Become Who You Are
What’s the meaning and purpose of my life? What is my true identity? Why were we created male and female? How do I find happiness, joy and peace? How do I find love that lasts, forever? These are the timeless questions of the human heart. Join Jack Rigert and his guests for lively insights, reading the signs of our times through the lens of Catholic Teaching and the insights of Saint John Paul ll to guide us.
Saint Catherine of Siena said "Become who you are and you would set the world on fire".
Become Who You Are
# 572 From Communist Poland to Building Families in Faith: Matt Lorens Journey and the Creation of 'The Holy Quest'
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Matt Lorens journey from communist Poland to an unexpected start at Planned Parenthood and overcoming addiction offers a riveting tale of transformation and purpose. We explore the intriguing path that led Matt, an advocate for family unity through faith, to develop "The Holy Quest," a Catholic board game aimed at enriching family bonds and helping children learn the faith.
Visit Matt and delve into the creation of "The Holy Quest" and how you can support this meaningful project. He also provides details on how to get involved with upcoming game developments, ensuring that families everywhere have the opportunity to strengthen their faith together. Thank you for joining Matt on this inspiring exploration of faith, family, and transformation.
Browse Matt's Religious Store: Discover the array of unique items available through Matt's online store, from holy cards to relics, and learn how these offerings contribute to promoting a culture of life.
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I'm excited to be with a new friend of mine, matt Lorenz. Matt's developing a board game and many other things to help families. We know, in this culture of life versus death that we're facing today, it's so important for families to be able to come together to put down those phones and some of that technology, this constant noise that we're in. I love Matt. I love listening to families when they laugh, when they have joy, when they share love, when they share their faith with one another. Matt's developing board games and other ideas that bring these families together. But he's doing something very unique. He's not only bringing them together to sit at a table. He's bringing them deeper into our Catholic faith, introducing them to saints and many other things. If we don't build up the domestic church, if we don't get families together, if we don't get families bringing a Christ-centered existence into who they are, we don't have much hope for the future. So, with all that said, matt, it's great to be with you. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hey, Jack, how are you? I want to say hi to your audience. It's a great honor and privilege to be on your podcast and I'm looking forward to talking about the things that I'm doing and my past. So why don't we just dive right?
Speaker 2:into it. Yeah, it's awesome. Well, you had kind of an interesting past. You were in the army and when you got out of the army as a young man, you're looking for a job and you end up in Planned Parenthood, of all places. Let's talk a little bit about that because I want to show really the contrast. You know very well, matt, if I'm talking to you in the past, you know very well this battle between good and evil, between truth and lies, between this culture of death that John Paul II talked about and the culture of life that you're working on today. When you went to work for Planned Parenthood, did you have any idea what they did, matt?
Speaker 1:No, actually Planned Parenthood was my first corporate job after college and the Army experience. And I have worked in the past with my father who had a small company in Manhattan, new York, and one of his customers was actually an employee of Planned Parenthood. And because I was into computer science and the IT, we started talking and through him I got into Planned Parenthood, completely not knowing who they are, what they do and what the company is about. I was just interested in doing computer work, programming and designing and developing websites and things like that. So that was my first job, first real corporate job, and that was back in 2001. So you know we're talking- At that time?
Speaker 2:what was your faith life at that time?
Speaker 1:So I was yeah, so I was born in Poland 1972, and the first 15 years of my life I spent in communist Poland.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:yeah, I was just after I finished my, I guess, what you would call the junior high. Were they able, matt?
Speaker 2:you know very interesting time, you know were they able to share or was somebody sharing the Catholic faith with you know very interesting time, you know. Were they able to share or was somebody sharing the Catholic faith with you at that time? I mean, obviously it had to be underground more or less right.
Speaker 1:Well, poland was not as bad as other countries, you know, behind the Iron Curtain. So we were able to go to church and go to Mass. Obviously, it was already Novus Ordo by that time, so I was never exposed to the Latin Mass or anything like that. Everything was in Polish. But I grew up as a young Catholic in a Catholic family, even though we didn't do things like praying the rosary every day. I didn't really read scripture at the time.
Speaker 1:And at the age of 15, my father made a move, actually about two and a half years before, so I think I was about 13 or maybe 12 and a half when he left Poland. He kind of escaped as a political refugee and he ended up in new york city, of all places, and it took about two and a half years for my family to join him. It wasn't difficult to get a visa from poland to the us at the time, but it was very difficult to get a passport from poland from the polish government. Okay, yeah, so it was. You know, we had to jump through a lot of hoops to leave Poland, and it was my mother and my two brothers and myself, okay. So that was 1986. Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that was three years or so before the wall actually came down the Berlin Wall huh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wall actually came down the Berlin wall huh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So so now you know you got into the army and thinking about the GI education. Maybe that would come after that, right, the GI bill and you end up going.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so I was. I was, you know, my parents, obviously my, actually my father came to the United States with 400 in his pocket. He had nothing, you know, and you know some good people took him in and helped him out in the beginning and he had probably less than a year to prepare for the rest of my family to join him. So he had to, you know, start working, making money, rent an apartment somewhere and, you know, furnish it and all that and get ready for my, my mom and my two brothers and myself to come over. And basically we started with pretty much with nothing. Um, so so I know, you know, I value everything that I that I make, because I realize how difficult it is for certain families to, when they come in, start with nothing and they have to build everything from scratch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it gives you a different perspective on life in general and it shows you the beauty of the United States at that time. You know it wasn't. It wasn't, as, look, there was some corruption going on. I know it very well. But on the other hand, it was still this land of opportunity, matt, and we won't take the time to get into that now. But what we're really talking about is trying to take this election we just went through. It gives us a little hope, but within that hope that we can restore the United States to one nation under God, we're going to take all of us standing up, matt, and that's why I'm excited to have you on the show, because you're developing ideas and ways to do this. So you're at Planned Parenthood, you're working there. Do you realize then at some point that, hey, this is not good? And that's why I was asking you about the faith, because if you're working on websites and IT, at some point you realize, wow, I wonder what they do here, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's kind of strange. I cannot explain it to this day how a Catholic young man man ended up at planned parenthood and I actually stayed there for 10 years, so I didn't leave until it was I think it was 2011, so from 2001 to 2011 so about 10 years and you know we got.
Speaker 1:I got married to a polish girl and and then I had two children while at Planned Parenthood. And actually my second child, my son, was born with a disability. He has cerebral palsy from birth. So I think the best way I can explain it is I was very insensitive, even though I was church-going Catholic, so I would go to church every Sunday. I didn't think I was sinning in any way by working there and for a long time I didn't even really give it much thought.
Speaker 1:And once I did realize that Planned Parenthood is probably the leading abortion provider in the world, not just the united states, I kept making excuses. Like you know, they also do good things. Like you know, breast cancer testing and things like that women's health and they. And because I wasn't working at at any clinic, I was never exposed to what people see in clinics and the actual abortions and things like that. I was working at the very headquarters in Manhattan, so it was a very corporate environment. It's like an office environment and you have cubicles and offices and you have your desk, you could see then, matt, how people can fall for these ideologies.
Speaker 2:You really can see how people are blinded. You know, when I'm in conversations every day with people, people that aren't conscious of the fact really and really thinking that we're taking a few human lives here, that yeah, well, planned Parenthood does some good things and they're giving health exams, and I hear that all the time we can really fall under that veil, can't we? It's you know, you can. I have empathy and some sympathy for people in conversations with them because I realize if it could happen to someone like you, matt, it could happen to anybody for a period of time it could happen to anyone.
Speaker 1:And I think it's also the language that they use. Like they never tell you straight up front like we are pro-death. They spin around and they say things like we are pro-choice, which sounds very positive, and then they will call us who are against abortion, they will call us anti-choice. So right off the bat bat, from the very beginning, they make it sound like it's a negative thing. Instead of saying pro-death and pro-life, they're saying you're against women's rights exactly you don't stand up for women.
Speaker 2:What's wrong with you are? You are, you know, some, some kind of a male, you know hater of women, or you know. I mean it's amazing right yeah, so.
Speaker 1:So that's, you know, that's, that's a big portion of it, but it's also, you know, I I found a lot of good people, what I would call consider good people. You know that many of them don't realize what they're part of. You know, I'm sure there are people who are, you know, just fixed on evil stuff and just you know they don't care about the babies. They don't care about the babies, they don't care about children, their mother's wombs. You know none of that. But there are a lot of people who work there don't realize where they are, and I was one of those people, you know.
Speaker 2:And Now, when you say that, matt, they don't realize where they are, is again, is that getting back to what you're saying, that you know we kind of keep our look at we got a job, we got money, we're making money. I could work in other places, but I stay there. Some something is. Are we blocking this out of our minds somehow? Or, you know, is there, you know, kind of an evil veil that comes over that we don't have as much of a choice over right? It's a curious thing.
Speaker 1:I think it's like the scripture says because of their lack of love for truth, they are blind, even though you have eyes but you don't see. You have ears but you don't hear.
Speaker 1:And I think it's something like that, because a lot of people don't like truth, they don't have God in their lives. And even though I considered myself always a catholic, now going, looking back, you know, after many years and after I had my conversion, I would say that I was just blind, I just didn't see it. I was not thinking about the truth, I was not thinking about, you know, the love for jesus, for god, for m, all that stuff didn't really exist. In that sense, yeah, we compromise, don't we?
Speaker 2:And? This is the danger today. Matt, I think if there's any good coming out of today, today's times, right as evil as they are, I think it's because good and evil are standing up. You could really see it probably more clear today than you ever can, and I think the call for for all of us is not to compromise anymore. It is to really seek the truth, and you know it's not easy to do, but I think that's where we have to.
Speaker 1:We have to lead ourselves yeah, absolutely, and you know I think part of. In my particular case, I was addicted to pornography for a long time as a young man, even in my married life.
Speaker 2:Okay. So because I work with so many young guys, I don't mean to stop you there, but how old were you when you got into pornography?
Speaker 1:were you when you got into pornography? Oh, it's hard to say, but once the internet became popular and you got cell phones and the internet, it became very easy, very easy to be able to have access to all kinds of stuff on the internet. And once, I mean, a lot of people don't realize but pornography is a real addiction and it's very, very difficult to get out of it. Once you get into it it gets easier and easier and you know, over a short period of time you know you're like very deep into it and and then it's very difficult to abandon that and and I didn't- like when I was, when I was in that state, I didn't even think about like hey, I'm cheating on my wife, but this is actually cheating on your wife, even though you're not physically with another woman.
Speaker 1:But it is really. I mean. Jesus said you know, even if you look at a woman in a lustful way you are committing adultery, so I was in this and it's interesting.
Speaker 2:You know, this is from Matthew 5, 27, 28 that you're quoting, and this is a sermon on the mount. And when people heard that, they go. What is he talking about? Well, this is what he's talking about. You know. It's amazing how Jesus can foresee and he sees into the human heart, doesn't he? He says you're making an action and that action is affecting your heart. And this is the point, matt. It's so important what you just said right now, because it affects every action we take, affects us. We don't realize it at first, but then we get caught up into these things and we go wow, this is changing me.
Speaker 1:I think this is a huge problem in society today, probably much more for men than for women, although it does affect women as well, but I think it's also exists in our clergy yeah, it does which is even, which is even worse, because these are I work with clergy and and deacons and and priests both, and I know what you're saying is a fact.
Speaker 1:I mean, we hear stories of you know when things come out and they're exposed, but you know we only hear, like you know, one story here, one story there. I think it's a much wider problem and you know Our Lady in Fatima, I think, said that men go to hell mostly because of the sins of the flesh, and so you know that includes all of it. You know pornography, you know adultery, masturbation, everything that has to do with you know, sexual sins. That's the main reason why people go to hell. And you know it's amazing that you know, maybe my story will help someone to break out of it. Or you know, because I don't think I could have done this on my own I had a conversion about, I would say probably like 11 years ago, and I say this as a catholic, and so it's not like I was.
Speaker 1:I was converted from being a catholic to a catholic, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But but this problem affects everyone. You know you have protestant ministers, you know priests in the Catholic Church, even bishops, who are all affected by this, and we hear stories like McCarrick and others. There are pedophiles, homosexuals. It's a huge, huge problem, and part of it is because it's the ease of access Internet, so that's why I'm developing board games.
Speaker 2:It's the ease of access, it's affordable, right. I mean you know it doesn't-.
Speaker 1:It's free. I mean, I never spent a penny.
Speaker 2:No, no. And the other thing is it's anonymous. It's anonymous, in other words, when I was a boy, I would have to I'm older than you and I would have to walk into a store if I wanted a magazine or something, right, and I have to publicly buy that thing, and now you don't have to do that. So it's the three A's right Affordable, anonymous and accessible. And you put those together and it's very, very easy.
Speaker 2:So that explains a little bit, matt, I think, as we start to move on a little bit, that explains a little bit about why you didn't see, why you're in Planned Parenthood and I'm glad you said that, because I knew there had to be something, because there's always something within a man or a woman that's eating at them and we're all broken, every single person listening today, including myself and you and all of us. We came into a broken world, we came in under original sin and there's an evil force out there trying to take our heart. So it's so beautiful when you are willing to battle this on the battlefield of John Paul would say on the battlefield of the human heart, right? And so this is great because this is a battle. So you're not only, you know, have that addiction. You're working in Planned Parenthood. You know there's a dark place, man. So what propelled you into your conversion story? Because God comes in and he rescues you if you'll say yes to him, won't he?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so God likes challenge, you know.
Speaker 2:So that's, that's from my experience, you know if you, if you, and so does a man really, if you really, if you really think about it, and you know, don't we like challenges as men really? I mean otherwise, we, you know where we become soft and give me a challenge. Let me know what the battle is, you know yeah and yeah.
Speaker 1:And so you know, when I was in my early years, working at Planned Parenthood, I was obviously like, like I said, I wasn't. I was a practicing Catholic, but I wasn't praying the rosary, I wasn't reading the Bible, I wasn't doing any of that. My prayer life was almost like non-existent at the time and, like I said, I was addicted to pornography, so I was living in sin yeah not even realizing that I was really sinning.
Speaker 1:I didn't see it that way, and so it. There was one day when I was reading a book on faith it wasn't the Bible, but it was a book on faith and while I was reading the book, I had my conversion and it was just like an instant. I mean, the best way I can describe it is just the Holy Spirit just comes over you and I fell on my knees on the floor and I started crying. And I'm always like one of those guys you know, guys are tough, we never cry, we don't complain and I was crying like a baby and two thoughts came to my mind at the time. It was, I mean, this was an instant thing. It was just like it lasted a split second, and two thoughts that came to my mind were number one you're going to hell if you don't change your life. And the second thought that came was you have been just unplugged from the Matrix.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Wow, and it was profound because my very first movie that I purchased on DVD back in the days was the Matrix with Keanu Reeves, and I really liked the movie. And you have the red pill and the blue pill, and so I call that my red pill moment, because it was just so clear. I never had a more clear thought in my head for the rest of my life. Since that time it was just.
Speaker 2:I just knew I'm going to hell. When you got up off your knees, did you know then that you would? You would work to be free? Did you know?
Speaker 1:I I was like. I was like really stunned. I was like what just happened? I just I, I just couldn't wrap my mind around what just happened to me. I guess the Protestant would call this like a born-again experience or something like that, but that's really what it felt like.
Speaker 2:Actually Jesus would call it a born-again. You know, you have to be washed. You know right, you have to be washed, and born, no, he said. And born again. And Nicodemus know asked you what? What do you mean about this? What do you mean? Born again, right and water and the spirit? You mentioned the holy spirit came out for you. You were already baptized with water, so now you're baptized with water and the spirit, and this is a big distinction.
Speaker 1:This is a big deal, yeah, but I mean we have a sacrament of confirmation in the Catholic Church, so this— but you have to say yes.
Speaker 2:You have to—see, there's a moment in our lives where you have to say a big yes. You know, I get the sacraments right, but now I have to say yes to make those sacraments efficacious. In other words, I can still reject the power of those sacraments until I say yes myself. You know, there's a time and a moment where we have to choose.
Speaker 1:When I look back, when I was confirmed, I was still a very young kid and I did say yes, but I didn't have the understanding oh, that's right of what I'm saying yes to really.
Speaker 1:I mean, I I just wasn't there on the the level of my faith, wasn't there. I I didn't understand what I'm saying yes to at that time. So so this, this moment came, you know, like 11 years ago, and it was the most profound thing that ever happened to me. I mean, to someone who has not experienced something like that, it's very difficult to describe, because you have to go through this in order to understand, and it's probably different for every person.
Speaker 2:It may be a little different, but it's as profound, and I know many, many men and women that have had similar experiences. I had it myself when my brother was dying, but anyways, at that moment I just knew. I knew something had changed. And now I had to spend the rest of my life discovering exactly what that was. And I would just say for people listening as you mature into your faith, you realize every day, give us this day our daily bread. Every day is another chance to say yes. Today, I say yes every day. Now I don't take it for granted, but, matt, you asked me in the beginning of this, right before we came on, if there would be an opportunity that came up. You wanted to say a prayer and let's take that time. Why don't you tell the audience what you're going to pray for?
Speaker 2:and let's take this time to do this, and then I want to move in after the prayer and into the work that you're doing right now. Thank you for sharing all that with us.
Speaker 1:Yes, perfect, okay. So, because we're talking about Planned Parenthood and what they do, I would like to say a prayer. I would like to pray Ave Maria in Latin for the end to abortion. And anyone who doesn't know that you know your audience. We can pray it in English or you can pray it in Latin.
Speaker 2:You pray in Latin, and for us that don't know Latin, including myself, very well, we will listen. We know what you're praying.
Speaker 1:So, thank you In nomine Patris, et what you're praying. Thank you, amen, the Blessed Mother. We pray that you are the mother of all of mankind. Jesus gave you to all of us at the foot of the cross, and so we pray that you intercede on behalf of all the little children that are being killed all over the earth, millions and millions of them. That we pray for the end to abortion, according to God's will. Nomen Patris Ili Spiritus Sancti.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen. Hey, thank you, matt, for that. Thank you for that. So listen now as we move on a little bit and again.
Speaker 1:We could talk all day about those kind of things, couldn't we?
Speaker 2:Because there's such a beautiful movement of the heart. You know God is real and he's moving you, and now he moved you in your IT. You're an artist, you develop, you know different products, so talk to us about some of the products and some of the things you're doing to bring families together now.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so you know, after my conversion even though the conversion itself was very immediate, it just happened very quickly, it was like a split second. But then afterwards it, the Holy Ghost, has been working on me for many, many years and it was gradual, you know it's I didn't stop being addicted to pornography like on day one, but over time it started going away. And then, you know, I'm completely free of it and I've been free for a long time, and I started praying the rosary. I started started doing you know, many other Catholic devotions, including the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and some 12-year devotion to the precious blood of Jesus and things like that. And so I started applying my knowledge and my expertise of the IT and graphic design and digital photography that I've been working for in for many years, and I started applying that to creating Catholic art. And I started very slowly. I started just making some wall art and things like that of the Blessed Mother, the angels, but then I took some of my work to a Catholic festival one day and I started selling it. I didn't make any money, I actually was in a hole and I ended up adding money into it. But on the last day it was a four-day event, and on the last day, a woman walked up to me and she said why don't you start making holy cards? And you know, st Paul wrote about. You know we might be entertaining an angel, you know when we someone a stranger, and so I think you know. For me I don't know if the lady was an angel, you know, but or not, but for me she was, because I listened to what she said and I started making prayer cards, and this was in 2018, so about six years ago, I started this and I started making prayer cards. Today, I have done probably over 150 saints, over 40 apparitions of mary, multiple cards of jesus. I have, like I don't know like 500 prayer cards that I made in these six years and I sell them online in my, in my store on Etsy, and I have customers all over the earth. I have customers from Japan, new Zealand, all over Europe, south America, mostly United States.
Speaker 1:So I've been selling these cards and then, once I have done enough work on saints and things like that, I said you know, I have so much artwork on my computer right now that I need to start doing something different, something new, and so that's when the idea of making board games with the graphics that I've created, and so I think like 99% of my work is based on digital photography. I think like 99 of my work is based on digital photography. So I go to churches, I photograph statues, stained glass windows, icons of saints and things like that. Then I bring it in, I clean it up in photoshop, I do my you know my magic, I work my magic on it and then I usually I end up with an image that is more beautiful than the original after I clean it up, and then I use that for prayer cards.
Speaker 1:I started making rosaries and things like that, but then I said I'm going to apply that to board games and target the family and the children, because we need to preserve and build the faith in our kids. It starts at a very young age and, you know, multiple saints have said that the final battle will be over the family. Saint charbel from lebanon is a great saint, you know like I think they attribute over 50 000 miracles of healing to him. He's a saint for our times and he said. He said that the final battle will be also, you know, for the family, because the family is the most basic building block of society. So if you can destroy the family, you destroy entire nations, you destroy the world. You know, if we don't have holy families, we don't have priests, we don't have nuns. You know, everything falls apart if you destroy the family. So my target is really the Catholic and other families that may be brought to faith through this.
Speaker 1:So what I try to do is I try to make games that are both entertaining but also educational. I don't want them to just sit at a table and have fun, but I also want the children to learn about the faith, learn about the saints. You know, understand what it is to be a saint, what it means. Why would you want to be a saint? Why should we seek holiness and all that? So why not have some little bit of fun but at the same time, learn the faith?
Speaker 1:And what better way? It's also like an icebreaker for parents who don't know how to talk to their children about the faith. And what better way? It's also like an icebreaker for for parents who don't know how to talk to their children about the faith. You know, if you play a game and you're saint padre pio in the game or you're saint teres, well, now, after playing the game, you have a way to connect with your child, because now you can bring it up. Hey, you know, we just learned about saint dominic or whatever. He received the holy rosary from the blessed mother and now we can, we can use that to build on that. Yeah, so that's so.
Speaker 2:That's the main goal now how far? Now I know you're getting pretty close, right, so tell us how far you are because because I can't wait to start to buy. I want to buy one first of all for my family and for my kids and grandkids. So tell us how far along we are, because I know we're getting close now right to having this. We're getting close.
Speaker 1:So I started a fundraiser online because I'm a very small, family-owned Catholic business, very small family owned catholic business. You know, I have done I have done all the groundwork on the game, but I can't afford to produce the game.
Speaker 1:You know, I have to raise fifty thousand dollars just to produce the game. So I came up with this idea that we're going to produce a limited version of the game, like a limited edition, which will have a lot of extras in it. So the actual game, the name of the game, my first game. I have actually 16 board games in in my lineup, so as time progresses I'm going to be producing more and more, but this first game is called the holy quest the holy quest.
Speaker 1:I like the holy quest and it has 16 saints in it and the game is designed around religious orders in the Catholic Church. So you have the Franciscans, you have the Jesuits, Dominicans and Carmelites, and so each order has four saints in the game. So you have 16 saints and children are actually or players. You know, if parents play, grandparents can play with their kids, grandkids. You have four saints per player. It's a four-player game but there are like five different ways to play the game. So there's like an advanced mode. There is a teamwork mode, there is a way for younger children to play. For older children there are trivia cards with questions. So you really have a very large span of age groups. So the game is recommended from children from like five years old all the way to late teens, and there are different ways to play the game In the limited edition, what I've done, and I'm going to show that to your audience here.
Speaker 2:And here I'd like to break in and just tell our audio-only audience this might be a good time to switch over to Rumble. I'll have the link to the Rumble video podcast in the show notes. If you want to switch over, you can see it Now. Matt's going to describe this verbally and you'll be able to follow it, but if you want to see the visuals switch over to the Rumble, Top of the 16 saints that you normally would have in the game.
Speaker 1:You're going to get 16 additional saints.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So even saints like Thomas Aquinas is part of the Dominican order. We have what is a certificate of authenticity. So the first limited edition of the game is going to be just 1,000 copies and it's going to be numbered. So you will have something like you know you're going to have this certificate and there's going to be a matching. You will have something like you know you're going to have this certificate and there's going to be a matching number on the box saying you have game number zero, zero, two, zero out of one thousand.
Speaker 1:So we're only going to make one thousand of these games and then after that we're going to switch back to the standard version. So you're going to get 16 additional saints. So you're going to have 32 saints to pick from. You're going to have 32 saints to pick from. You're going to have a certificate, there's going to be a special poster for the game, just for the limited edition, and there's going to be some extras. So you're going to get all that and then, once we finish the first 1,000 copies, we're going to switch back to standard version and if people still want extra, additional saints, they can purchase what's called an expansion pack, okay, and that's going to have the 16 additional saints, but you're not going to get the poster, you're not going to get a numbered version and all that.
Speaker 1:So we're raising money for this. We have about five thousand dollars raised so far, so we're like 10 in and that's why we're doing these podcasts, so that we can bring this, because a lot of people don't know this is happening. So I'm going to give you a link to the website for the game where people can learn everything about the game. We have frequently asked questions. We have what's in the box so people can actually see there's a lot of. This is like a very high-end game. By the way, it's got a. It's got a leather dice tray with nice golden dice, you know. Okay, here's an example of the actual pawns, the Saints in the game. You know they have tokens with the crests of the religious.
Speaker 2:Oh nice, yeah yeah, yeah, this is the franciscans.
Speaker 1:Here are the jesuits. You know, and so you know you can make alliances with these tokens with different players. So there's teamwork play. I'm going to show you some of the parts. So here's an example of a clue card that asks questions and gives you special actions in the game. If you can allow me to share my screen, I can quickly show the board for the game, so let me Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, so your website's up. Okay, there we go.
Speaker 1:So here's the image of the board websites up. Okay, there we go. So so here's the the image of the board. So the game is based very loosely on the game of pachisi, or pachisi, which is a hindu game, kind of a little bit similar to the game of sorry that we know in the united states. Yeah, but this game has, like action tiles, as you can see over here, and these are the bases, the home bases for different orders, like the Franciscans, the Carmelites and Dominicans and all that, and these are the different actions, so action tiles where kids can take actions. There's a lot to the game. It's been, it's been like really built up quite a bit. You know, once you go to the website you can learn all about it. We're going to be.
Speaker 2:For those, for those that are just watching or listening on audio, matt will will include the will include the, the website and everything in the show notes for everybody so that they go, they can go on and actually see this. So what Matt is showing us. For those of you who are just listening and not looking at the audio, the video, it's a very good looking board game. Matt, you did a good job. It looks really good.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and so very quickly. I also want to share how people can support the game or get the game. So if you go to the website, you go under, get involved, donate and buy, and here you can. There it tells you different ways you can help out. So you know. Obviously you can donate any amount to the game campaign as little as five dollars or whatever but if you want to purchase the limited edition of the game, you have to donate 120, which is going to give you the game and all the extras and everything okay and so I really, you know, urge all you know big, especially big catholic families with a lot of children.
Speaker 1:This is a great project and I think you know, because it's a limited time offer, I would urge everyone to spread the word and just go to, you know, give this to your friends, your family members who have children, and get them interested in this, because when this game is made, it's also going to pay for all the future games.
Speaker 1:So we're only doing this fundraiser once and I think the revenue that we generate from this is going to pay for the next 15 games that we're making. So we only have to do this once. But the first time is the most difficult because we're starting with nothing and trying to create something that is very useful to Catholic families, and here you can donate. You can send us a check. Gives you the address where you can see. If you'd prefer to pay by check, you have to provide us with your email address and your mailing. You can. If you prefer to pay by check, you have to provide us with your email address and your mailing address so we know where to send the game. The game is more than likely going to be available early next year.
Speaker 1:We're looking at february, march right now okay so you know, when you donate today or you purchase the game, you're not going to receive it until february, march of next year okay, I'm gonna miss christmas, but we're gonna get.
Speaker 2:We're gonna miss christmas, we're gonna get there in time for lent the original.
Speaker 1:The original idea was to get it ready by christmas, but there's so many things logistically speaking, there's so many things that need to be arranged.
Speaker 1:It was just not possible to do that. So, right right now, we're looking at February, march of 2025. And, like I said, you know you can get everything about the game here. We're also going to be posting updates on where we are so you can go to news and updates and you can find all this stuff. You know we had an article on EWTN's National Catholic Register. We were on EWTN radio.
Speaker 1:We're doing the podcast with you, jack, right now, and there's going to be others. So we're getting the word out there and we ask everyone to. If you can't help us financially by donating or purchasing this game, then please share it on social media, share it with your friends, family, so that we can get the word out, because my feeling is that this game is going to become very, very popular, because there's really not much out there right now For Catholic families In terms of board games. So this is a brand new tool for evangelizing, for keeping the family together and bringing the children more closer to the table with their parents and grandparents and siblings, rather than being on a cell phone and on the Internet.
Speaker 2:It sounds awesome. It sounds awesome, matt, thank you so much. Thank you so much for showing us the game. What's the name of the website? Bonus, the game we're working. What's the name of the website? And is this the same website they can go to and look at some of the holy cards and some of the other things that you have on there, too, I have, so I have two websites now, which one should they go to with the board game?
Speaker 1:here. So the board game is the holy questus which is the right now.
Speaker 2:Okay, so this is, this is the game.
Speaker 1:This is the game website where you can get all the information on the game and you can contribute to the project or you can purchase the game.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And then there's a second website, which is my online store, that has the holy cards, the rosaries, magnets, keychains, bookmarks All the artwork that I use in the game is on this website in different forms. And in fact, I started working with five different priests across the country in the US. Collecting first and second class relics is creating healing, anointing oils and relic cards that actually have a piece of fabric included in the oil and the card. That was touched to first and second class relics, so I think these are becoming very popular. The blessed mother I have over 40 relic cards and oils of different apparitions and I'll just show very quickly. So this was touched to nine actual relics of the blessed mother.
Speaker 1:And then for jesus this is really awesome. I was. I actually had a relic reliquary in my house that a priest gave me for a time that had over 20 relics of our lord me for a time, that had over 20 relics of our lord in it, and I had this in my home. I was like, wow, what a blessing. Here's a list of relics that were in there. And so this was touched the shroud of turin, the cross, the crown of thorns, the crib of baby jesus. I mean it's like everything is in there. It's like I was like, wow, you know so. So this, this oil and this prayer card with the relic that you can see on the screen, this was touched to all of these, so it's very, very special.
Speaker 2:Very good and give us that website. We only got about a minute left, Matt. What's the website there?
Speaker 1:So this is an Etsy store and the address is trade catholic art dot etsycom trade catholic art dot etsycom and you'll send, and send me an email with that in it.
Speaker 2:I'll make sure I get that uh properly put into the show notes.
Speaker 2:Matt, that's right so hey, god bless you matt, we're gonna, we're winding down and I hope everybody takes a minute to look at both the game and also the other artwork and things that Matt's doing. You know, it's very important for all of us to support one another, especially people that are working for marriage and the family right now. This is the battleground. As Sister Lucia Fatima said, the last great battle between our Lord and Satan is going to be over marriage and the family. We're seeing that now. Divine providence is playing down right before our eyes right now. So when we can support people that are working on projects like Matt is to help us all. I think this is going to be a great game, matt. I'm excited. I'm excited to see it and I'll do my best to make sure that my friends see this game and we'll start to put some orders in, hopefully. So God bless you, matt.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. I'm hoping you know now is the time to do this because you know, without the help of all the Catholics, you know, getting involved in this this is not going to happen. You know, getting involved in this this is not going to happen. So so we're like really asking people to go to visit the game website and get involved, get the game early. That way, you will enable us to not only to produce it, but you also will enable us to produce the next 15 games at the same time, and you're really going to be helping thousands and thousands of children getting this game into their hands. So that's the general idea. Good.
Speaker 2:And if they have any questions, Matt, where can they reach you at?
Speaker 1:The game website and my store has a way to message me.
Speaker 2:Okay, good.
Speaker 1:All right, good, so your contact information is on there.
Speaker 2:We're going to wind down, matt. Thank you so much. Thanks everyone. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1:Okay, god bless you, jack, and God bless your audience. Thank you.