Shadowing Practice: Why Be Catholic and Not Just Christian? - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
149 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
How to
2
Get Your
3
Faithful Faithful I don't — that doesn't sit right with me.
4
What do you mean authority?
5
I would say this, that the Church has the ability to teach us.
6
They teach authoritatively.
7
The Church has the ability to teach us in the name of Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit,
8
to the glory of God the Father, that the Church has the ability to tell us this is true and it's not true,
9
that the Church has the ability to establish doctrine.
10
And I'm not talking about some invisible kind of like universal body of believers.
11
I'm talking about the church that Jesus himself founded back in Matthew chapter 16.
12
Jesus looks at Simon and says, Simon, your name is not Peter, rock.
13
And upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
14
He goes on to say, I'll give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
15
Now here's the interesting thing that you may or may not know.
16
Jesus came to establish the kingdom, right?
17
But it's not an invisible kingdom.
18
Why?
19
Because we can look that Jesus as the king establishes the kingdom but when he says to Peter, no, you know Simon, now
20
Peter, He says, I'll give you the keys to the kingdom, etc, etc. He's referencing Isaiah, the book of the prophet Isaiah.
21
And in Isaiah, there is this role in the kingdom.
22
There's a role.
23
There's the king, obviously.
24
But there's also the prime minister, the al -Khabait, the one who's the overseer.
25
That when the king is gone, this person is in charge.
26
This person has the authority of the king.
27
It says that in Isaiah chapter 22.
28
And it's almost word for word what Jesus gives to Peter, the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
29
He gives the Church a visible structure and an actual hierarchy and he says, you can actually teach now.
30
Teach in my name.
31
The Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth to be able to teach in my name.
32
And this is exactly what happens in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 15.
33
There's this big crisis and the crisis is the Apostles have been evangelizing the Jews.
34
So basically they were all
35
Jews and they realized Jesus is the fulfillment of Judaism.
36
Jesus is the Messiah we've been waiting for.
37
And so they're sharing the good news with Jewish people.
38
It was awesome.
39
But then they realized, because Peter had a vision and Paul was called to do this too,
40
that they were called to bring the gospel to non -Jews,
41
which is amazing and good because I'm a non -Jew and I get to be brought in, right, to the people of God.
42
The question came up, okay, so when you evangelize
43
Jews, all they need to get is baptized because they're already circumcised, they're already in the Old Covenant.
44
So in order to be brought into the fulfillment of the covenant, the New Covenant, they just have to be baptized.
45
But if you're evangelizing Gentiles, Question, do they first have to be circumcised and then be baptized?
46
Or can they just be baptized?
47
Now you can see at least two ways why this would be a very important question.
48
One is if you were an adult Gentile man, this would kind of be a big question you would want answered before you,
49
do I have to do this or is this kind of optional?
50
You want that resolved ahead of time.
51
But secondly and even more importantly, if I need to get circumcised in order to get baptized and I'm not, That means I'm not saved.
52
Like, do we have to do this in order to be saved is the big question.
53
The problem is Jesus never taught about that.
54
The Bible never teaches about this.
55
And this is the problem with a thing called sola scriptura or Bible alone.
56
You know, one of the pillars of the Reformation was this idea that
57
Bible alone, scriptural, you don't need the church, you only need Bible alone.
58
What about when the Bible doesn't teach something, what do we do?
59
Well, what happened was in Acts chapter 15, the apostles came together.
60
And again, I'm not saying some loose kind of invisible church, but the actual structure of the church.
61
Those apostles, the people that Jesus himself called, Peter as the Pope, Paul and Barnabas, you have this body of the church.
62
And the church gets together and they discuss and they debate and they pray and then they decided.
63
They said, it seems to the Holy Spirit and to us that we should not impose this on Gentiles.
64
They should not, they do not have to be circumcised in order to be baptized.
65
And in that moment, we can see in the Bible that the Church, again the visible
66
Church, the structure of the Church, the governance of the Church, has the ability to teach.
67
And not just to teach, but to teach definitively, not merely optionally.
68
And if you're a student of history, you see that this is not the only time.
69
In fact, the Church has to do this again and again
70
and again because people pick up the Old Testament and pick up the New Testament scriptures, which also the church gave us,
71
another video by the way, and they say, well, I come to the conclusion that Jesus isn't really God.
72
I mean, he's clearly God.
73
I mean, he came to earth, he rose from the dead, he's clearly God.
74
I think he only looked like human.
75
That was a heresy called docetism.
76
In fact, it was one of the earliest heresies, was that Jesus was fully God, but he wasn't fully man.
77
In the church, again, not this generic invisible church, but the actual physical structure, hierarchy of the Church said that's incorrect.
78
Other people came along and said, well, he's fully human, but maybe he's only like partly God, like quasi, quasi God, like the Arians.
79
And the Church came together in Council of Nicaea 325 and they said, no, Jesus is fully God and fully man.
80
Two natures, human and divine, and one divine person.
81
Now, every Christian in the world believes that.
82
Why?
83
Why?
84
Because in some way, whether they admit it or not, every single Christian in the world believes that the Catholic Church has the authority to teach.
85
Every Christian who believes in the Trinity, that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co -equal, co -eternal, that no one's greater than the other,
86
believes that because of the authority of the Catholic Church.
87
Because the Church came together in the Council of Nicaea, the Council of Constantinople, and all the other
88
Church councils and declared this, that this is the interpretation of the text.
89
And we need that.
90
Here's the crazy thing.
91
We need that so badly.
92
Okay, here's a little mental exercise.
93
Imagine that you're a God.
94
For some of you, this would not be the first time today that you did this.
95
And it's so important to you that the people you created know who you truly are, that they don't get you wrong.
96
So what do you do?
97
Well, you don't want to overwhelm them with your beauty
98
and your power and glory and truth because they would have to serve you out of fear.
99
You want them to fall in love with you and you want them to know who you truly are.
100
And so you start small.
101
You start with this guy named Abram, or Abram, you know, turning his name to Abraham.
102
And you bring him slowly and slowly and then his family, you reveal yourself slowly to his family and to this tribe and to this people.
103
You call the Jewish people, the chosen people of God and you slowly reveal yourself to them
104
and very carefully because you don't want them to get any part of you wrong.
105
And then in the fullness of time, 2 ,000 years ago, you yourself actually become one of them.
106
You become a human being.
107
And in that, you reveal who you truly are
108
and you don't do it as the most powerful one or as the greatest one or as the richest one.
109
You take the lowest place as a humble, poor person and you die as a criminal.
110
You let yourself be overwhelmed by suffering and death.
111
Why?
112
Because it's so important to you as God that people know the truth and depth of your heart.
113
You rise from the dead and send the Holy Spirit to the apostles and then they write down all these things.
114
And while they're writing these things down, you preserve it.
115
Why?
116
Because it's very important to you as God
117
that they write down exactly what you want them to write down in no more, no less.
118
And then over the course of years, as they're translating it, as they're copying it, you, by the Holy Spirit,
119
you guide that copying, you guide that translating so that they don't get you wrong.
120
Why?
121
Because it's very important to you as God that no one gets you wrong.
122
Here's this infallible book, right?
123
It's a book that has — it's without error.
124
Now, it's not without scientific error because it's not a scientific book.
125
It's a book of poetry.
126
It's a book of truth.
127
It's a book of goodness.
128
There's a whole other video about that.
129
The point is, you compile this infallible book through fallible people.
130
But you compile this infallible book.
131
Now, if you were God, would it make any sense for you to then say, okay to anyone, okay, here's this infallible book,
132
boom, take it, read it, tell me what you think.
133
No, you wouldn't.
134
Why?
135
Because an infallible book without an infallible interpreter is a worthless book, right?
136
The Bible is infallible.
137
But without an infallible interpreter, it's like that's why you have 30 ,000 plus denominations of Christianity in the United States.
138
Because, you know, someone picks it up and says, Oh, here's what I think.
139
Someone else picks it up, no, no, no, no, here's what I think.
140
That's one of the reasons by G .K.
141
Chesterton, back in the day, he had said why he was Catholic.
142
They said, he said, because I don't need a church who can tell me when I'm right.
143
I need a church that will tell me where I'm wrong.
144
So if you ask, you know, what's the big difference between the Catholic Church and all other non -Catholic Christian denominations,
145
I'd say when it comes down to it, I think what it comes down to is right there.
146
Authority.
147
From all of us here, Dissension Presents.
148
My name is Father Mike.
149
God bless.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
C11
199 sentences
Become Someone for Others - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
46 sentences
I Believe in One God (with Archbishop Richard G. Henning)
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
654 sentences
Stuart & Cliffe Knechtle | Do Agnostics Just Want To Have Control? | Give Me an Answer
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
58 sentences
Where is the evidence for God? | Bishop Robert Barron
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C13
86 sentences
What Makes a Great Leader?
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B23
296 sentences
Why Be A Catholic Priest? | Conversations with Fr. Matt & Fr. Daniel Ep. 1
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
590 sentences
How to Listen to the Lord (Mark 4:21-34) | John MacArthur
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
62 sentences
Why ‘turning the other cheek’ is fundamentally misunderstood | Bishop Robert Barron
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C13
148 sentences
How to Speak Articulately
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1163 sentences
What the First Christians Really Believed Will Surprise You
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B27
88 sentences
How Global Is Your Faith? | Becoming a Global Disciple Ep. 1
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C13
39 sentences
Charlie Kirk: The Last Interview
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Why Be Catholic and Not Just Christian?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: church, Jesus, teach, infallible, Catholic. This video has 74 sentences and 1876 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:44. The speaker talks fast, about 215 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow. 17 of its 74 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| invisible adjective | /ɪnˈvɪzəb(ə)l/ | Unable to be seen; out of sight; not visible. |
| establish verb | /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/ | To make stable or firm; to confirm. |
| reveal verb | /ɹɪˈviːl/ | To uncover; to show and display that which was hidden. |
| visible adjective | /ˈvɪzɪb(ə)l/ | Able to be seen. |
| glory noun | /ˈɡlɔːɹi/ | Great beauty and splendor. |
| realise verb | Non-Oxford British standard spelling of realize. | |
| divine adjective | /dɪˈvaɪn/ | Of or pertaining to a god. |
| translate verb | /tɹænzˈleɪt/ | To change spoken words or written text (of a book, document, movie, etc.) from one language to another. |
| interpreter noun | /ɪnˈtɝ.pɹɪ.tɚ/ | A person or thing that interprets the meaning of something for another, particularly |
| universal adjective | /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/ | Of or pertaining to the universe. |
| gate noun | /ˈɡeɪ̯t/ | A doorlike structure outside a house. |
| carefully adverb | /ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/ | With care; attentively, circumspectly. |
| suffer verb | /ˈsʌfɚ/ | To undergo hardship. |
| badly adverb | /ˈbæd.li/ | In a bad manner. |
| conclusion noun | /kənˈkluːʒən/ | The end, finish, close or last part of something. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| write down verb | To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something. | |
| come down to verb | To reach by moving down or reducing. | |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. | |
| come along verb | To accompany. | |
| come together verb | /ˈkʌm tʊˈɡɛðɚ/ | To assemble; to congregate; to combine. |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| get together verb | To meet, to gather together, to congregate. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- That doesn't sit right with me.
- What do you mean "authority"?
- What do we do?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | have been evangelizing · we've been waiting |
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you were God, would it |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was called · were called · be brought |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 34 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: worthless /ˈwɜːθ.ləs/, authoritatively /ɔˈθɔɹəˌteɪtɪvli/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/, interpretation /ɪnˌtɜːpɹəˈteɪʃən/, optional /ˈɑp.ʃə.nəl/, denomination /dɪˌnɒmɪˈneɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: invisible /ɪnˈvɪzəb(ə)l/, interpreter /ɪnˈtɝ.pɹɪ.tɚ/, universal /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/, interpretation /ɪnˌtɜːpɹəˈteɪʃən/, importantly /ɪmˈpɔɹ.tənt.li/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like invisible, establish, reveal.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.