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The CU Catecast with Fr. Ryan Humphries
Continuing the series of introductions to each book of the Bible, Fr. Ryan presents the The Book of Zephaniah
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or most of us have never heard of me
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doesn't show up much I think he shows up
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very briefly in the lectionary but most
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of us have never even heard the name and
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we think they're talking about Zachariah
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or Zechariah now the prophet Zephaniah
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wrote during the time of King Josiah who
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we talked about a ton when we were doing
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the historical books because he was the
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one who kind of hired a bunch of
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historians and did a lot of kind of
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bringing together of the history of the
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Jewish people so Jose Zephaniah is
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writing about 635 BC or so and like most
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of the Minor Prophets this book is very
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short it's his identity as a writer is
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largely unknown and his theme is very
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focused meaning he's not somebody who
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did a bunch of stuff he's somebody who
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wrote one quick simple direct thing and
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he may have prophesied for years and
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years but all we have is this focused
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little bit his primary importance
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honestly is that he is the first prophet
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that we know of to write anything saying
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after Isaiah the first died after the
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first of the Isaiah prophets passes away
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in fact zephaniah's book comes out 50
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years after Isaiah dies and so all of
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this stuff that we get in the book of
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The Prophet Zephaniah is taking place
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just at the end of the Kings of Israel
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the kings in Judah if you remember the
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history the northern kingdom is
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destroyed in the 700s BC and the kingdom
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of Judea the bottom country the lower
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country where Jerusalem is is conquered
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by the Babylonians in 587 BC so we're a
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generation ahead of the loss of the
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Southern Kingdom and we're a generation
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or two behind the destruction of the
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northern kingdom now as you expect
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because Zephaniah is the first major
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prophet to show up on the scene after
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Isaiah he is going to continue following
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the themes of the prophet Isaiah and
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he's going to continue to follow the
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basic patterns of Old Testament prophecy
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and so the basic way that works is there
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are bad days ahead just get ready but
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those bad days are not just at random we
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earned them and we deserve them and God
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is good and even though he's going to
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swat us around a little bit ultimately a
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Remnant will make it through and so we
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have hope in the future that's the basic
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Pro program for all of the Old Testament
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basically everything the Jews screw
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something up it's okay they deserved it
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God's going to show mercy good things
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will come of this just not right now and
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so as with most of the other prophets
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Zephaniah is going to be very very
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strongly interested in one or two big
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issues of the day and his big issue of
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the day is going to be the idol worship
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so basically once the northern kingdom
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is lost you start having these these
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folks from uh from Modern Day Iran and
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Iraq bring their religions in to the
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northern kingdom and so people who are
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around Jerusalem who have never had to
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deal with Idol worshiping coming from
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the North or with other religions are
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now going to be intermarrying with
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people who are worshiping false gods and
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so Zephaniah is going to come out strong
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and go this is a bad thing we need to do
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whatever it takes to get out of the way
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of that and in fact the the primary
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reason he's going to put for the coming
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tribulation is idol worship and which
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ultimately is a function of this
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intermarriage and um when you read the
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book of The Prophet Zephaniah they're
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going to call that Superstition largely
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because it's very difficult to translate
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idol worship into something that that we
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understand but they're going to call it
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Superstition and in fact the reason
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Zephaniah is giving that the real bad
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stuff is coming is it's not just Bob the
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farmer you know living outside of
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Nazareth that's doing this it's in fact
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Kings who are now intermarrying and
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worshiping Idols in particular the king
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Manasseh the king Amon and the King
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Josiah are going to be in the crosshairs
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for for zephaniah's prophecy he does
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however and this is something that that
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kind of gives him a little bit of
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broader interest outside of just a very
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very small Focus
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Zephaniah actually gives us a little bit
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of information about the broader
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political landscape that's going on in
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in that time in Iran and Iraq which is
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basically going to be the Assyrian
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Empire in the Babylonian Empire you
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remember that the Assyrians are the ones
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that have been there a long time they're
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defeated by the Babylonians which is why
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we call it the Babylonian exile and not
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the Assyrian Exile well Zephaniah is
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coming out before that happens and so he
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is basically explaining that the
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Babylonians are going to win there's a
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war going on the Assyrians are out the
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Babylonians are in and that's probably
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not going to be good for us and so in
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his very very brief three chapter long
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book a lot of stuff happens but not a
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lot of it is especially useful for us as
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Christians now as you can tell
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Zephaniah is not exactly Mr originality
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basically everything in his book is said
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elsewhere it's said frequently the
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primary value of his book is his place
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in history and his comments on the
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broader political situation around him
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so it's not going to be the exciting
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book okay it's just really not I'm sure
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sorry about that there's nothing that's
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going to get you whooped up and excited
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about it the biggest thing that's
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interesting about it that you'll enjoy I
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hope is chapter one has this graphic
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depiction of the day of the Lord what
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will these end of days look like that's
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the most interesting part of Zephaniah
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at least for most folks who are reading
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it and so chapter 1 verses 14 through 18
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are the big poetic verses of zephaniah's
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book and in fact they are going to be
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those those stanzas of his book are
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actually going to show up in the DS era
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Diaz illa the Great hymn that was sung
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for All Souls day and that was sung on
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for Requiem masses and so um that that's
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probably the most interesting aspect of
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the Prophet Zephaniah and why people
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continue to study his book so just to
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give you a brief outline
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we're looking at four parts in three
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chapters chapter one we have the day of
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the Lord especially as it's going to
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play out for Jerusalem and for Judah
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chapter 2 is going to be God's judgment
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on the Nations chapter 3 the first half
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is going to be God's judgment on Judah
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and then chapter four the second half or
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chapter three the second half is going
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to be the promise of restoration so we
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have the day of the Lord God's judgment
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to the Nations God's judgment to us and
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then the promise of restoration three
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very brief chapters not a whole lot more
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to say about Zephaniah we have three of
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the Minor Prophets left to go and then
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once we finish the Minor Prophets
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because there's not a whole lot more to
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talk about we will do a brief or I will
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do a brief overview of the history that
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we've done what are the big events and
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personages of the entirety of the Old
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Testament and then I'll do a little bit
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of reaching into the new Testament and
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then I want to do a second talk a
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separate talk on a bit of a review of
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what we've looked at not just the
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historical timeline but what are the
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sections of the books of the Old
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Testament just to give us kind of a high
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scale overview now that we've had the
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particular one and then we will dive
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into the gospels which will be really
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quite challenging so we have about five
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talks left before we're going to dive
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into the gospels but we have made our
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way through functionally at this point
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the entirety of the Old Testament so we
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can all be proud that we've survived all
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these talks over the course of the last
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year and that's it for Zephaniah and so
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more to come next time until then my
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name is Father Ryan Humphries this has
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been the CU catechast thank you for
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joining us