Fr Don Calloway
Episode 259
15 JAN 2024
He is closing in on 21 years since his ordination to the priesthood. He is Vicar Provincial and Vocation Director for the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. He is also a well-known conference speaker AND leads pilgrimages to Catholic shrines around the world. He is the author of 18 books and has a RADICAL conversion story that he tells here. On the sports side, he has been surfing since he was eight years old and has surfed all around the world.
Notable guest quotes:
“We started always living near water and the first place was Virginia Beach, and, I was young, and went to the beach, saw some kids surfing and I wanted to try it and was able to start and I was eight years old and it just blossomed from there and then everywhere we moved, near water, I just continued to do it and have done it my whole life now… And I was always involved with beach volleyball.”
“We went to Japan, my stepfather’s new assignment was in Japan, which I loved, right, because it’s an island – and lots of islands – so I got to surf in Japan a lot… I was surfing beaches that had never been surfed before.”
“I was in my teens, and I got in a lot of trouble and got involved with a criminal organization called the Yakuza, which is like the mafia – and I was only 15 – eventually I ran away from home and caused a huge international scene and one thing led to another and I ended up actually getting deported from the country because of the stuff that I was doing… so they kicked me out of the country.”
“It was torture for my mom. My mom’s a saint (for) what I put her through… I didn’t even know that my mother didn’t live in the country anymore.”
“Eventually they apprehended me, threw me in jail, and then kicked me out of the country.”
“They sent me to rehab, so I went to two – drug and alcohol rehabs – and, they didn’t work, I actually got worse.”
“I was following the band The Grateful Dead and going to all these shows and doing so many drugs it was insane.”
“I was down in New Orleans around Mardi Gras time and tried to beat up a police officer, and pulled a knife on him, and, it was crazy, and so I got thrown in jail.”
“I had no morals, I had no compass, I had no real consequences to my actions, I didn’t believe in heaven or hell, I just wanted to have fun… And so, I didn’t have anything that was stopping me, that was holding me back from hurting others.”
“I picked up a book… about the Virgin Mary, and I didn’t even know what that was or who it was. I was clueless about Christianity.”
“When I had this huge conversion experience I just fell madly in love with Jesus Christ. I was so in love with Him because He unlocked meaning for me, for why I was here and what life was all about, and I just wanted to serve Him, I wanted to be as close to Him as possible.”
“I love the rosary and I promote it and write about it in those kinds of terms and categories and… I try to bring that – I guess you could say athletics, sports, that – battle kind of scenario into my spirituality… Even the scriptures describe our Lord, the psalms say, ‘The Lord is a warrior’.”
“We’re normal people. We pray hard and we play hard.”
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