcasts from 19 Sept 2026 to 19 Oct 2026. This includes Substack.
Even though this media blackout will not involve me being more secluded than my current life, I am still going to call this “a retreat” so I can go deeper into prayer. As I say to friends frequently, “This whole hermit thing is not a farce or a lurk.” (A lurk is a an Australian term meaning “a dishonest hideout” that a friend once labeled my vocation.) The reason I say the hermit-thing is not a farce is because I really do try to pray and or read 4-5 hours a day. And I have ever-growing prayer lists with how many requests I am happy to receive on a daily basis.
But over-production online has become impossible recently with how much correspondence I get. It’s also hard to be contemplative while playing “patch priest” where I patch-in for missions that other priests won’t take. I am not complaining. I love the support and I love to help sacramentally where I can. But the great book that was the bed-side reading of Pope St. Pius X called Soul of the Apostolate by Dom Chautard (which was the spiritual reading of Pope St. Pius X) repeatedly asserts that the external apostolate is directly proportionate to the interior life. And my interior life has been suffering due to over-extension. I’m really burned out.
As if living the interior life exclusively for the Blessed Trinity were not enough to get offline, I also mention the book Soul of the Apostolate to show you that even my writing and podcasting will soon suffer if I do not take time to go much deeper into prayer and penance for awhile. For a lay influencer who considers himself a “traditional newscaster” or “Catholic comedian,” well, this might not be the case. But for a traditional priest—we face fallen Seraphim while most of you face fallen angels of a lower order. So, our interior life is under constant attack. Thus, we are in need of more spiritual nourishment to stay alive.
I realize a month offline automatically loses readers and listeners, but coming closer to Jesus and Mary on my end is worth it. Also, I think a month offline will bring me back with much more excellent productions, both in writing and podcasting (see my channel “Padre Peregrino” on Apple, Rumble, YouTube, or any audio podcast app that you might have.) It might be a good time for you to catch up on my past catechetical playlists on YouTube of things like Roman Catechism of Trent (RCT, my series on YouTube) or the Catechism of Pius X (CPX, also a series on YT.)
By coincidence (or what my friend calls a “God-incidence”) I have found myself in the same conversation where the most unlikely of friends have been telling me the same thing over-and-over this last month: That everyone who can be elicited to see the evil attacking the Catholic Church (allegedly from within—even though that’s not technically possible—as heretics and apostates aren’t part of the true Church) is already awakened to this nearly-complete unveiling of iniquity.
Sadly, this means everyone else in the Catholic world (most of whom claim to be “charitably giving the benefit of the doubt”) is actually just living in willful-blindness by this point. Happily, this means I need to simply build up the good guys in the faith.
But don’t worry. My turn towards positivity upon return does not mean you’re going to see me do a dishonest 180º like the certain other “traditional” Judases who sold-out the movement of Church-reform for a bowl of porridge.
No, I’m not in trouble with anyone. No, you’re not going to see me quietly delete past articles or videos that were labeled “controversial.” No, you’re not going to see me walk-back my previous assertions of how we are viewing pre-apocalyptic times in the creation of a new religion attempting to replace Apostolic Catholicism in a brazen and open rejection of the exclusivity of Christ crucified as the only way to eternal salvation.
All that is happening against the Catholic Church by imposters, and you already know it.
So, I am going to come back to preach the true faith more than spotlight the modernists. Upon return in October, I’m probably going to produce one article a week and one video/podcast a week (including some encouraging interviews of tremendous conversions.) This will all bring lower quantity but higher quality. I realize this will lose some donors, but I have to put my prayer life first.
This retreat offline this next month will not be a silent retreat because I will be catching up on a very long to do list while praying and exercising more. I’ll be looking for a hermitage more suitable than my condo, too. This means I’ll still be available to receive all your emails and texts that get put into my prayer list, most of which get put into the hopper of my major-intentions at Holy Mass.
You can still write me theological questions, but please limit it to one-question-per-email, as my Donate page says. (Obviously, you don’t need to donate to write me, but that’s where I keep my information.)
So, please tune-in again to my writing and podcasts towards the end of October 2026. And pray for me, or, as we say in Latin, oremus pro invicem, let us pray for one another.