May 4, 2024 • 62 mins
In this episode of The Heart of Fiat Crucified Love, Catholic missionary and evangelist Mary Kloska takes the listener on a journey with the Holy Spirit through the daily Mass readings. She explains how we don't only read the readings at Mass, through them God is reading our hearts and speaking to them individually. This podcast shows deeply how near God is to His children who quiet themselves to listen to His word.
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You're listening to WCAT radio, yourhome for authentic Catholic programming. Hello,
and welcome to the Heart of Fiatcrucified Love. This week, I want
to talk about how the Lord callsus to live the readings that we receive
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from Him every day at Mass.And so I thought what I would do
is just kind of give a lotof practical advice and go over the readings
for the last several days Saturday,Sunday, Monday, here the Feast of
Catherine Tuesday, and kind of showyou how not only do we read readings
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at Mass, but the Holy Spiritreads us, and God speaks to us,
and he shares such an abyss ofwisdom with us every day if we
just have ears to hear, right, He tells us how he wants us
to live. He reads the problemsof our life, and he speaks to
us about them. He encourages us, he corrects us. So that's what
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we're going to do this week.And we'll start with a prayer and a
quick song and then we'll get tothat. So in the name of the
Father and the Son and the HolySpirit. Amen, come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful andkindle in us the fire of your
love. Send forth your spirit,and we can be recreated. We will
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be recreated, and thou shalt renewthe face of the earth. Sweet Jesus,
we ask you to put your handsupon each one of us, and
upon my head and my mouth andmy heart as I share your wisdom with
those who are listening. We askyou to touch the ears and the heart
of those who will encounter this.And we ask you to pour out upon
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us, bleed out upon us powerfulhealing and light and strength and grace through
the scripture that you have given tous for the last few days. And
we asked you to teach us howto listen better to what you speak to
us every day in the mass,how this word can become living for us.
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And of course we ask all ofthis through the intercession of our lady
here, and we ask Saint Catherineof Sienna to pray for us, as
it was her feast day yesterday,and we have this beautiful statue, Hail
Mary, full of grace. TheLord is with thee. Blessed art thou
among women, and blessed is thefruit of thy womb. Jesus, Holy
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Mary, Mother of God, prayfor us sinners now in at the hour
of our death. Amen. Thatword is a lamp unto my feet and
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a light onto my pad. Thatword is a lamp unto my feet and
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a light onto my pad. WhenI feel afraid, I think of last
my way. Sorry, Still,you're the right beside me. Nothing well,
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life feed as long as you are, Ney, please be, need
be to the end. F wordis a lamb unto my feet and a
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light onto my path. Far wordis a lamb unto my feet and the
light unto my pald. No,I will not forget your love for me,
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and yet my heart forver is widder. Read Jesus, be my guide
and hold me to your side.I will love you to the end.
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The word is a lad un tomy feet and a lie onto my pad.
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The word is a land unto myfeed and a light onto my pad,
and nothing with life feed. Aslong as you are, please be,
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need me to the end. Aword is a land until my feed
and a lot unto my pal.You're the lie aunto bye pa Amen,
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Ali, Lujah, Father Son,Holy Spirit. Amen. Sorry for the
mistakes. I do not have theluxury of ever recording something more than once.
We're having edited, so when Imake mistakes, you get raw,
Mary Kloska. But anything worth doingfor the Lord is worth doing poorly.
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If he's asked you to do something, you just go forward. Right.
So we are going to talk hereabout how the Lord speaks to us at
Mass. And it made a reallybig impact on me About twenty five years
ago when I graduated from Notre Dameand I went down to live in South
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Texas with SALT, the Society ofOur Lady of the Most Holy Trinity,
and I had the privilege of meetingevery day with the founder, Father Flanagan,
who not only was forming groups ofecclesial teams to go out into the
mission, and that was why Iwas included. I was preparing for their
mission in Russia, but I metwith him individually as well. And one
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thing that he really stressed was payingattention to what the Lord speaks to you
every day in Mass. Right.He said, you always listen to those
readings with one ear listening to whatthey're actually saying, and then the other
ear to what the Holy Spirit isspeaking to you through them. Right.
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And we would meet every single dayand go through through the Mass readings for
that day if we did it inthe morning, or sometimes we would do
it the day before Sunday and itwould be for the following Sunday's readings,
but and we would share, wewould break open the word really and from
that moment on, I never reallylistened to the readings at Mass the same
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because they became alive. I knew. I had this great confidence that the
Lord was speaking something very specifically tome, and it might be something different
than he speaks to you. Right, he knows each one of our lives,
and the Holy Spirit has this phenomenalway that he inspired the bishops to
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determine what Mass readings that we haveevery day, and he could apply them
to our lives every day. Godand his omnipotence and his all knowing love
predetermined what would be said at Massevery day that you're struggling or that you're
rejoicing, you know, So it'sreally beautiful to pay attention. And this
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started to really come alive again tome over the weekend. On Saturday,
I went to Mass, and boy, the Lord just spoke so much to
me, and I thought I shoulddo a podcast on this. And then
Sunday I went to Mass and Ithought, oh my goodness, the Lord
spoke so much I wanted to share. It was like, I need to
do either, you know, areflection on the Mass readings or a podcast
on this. And then yesterday thesame thing, this morning, the same
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thing, and I thought, goodness, I need to share this because I
don't think even many Catholics, eventhose who go to Mass every day,
realize how profoundly the Lord is speakingto them every day in those readings.
Right, So on Saturday, thatwould have been April twenty seventh, right,
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the first reading was from Acts,and it says the next Sabbath,
almost the whole town assembled to hearthe Word of God. And when they
saw the crowds, the Jews,prompted by jealousy, used blasphemies and contradicted
everything Paul said. And Paul andBarnabas spoke out boldly, we had to
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proclaim the word of God to youfirst. But since you have rejected it,
since you do not think yourselves worthyof eternal life, we must turn
to the Pagans. Right. Andit's interesting because in our lives we will
be persecuted for not only speaking butliving the word of God. And it's
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not always going to be from peopleoutside of the church. Very often it
will be from our own Satan isnot very creative, so he sees how
jealousy was a good tool to causethe death of Christ. So he used
it again against Paul and Barnabas,and jealousy the hearts of those that God
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sent them to. And it continuestoday. And you see right up to
the modern day how in different ministrieswithin the church, or you know,
in works that people come together todo. Sometimes you see it in families
that people become jealous and competitive insteadof being humble servants of each other and
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with each other to spread the Gospelof Christ. So that demon of jealousy
is still very active. And eachone of us, i'm sure, in
different ways, have been victims ofthat, and they spoke lies because they
were jealous. Right, But ourreaction to the evil that happens to us
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in that way needs to be likeChrist's on the cross, who prayed Father
forgive them. They know not whatthey do, and they don't know the
extent of the consequences of that,allowing that jealousy to take room and guide
their decisions against us. Right,the result that those lies or things like
that can cause. But then we'realso called to be like Paul and Barnabas,
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they didn't freak out. They said, you know what, we're in
the hands of God, and ifjealousy closes the hearts of those that we
were sent to, then the HolySpirit, who is constantly reading situations,
will guide us to the Pagans.And they went and it was because of
that sin, that jealousy of theJews, that the Pagans received the word
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of God right and Paul and Barnabaswent to people outside the church and they
said that they were remembering an actsthat says, you know, this is
what the Lord commanded us to dowhen he said, I have made you
a light to the nations, somy salvation shall reach the ends of the
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earth. You know, when Ifirst published my books, I thought I
was writing them for the parishes herein this diocese or the United States,
and many publishers wouldn't even look atthe work because I wasn't popular or cool
enough for them. Really, it'sbasically what I was told, and they
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didn't think they would sell because Iwasn't famous, and many people, not
all people in the United States kindof just got jealous of the writing and
turned their heads. And then Godsent me to Pagans and persecuted Christians,
and hundreds of thousands of them havebeen brought the truth of Christ only because
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the doors where I expected were closedand opened wide up to the poorest of
the poor. Right, So theCatholics in the United States rejected the teaching
of the holiness of womanhood from me, and yet Muslims are converting in other
countries, and it's forming the seminariansin Africa, and it's brought such healing
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to the Catholics in the Middle Eastwho are persecuted and the women who are
wounded. So God works in unexpectedways. That's what the spoke to me
on Saturday. So you know,when you reach failure. Someday, if
I've ever made a saint, Iwill be the patron saint of failure because
God allows everything I try really hardto fail. But that's what I offer
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on the altar when I go toMass, and that's what we're all called
to offer. If we succeed bythe grace of God in doing something beautiful
for him, praise him. Right, it's all his grace in us.
But when we fail, it's alsoa gift right. Saint Louis to Montfort's
feast day was on Sunday, andif you read one of his biographies,
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Eddie Dougherty wrote Wisdom's Fool and it'sa beautiful biography on Saint Louis to mom
There was a point where in Francehe was asked to build this huge shrine
with a cross on the top ofthe hill. And he raised all this
money and had all these volunteers andworked for like years, and finally the
day came for the bishop to consecrateit, and evil jealousy took the hold
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of I'm not sure if it wasthe bishop or the people under the bishop,
but he received word instead of thebishop arriving that he changed his mind,
condemned it and wanted it destroyed immediately. Here Saint Louis to Montfort had
worked and raised so much money andhad worked for years to make this with
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the blessing of his bishop, andthen the bishop just destroyed it like they
came and they knocked the whole thingdown. And yet he said this was
to bring glory to the cross.And instead of the cross remaining on the
top of this hill you know thisshrine were called to bleed with Jesus crucified,
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and he allowed that to happen,and he went on his own way,
kind of like Paul and Barnabas.He wasn't scandalized by the Lord allowing
failure. And so we're not eithercalled to be that way, and we're
called to trust that even when peoplesin against us, it's in the hands
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of God. He allows it touse it for something greater than we planned.
Right, Does he want people toclose their hearts to his will?
Does he want people to turn awayfrom his voice? No, But if
he allows it and it causes negativeeffects on us, it's only allowed so
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that He can bless us even morein a different way. So whether what
you feel like you're called to doin the world seems to be a big
failure or a little failure at times, right, Different people are called to
share the cross to different degrees,have hope. The cross is a sign
of predilection of Christ's love. Heonly shares the cross with those who he
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trusts and he knows won't abandon himin the midst of it. Right,
And so because of that, theGentiles received the message. It made the
Pagans very happy to hear this,and they thank the Lord for his message.
All who were destined for eternal lifebecame believers. God used it to
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save thousands of Pagans. Thus theword of the Lord spread through the whole
countryside. But the Jews, notsatisfied with rejecting the word of God,
worked upon some of the devout womenof the upper classes and the leading men
of the city and persuaded them toalso turn against Paul and Barnabas and expel
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them from their territory. So youknow, it wasn't enough to just reject.
They started calimnating them, lying aboutthem, twisting the truth behind their
back, and causing those who weredestined to believe the Gospel through their preaching
to instead reject the Gospel. Butwhat did Paul and Barnabas do. They
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shook the dust from their feet indefiance and went off to Ikonium, and
the disciples were filled with joy inthe Holy Spirit. They didn't even get
upset. They trusted the Lord andhad such hope in his plan that was
greater than the evil planned against them, that they actually rejoiced in the Holy
Spirit right and they shook the dustand went, if somebody rejects you,
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if they reject the gifts that theLord is trying to share with them through
you, shake the dust, beat peace and go on right. He
has a great plan that's greater thantheir rejection. And then we have the
Gospel. On Saturday. Jesus saidto his disciples, if you know me,
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you know my Father. From thismoment, you know him and have
seen him. Philip said, letus see the Father and we will be
satisfied. And Jesus replied, haveI been with you all this time,
Philip, and you still do notknow me to have seen me as to
have seen the Father. How canyou say, let us see the Father?
Do you not believe that I amin my Father and the Father is
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in me. The words I sayto you, I do not speak for
myself. It's the Father living inme who is doing this work. You
must believe me when I say Iam in the Father and the Father is
in me. And it's so beautifulbecause you see that union of hearts that
Christ has with the Father, andhe's modeling it for us. He's inviting
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us to also have that union ofhearts with him and with the Father,
and we'll see that in the Gospelreadings subsequent to this. Right. And
we are not called to say speakwords that are our own. We're called
to allow the Holy Spirit to fillus, to use us so that we
can speak the Word of God toothers. Sometimes it might seem silly in
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a situation, right, but something'son your heart to share with someone,
and in hindsight, after sharing it, you might find out that you know
there was a reason that you hadto share that word. It can be
an individual word, it can bean idea that came to in prayer for
them, whatever it is. ButGod wants us all to be a Barnabas
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in this world. Did you knowSaint Barnabas who's one of my favorite patrons.
His name means the encourager, soI pray to him all the time
so that I will be encouraged.Right. And God calls each of us
as Christians to encourage each other,to encourage each other to be a Barnabas.
Right, And sometimes both fail usand we're not encouraged by those around
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us. But that's when the Wordof God comes to us, especially at
Mass, to encourage us to fillus with courage to believe and to live
that which the Lord has asked ofus. And then Jesus goes on and
says, whoever believes in me willperform the same works as I do myself,
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and he will perform even greater works. How could we do greater works?
And what Christ is? Because we'rein his body, And just as
he chose the lowly handmaiden of ourlady to do the greatest work in the
world, which is to be hismother, so he wants to choose us
in our loneliness, in our dependenceupon him, while we strive to live
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in him and allow him to livein us. Right, particularly happens in
the Eucharist and in the sacraments,in a time of prayer. When we
have that indwelling of love with theLord, then he can work through us,
and he will do greater works thanwe even read about in scripture,
not because we deserve it, andnot because of us, but despite us,
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because he wants to show that heis so great he can even use
lowly instruments like we are. Andhe said, I am going to the
Father, and whatever you ask forin my name, I will do,
so the Father may be glorified inthe sun. And then he repeats it,
if you ask for anything in myname, I will do it.
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So let's take a moment and dothat. What is it that you desperately
need in order to fulfill the willof God for your life and the name
of Jesus Christ, through the powerof his word, the power of his
love, the power of his promise, we ask the Father in Heaven for
these graces. Amen. Then wemoved to Sunday right, and God is
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continuing to speak to our hearts again. We have acts. Again, we
have those characters of Paul and Barnabaswho become so beloved to us. You
know, Saint Paul was an evilman. He took you know, partook
in the murder of Saint Stephen,and he converted completely. Complete conversions of
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heart are possible with the grace ofGod. So if there's somebody who is
concerning you that you've prayed for foryears, whose heart remains cold or hard,
or distant or erroneous, don't giveup hope. Paul became the greatest
disciple. They might become your greatestfriend, your greatest advocate. The grace
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of God can penetrate that rocky heart. Saint Augustine took how many years of
his mother's prayer, Right, SaintPaul, it took the death of Stephen
praying Father forgive them. That wonthe grace for Paul. So it's so
beautiful to watch the way that Godworks in the history of the Church,
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because He wants to work in ourlives in the same way, the same
way. Do the same works aneven greater in our own time. So
on Sunday, when Saul got toJerusalem, he tried to join the disciples,
but they were all afraid of him. Of course they were right,
he'd killed Stephen. They couldn't believehe was really a disciple. Barnabas,
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however, took charge of him,introduced him to the apostles and explained how
the Lord had appeared to Saul andspoken to him on his journey, and
how he had preached boldly at Damascusin the name of Jesus. And so
then Saul started to go around withthem in Jerusalem, preaching fearlessly in the
name of the Lord. We allneed a Barnabas, right, It's like
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he reminds me of the Holy Spiritincarnate. He is an advocate right,
he stepped in. He advocated forPaul, he defended him. He was
a comforter. He encouraged Paul,and he comforted him when others would not
believe that he had converted. AndI'm sure that was a suffering to Paul.
Right. His conscience, if ithad been woken up already was bleeding.
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And he defended him from that saltbeing thrown in his wounds. And
he pushed Paul on to become oneof the greatest apostles for Christ. And
so you know, we ask theLord with great faith to send us barnabases
in our lives, to advocate forus when we can't defend ourselves, to
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encourage us when we're down, tohelp us become the best that we can
be. You know, you lookat spiritual friendships within the church, and
the saints who had them were greatersaints because of them. Right, Saint
Terresa Lasou and John of the Cross, they said the same thing that if
a friendship is based in the Lordand causes you to be more holy,
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it's something you do not want togive up. It's not only okay to
have, it's important to keep topreserve. Right, and we look at
Skalaska and her brother Benedict, andhow powerful that they are for the church
together. Saint Rose of Lima dependedso much on Martin de Porus encouraging her.
John of the Cross and Teresa ofAvala. They mutually helped each other
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mutually. Francis Saint Clair, andthen there's Catherine if Siena are spiritual director,
Saint Raymond of Capua. There isGemma Gilgani with her spiritual director,
Padre Pio. You know some ofthe women that he directed brought him great
encouragement. Right. There is nobodytoo holy in the church. And because
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like, who doesn't deserve to havespiritual friendship? Right, our lady,
nobody's holier than her. I mean, the Angel himself came and announced the
birth of Christ. Why in theworld did God give her John? Because
you can't just pick up a bookand read about God and find him.
Right. I write books, Igive them to people, they inspire them.
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That's great, But you need livingpeople, living voices, right.
I need the people on the groundthat teach what's in there to be that
face of Christ to those who receivethose books. Our lady needed, you
know, Joseph and Jesus and thenJohn afterwards. And so we see Paul
and Barnabas, and they have sucha beautiful relationship because they're encouraging each other
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and they're driving each that synergestic powerthat comes from two saints being together.
Right, look at France's savior andignacious. Just there's so many examples within
the church. Saint Faustina very deeplydepended upon her spiritual director, and Saint
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Mary Peter, the Golden Arrow sister, right, the one who has reparation
to the Holy Face reading about herright now, Oh what a gift.
Was her mother's superior in the conventwho really drove her onto holiness. But
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after Paul had spoken to the Hellenistsand argued with them, they became determined
to kill him. So when thebrothers knew, they took him to Caesarea
and set him off from there toTarsus Beautiful. The brothers again defended their
own right. They had to havecourage, what if they were killed.
So often people speak one thing withinthe church, but when a time of
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persecution comes, they fall away.Right, How is Nazism able to take
over in a Catholic Germany? Becausewhen the faith is put to the test
people the coward right, and itstarts with little things. If you can't
defend the Lord in the little things, then when the big trials come,
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you'll get knocked away. It's yourfoundation is not on rock, it's on
sand, right, So it's beautifulto see how these apostles give us an
example. We need to build ourhearts and our lives on that rock of
the love of Jesus Christ, andwe need to be determined to be faithful
to that love, even if itcosts us. You know, if by
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me helping persecute a Christians, mylife is threatened, or I suffer and
I struggle persecution, then I needto be able to drink that cop with
them for them. So it's beautifulto see the apostles encouraging each other.
And because of that encouragement, becausethere was not jealousy at that time,
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but there was help spiritual friendship ofeach other. It says the churches throughout
Judea, Galilee, Samaria were nowleft in peace. When you have hearts
that are humble, committed to fulfillingthe will of God at all costs,
peace is brought to the world.And they built themselves up, they encouraged
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each other, They lived in thefear of the Lord, and they were
filled with the consolation of the HolySpirit, and they shared that consolation with
others. And then the second readingon Sunday was from the first Letter of
Saint John. My children, ourlove is not to be just words or
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mere talk, but something real andact. If only by this can we
be certain that we're children of thetruth and be able to quiet our consciences
in His presence, whatever accusations itmay raise against us. Because God is
greater than our conscience, and heknows everything. He knows everything way more
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important than sharing the truth with youwith my mouth. I need to be
able to live it right. That'swhy you know. In the Letters of
Saint Paula says, you know,be careful if you're called to be a
teacher, because you will be heldaccountable for that which you're teaching. So
if I teach radical forgiveness, andyet I hold a bitterness in my heart
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against someone who has wounded me,even if it's severe, then those words
become a lie. Right. Sothat's why when I do my life rosaries,
we always pray for an autenicity right, because who we are in secret,
who we are within the center ofour hearts where only God sees us,
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needs to be the same face thatwe show to others. Right.
And so we ask for that grace. We pray for that grace that we
can live the word of God,we may live the truth given to us
by Christ and then share that withothers. Saint John continues, my dear
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people, if we cannot be condemnedby our own conscience, we need not
be afraid in God's presence, andwhatever we ask him, we shall receive
because we keep his commandments and livethe kind of life that He wants.
And his commandments are these that webelieve in the name of His son Jesus
Christ, that we love one anotheras he told us to. Whoever keeps
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his commandments lives in God, andGod lives in him. We know that
He lives in us by the spiritthat He has given to us. Right,
He's already you know, we're gettingdrawn into that word of the Holy
Spirit that will be kind of exemplifiedin the Gospel that Christ, God Christ
wants to live in us. WhenHe lives in us, then we're full
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of his love and anything that weask of God in love according to his
will, he will grant. Dowe believe that is our faith that great
right. I have a lot ofneeds. I have needs for the FIAT
Foundation, I have needs for thesefoster babies. I have needs for my
doctorate. I have financial needs outthe ying Yank And yet I have to
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be able to trust that if itis God's will, that I am doing
what He's asked right, that I'vegiven up my old life in this world
to fulfill his will. If I'masking in love in order to fulfill his
will, he will provide right.Anything that we ask according to the will
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of God with a heart full oflove will be answered. And he repeats
us over and over to us thelast few days. It's so beautiful.
The gospel acclamation Ali Lujah, verse, make your home in me as I
make mine in you. Whoever remainsin me bears fruit and plenty. You
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know. It's that verse in SaintJohn's Gospel, Remain in my love,
Remain in my love. What doesit mean? Sometimes we can say it
and it's clicheish. What does itmean to remain in the love of God?
It means to make your home inHim as he makes his home in
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us. We're going to talk aboutthat, but let me read the gospel.
Jesus said to the disciples, Iam the true vine. My father
is the vine dresser. Every branchin me that bears no fruit he can
huts away, and every branch thatdoes bear fruit he prunes to make it
bear even more. You are prunedalready by means of the word that I
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have spoken to you. Now thisis our great hope. We shouldn't be
afraid of the Lord. Oh,if I love him, if I allow
him in, what is he goingto take If you have poison that you're
eating, you want him to takeit, even if you don't recognize it
as poison. Right, So wecan trust that when we give ourselves over
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to the Lord fully, we cantrust that he is going to take away
everything that is not good for us. And we think him for that.
And even if we're living his willand perfection. Think about some of the
greatest saints. They don't have atrialless life. They still suffer. Why
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because he even prunes those limbs ofthe vine that are bearing beautiful fruit.
It's incredible and it should give usconfidence before him when we lay ourselves before
him completely, with full rein todo as he wishes. Then we can
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have peace that if something is bad, He's gonna take it. He continues.
Make your home in me as Imade mine in you, as a
branch cannot bear fruit all of itself, but must remain part of the vine.
Neither can you unless you remain inme. I am the vine.
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You are the branches. Whoever remainsin me and me and Him bears fruit
and plenty for cut off. Cutoff from me, you can do nothing
nothing. He didn't say, youcan't do very much without me. He
said, you can do nothing ifyou don't have Jesus Christ. Even what
seemingly looks like a success is smokein the world. It's a magic trick
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of some sort. Look at thesefamous people who reject Christ. Even their
fame. It's nothing. It doesn'tlast towards eternity. It can be blown
away by the winds of what's popularat the time. Right, we're called
to make our home in Christ andallow him to make his home in us,
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and then he bears fruit in us? What does that mean? Close
your eyes and imagine the heart ofChrist. Imagine the wounds in his hands
and his feet and his side.He wants us to enter them, not
just look at them, to makeour home in the cavern, in the
desert, in the hermitage of hiswounds, of his love, of his
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head heart. That means everything.When you live in a house, everything
you say and do, and youknow it's all surrounded by that house.
Right, when you live in Christ, everything you say and do is surrounded
by He and his love. You'reprotected, you're guided. Right, you
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can't live in the arms and theheart of Christ and not go where he
wants, because where he goes,he carries you. You live in him,
and he says, let me livein you. It's that indwelling love.
Saint Thomas Aquinas has such beautiful teachingsand the mutual indwelling of love between
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two friends, right, two lovers, sometimes two people who are very close
to being a parent and a child, but that mutual indwelling means that they
are. It's so close that it'salmost like two people with one heart.
And Christ is inviting us to livethat way with him. Not only does
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he want us to live in him, he said I live in you.
How through the sacraments in baptism,he enters us, the Trinity, like
boof, opens up a fountain oflife within our hearts and baptism. And
as fountains can get dirty or coveredup by rubbish like rocks or dirt or
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silt. When things, you know, the earth gets adjusted, so are
the fountain of his life can getcovered by sin. And in confession he
comes, he rips it away,so it's a fresh fountain coming out from
us, not only to refresh oursouls, but then everyone around us.
We become like sprinklers of his loveas he lives in us when we receive
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him in the Eucharist. He livesin us, just as he lived in
our lady and the incarnation. Youknow, there's some mysterious presence of his
in the sacrament of marriage, wherehe speaks to you through your spouse.
He's there in a living way.In priestly orders, where a priest becomes
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in persona Christie, he gets apermanent change within his heart is marked indelibly.
When you're suffering and you get theanointing of the sec he's living in
you in a new way as thehealer who can touch you and heal you
and strengthen you and unite you tohis own cross. You know, in
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confirmation, he's living in you,and he's breathing the Holy Spirit, and
it explodes like a fire from youinto the world. And you know,
if you have the fire, theHoly Spirit within you, first it purifies
you, then it purifies the worldright. And then he continues and he
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says, anyone who does not remainin me is like a branch that's been
thrown away. He withers. Thesebranches are collected and thrown in a fire,
and they're burnt because they're dead.We don't ever want to be dead.
So we have to live in Christand allow him to live in us.
But if you remain in me andmy words remain in you, how
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do you keep Christ's word in youby living it? He says, forgive,
forgive, He says, help thepoor, help the poor, you
know, he says, you know, don't turn away, turn your back
on a needy person. Then don'tdo that. And when his words live
in you, you can ask anythingyou will and you will get it.
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Once again, he's making that promise. We talked about it from the day
before. Anything. You ask theFather in my name al grant if you
live in me, and I livein you. You can ask whatever you
will and you'll get it. Let'spray, dear Lord, help us to
live in you, live in us. See our needs, our sufferings,
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our worries, our desires, andfulfill them. Help us. And it's
to the glory of my Father thatyou would bear much fruit. If you
have a holy desire that involves bearingfruit for him. The Father wants you
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to succeed. He wants you toask, to trust, to wait,
and to think him when it comes, maybe even think him beforehand, and
then you'll be his disciples. Sobeautiful. And if that was not enough,
on Monday, I was blessed togo to Notre Dame for mass.
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He spoke so powerfully to me againfrom the Book of Acts. Eventually,
with the con events of the authorities, a move was made by Pagans as
well as Jews to make attacks onthe Apostles and to stone them. So
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now you have the Jews reject Paul. He goes to the Pagans. Now
the Pagans and the Jews get togetheragainst Paul. If you are frustrated with
the Lord because your life is persecuted, you're in good company. Saint Paul,
right, if you're not persecuted atall, you gotta probably take a
double or triple look at your life, because all those that living according to
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Christ are crucified in some way.When the apostles came to hear of this,
they went off for safety to preachthe good news. And a man
sat there who had never walked inhis life because his feet were crippled from
birth, and he listened to Paulpreaching. He managed to catch his eyes.
Seeing that the man had the faithbe pured cured, Paul said in
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a loud voice, get to yourfeet and stand up, and the crippled
jumped up and began to walk.The cripple did not ask to be healed.
Jesus Christ saw his desire, andhe sent in Paul. And Paul
saw his desire, and Paul wentforward following the Holy Spirit and healed him.
For the glory of God. Godsees you, he sees where you're
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crippled. He's already sending people toheal you, so trust him. When
the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the language of Lysonia,
Lyconia, these people are gods whohave come down to us disguised as
men. So they got confused,they're giving them the glory. And Paul
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was like, friends, what areyou doing? We're only human beings.
You know this is from God.Believe, believe in Jesus Christ, and
be converted. So like our ladyin the Magnificad, he gave all the
glory to God. Now it's interestingthe psalm that they have here online is
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not the psalm. The psalm thatwe had at Notre Dame was something about
the Lord gives. The Lord providesfor the little just as much as for
the great. And it was sobeautiful because it was the feast of Catherine
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of Sienna. She is great,she advised popes, she had the stigmata.
You know, she's a doctor ofthe church. She's great, and
very few, if any, ofus, will be raised to that kind
of greatness. We're the little onesof Christ. We're the hidden ones.
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We're the ones that fail. LikeI talked about before, right, we
try and we just fail. ButGod wants to provide for us and bless
us the little just as much asthe great. So we see this magnificent
thing done through Saint Paul, whowas great. He healed a cripple.
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God wants to use us, thelittle ones, to the same degree.
Right. In fact, there's aprocess that every saint has to go through
to become very little in order forGod to do great things. Right Paul
had to be humiliated and to suffera lot so that his ego would be
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crushed after he crushed the Christians,and it was only through his humility that
then God could use him. SaintCatherine of Sienna went through so many sufferings
brought on by yourself, brought onby others, so that God could do
great things through her. Saint JohnPaul the second the Great. Did you
know before he became a priest,his whole family died, right, He
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lost his older brother he was soclose to. He lost his mom,
then he lost his dad. Hehad no one. And then after being
crushed, seeing the ravages of warin his beloved Poland, hiding from the
Gestapo, persecuted by the Russians,then he was raised to greatness. God
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wants to provide and to bless allof us, the little, as much
as the great. So I guessthat's my message to you from the Holy
Spirit. In the readings yesterday,do not fear your littleness, offer it
to Christ. And then the gospelagain, opes the gospel. Anybody who
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receives my commandments and keeps them willbe one who loves me. And anybody
who loves me will be loved bymy Father, and I will love him
and show myself to him. Judasnot the Ascuriot said to him, Lord,
what is this all about? Doyou intend to show yourself to us
and not to the world. Jesusreplied, if anyone loves me, he
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will keep my word. Right,he will live as I asked, and
my Father will love him, andwe will come to him and make our
home in him. So on Sundayhe's saying, live in my love,
make your home in me. Andthen he's reiterating again, if you love
me, if you live in me, I will live in you with my
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father. Do we understand the powerof the Holy Spirit making the home of
Jesus Christ and his heavenly Father withinour own hearts? Come, Lord,
Jesus maranata. Those who do notlove me, do not keep my words.
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My word is not my own,it's the word of the one who
sent me. Lord, help allof our words be your words the word
of you who sent us. Ihave said these things to you while I'm
with you. But the advocate,the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name, he willteach you everything and remind you of all
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I've said to you. You know, you could be sort of afraid and
say, oh, my goodness,how am I going to remember everything the
Lord wants? And I mess upall the time? Surrender yourself to the
Holy Spirit, and in this timebetween Easter and Pentecost, pray to the
Holy Spirit for fresh outpouring of theHoly Spirit in your life and all of
your work, in your vocation,in your relationships, in your ministry.
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Ask the Holy Spirit to renew you. Ask him to what does it say
to teach you everything and to remindyou of what the Lord wants. Jesus
himself said, ask the Holy Spirit. Ask him. He may speak to
you directly and the quiet of prayer. He might send you a bar and
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abez. But ask the Holy Spirit. And as our hearts are burning with
this desire to live in the woundedlove of Christ and his heart to have
him live as a fountain of lifewith his Father within us, then we're
given the readings from today, Soagain from Acts fourteen. Some Jews arrived
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in Antioch and Iconium and turn thepeople against the Apostles. Surprise, surprise,
they stoned Paul dragged him outside ofthe town, thinking he was dead.
The disciples came crowding around him,but as they did so, he
stood up and went back to thetown. The next day he and Barnabas
went off to Derby. How oftendo we feel so beat up by the
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world, by people, you know, with worldly thinking, by maybe the
evil one platting against God's will forus? Maybe it's people within the church
that we feel dead, or vocationdead, our ministry dead, are hope
dead. And yet the Holy Spiritis coming and He's gonna make us jump
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to our feet the way that Pauldid and send us to a new place.
Sometimes he will ask you to shakethe dust, to shake the dust
from those who persecute you, right, try to convert them if they refuse
to shake the dust. But Godcontinually renews us. He made us once
in our mother's womb, breathed hisbreath of life. He recreates us in
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the sacraments every single day. Andwhen people come at us and they try
to kill us. Right, notusually physically, although many of the people
I serve overseas have their life physicallythreatened. For us here in the United
States, it's more. And maybeyour reputations threatened, you know, maybe
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you're work is threatened. Whatever itis, God will give you enough life.
He will renew you, not evenexteriorly in you, because remember He
lives in us as a fountain oflife. He did not only just make
us once. He continually is recreatingus as a Christian. Having preached the
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good news in the town and madea considerable number of disciples, they went
back through Listria and Iconium to Antioch. They put fresh heart into the disciples,
encouraging them to persevere in the faith. They said, we all have
to experience many hardships before we enterthe Kingdom of God. Again, we
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see the God always desires to sendthe encouragers. Right, either he's going
to encourage us himself. He willsend us people, or he will send
us to others to do. Whatto do with the apostles did to put
a fresh heart into the disciples.The disciples they knew Jesus Paul, didn't
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They walked with him, you know, John he laid his hat on his
heart like they stood at the cross, they saw him resurrected. You'd think
that they would have courage, andyet they needed encouragement by the murderer Paul,
who converted to the apostle. Theyneeded a fresh heart. We need
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each other. It's so beautiful tosee God sending that. We pray that
He sends us more people like that, and that he turns us into encouragers
to give a fresh heart to allthose who we need, encouraging them to
persevere in the faith. We askedhim to send us people to do that
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too. We all have to experiencea lot of hardships in order to enter
Heaven. It's just the fact.But it's easier to suffer those hardships when
we're not alone. And in eachof these churches they appointed elders, and
with prayer and fasting, they commendedthem to the Lord in whom they had
come to believe. We asked theLord to raise up holy priests to encourage
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us right to guide us. Ontheir arrival, they assembled the church and
gave an account of all that Godhad done with them, and how he
had opened the door of the faithto the Pagans, and they stayed there
with the disciples for some time.There's nothing wrong with spiritual friendships. We
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got to pray for them. Weneed them more in the church. And
look at the psalm. Your friends, Oh Lord, shall make known the
glorious splendor of your reign. Youcan only have an authentic friendship with another
person if you first have it withChrist, because He makes you authentic.
He teaches you love. And sowe ask the Lord more than anything,
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make us your friends, make usyour friends, and then help us to
make known the glorious splendor of yourreign. Right. And then this really,
really beautiful gospel from John fourteen.We all need these words. Our
world needs these words. We're onthe brink of war in so many places,
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and hearts are wounded and bleeding andsad and discouraged. And Jesus comes
to each one of us. Hesays, peace. I give to you
my own peace. I give toyou my peaths. I bestow upon you
a peace that the world cannot give. You can live in the most secure
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community, with all the riches inthe world, everything you want at your
fingertips. I have worked for yearsand years and years among so many wealthy
people, they're not happy and peaceful. Why they don't have Christ. Christ
gives peace. And then you meetthese people in persecuted countries who are tortured
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sometimes, they're threatened constantly, andthey're at peace. Why because they know
that they're in the hand of theLord and nothing can touch them without his
explicit allowance. So Jesus says thatto us, and he's not just talking
to our brain. When God saysa word, it's living and effective.
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When he says peace, I giveto you, Peace is infused into us
unless in our own sin we blockit, and He gives us this gift
today. Did you know you weregiven the gift of perfect peace in the
Mass today? He says peace,I give to you my own peace.
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I'd give you a peace that theworld cannot give. This is my gift
to you. You don't have topurchase it with your good works, with
a perfect prayer life. It's agift. Do not let your hearts be
troubled or afraid. I think weall need to say this five hundred times
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a day. Do not let yourhearts be troubled or afraid. Do not
let your hearts be troubled or afraid. Do not let your hearts be troubled
or afraid. You heard me sayI'm going away and I'll return. Maybe
you don't see God in this youknow, this era, this season of
your life. He hasn't abandoned you. What He's doing in the darkness that
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you cannot see will blow your mindsomeday when in heaven it's revealed to you.
If you loved me, you wouldhave been glad to know that I'm
going to the Father, for theFather is greater than I. If you
love Christ, rejoice that he's not, you know, walking around the earth
anymore, but instead he's sitting atthe throne of God, the Father,
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and have an inner sea you.I've told you this now before it happens,
so when it happens to you,you may believe I will not talk
with you any longer, because thePrince of this world is on his way
in the midst of evil. Sometimessilence is the best answer. Have you
ever had somebody just attacking you andany word you say will be twisted?
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Those are the situations We're in greatlove and forgiveness without any bitterness. You
need to create a place of silence, so the Holy Spirit can come.
They can convict that person, andthey can give peace to you that you
can spread to those around you.In that situation with you, the Prince
of the world is coming. He'saround us today, and so Christ may
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remain silent, not because he's indifferent, but because he's giving us a strength
in his silence, a confidence.And this Prince of the world no power
over Christ. The world must bebrought to know that I love the Father
(01:00:06):
and I am doing exactly what theFather has told me. We too are
called to not only love the Father, but to do exactly what he's called
us to do. So it's beenan hour here. I just shared with
you the last four days the powerfulworking of the Holy Spirit to each one
of our hearts in these readings.I could continue every day to do something
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like this, and each one ofyou not only will receive something different when
you read those readings. Listening tome, you're gonna hear something different depending
on your need, depending on whatthe Holy Spirit is highlighting. But we
want to thank the Lord for that, and we want to ask him to
continue to make his word living andeffective in our lives. We ask for
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the grace to believe his words hispromises to help us to live in him
as He lives in us, toencourage us, to help us to believe
that anything we ask of the Fatherand his nameel grant to thank him for
that gift and to receive that ultimategift of his peace and his presence.
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Glory be to the Father and tothe Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,is known of her shallby world without and
Amen. And we ask all ofthis in union with our lady. Hail
Mary, full of grace. TheLord is with thee. Blessed art thou
among women, And blessed is thefruit of thy womb. Jesus, Holy
(01:01:38):
Mary, Mother of God, Prayfor us sinners now and at the hour
of our death. Amen. Hello, God's beloved. I'm Annabel Moseley,
Author, professor of theology and hostof them sings My Soul and Destination Sainthood
(01:02:00):
on w c AT Radio. Iinvite you to listen in and find inspiration
along this sacred journey. We're travelingtogether to make our lives a masterpiece and
with God's grace, become saints.Join me, Annabel Moseley for then sings
my soul and destination sainthood on wc AT Radio. God bless you.
(01:02:22):
Remember you are never alone. Godis always with you. Thank you for
listening to a production of w cAT Radio. Please join us in our
mission of evangelization, and don't forgetlove lifts up when knowledge takes flight.
You're listening to WCAT radio, yourhome for authentic Catholic programming. Hello,
and welcome to the Heart of Fiatcrucified Love. This week, I want
to talk about how the Lord callsus to live the readings that we receive
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from Him every day at Mass.And so I thought what I would do
is just kind of give a lotof practical advice and go over the readings
for the last several days Saturday,Sunday, Monday, here the Feast of
Catherine Tuesday, and kind of showyou how not only do we read readings
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at Mass, but the Holy Spiritreads us, and God speaks to us,
and he shares such an abyss ofwisdom with us every day if we
just have ears to hear, right, He tells us how he wants us
to live. He reads the problemsof our life, and he speaks to
us about them. He encourages us, he corrects us. So that's what
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we're going to do this week.And we'll start with a prayer and a
quick song and then we'll get tothat. So in the name of the
Father and the Son and the HolySpirit. Amen, come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful andkindle in us the fire of your
love. Send forth your spirit,and we can be recreated. We will
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be recreated, and thou shalt renewthe face of the earth. Sweet Jesus,
we ask you to put your handsupon each one of us, and
upon my head and my mouth andmy heart as I share your wisdom with
those who are listening. We askyou to touch the ears and the heart
of those who will encounter this.And we ask you to pour out upon
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us, bleed out upon us powerfulhealing and light and strength and grace through
the scripture that you have given tous for the last few days. And
we asked you to teach us howto listen better to what you speak to
us every day in the mass,how this word can become living for us.
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And of course we ask all ofthis through the intercession of our lady
here, and we ask Saint Catherineof Sienna to pray for us, as
it was her feast day yesterday,and we have this beautiful statue, Hail
Mary, full of grace. TheLord is with thee. Blessed art thou
among women, and blessed is thefruit of thy womb. Jesus, Holy
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Mary, Mother of God, prayfor us sinners now in at the hour
of our death. Amen. Thatword is a lamp unto my feet and
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a light onto my pad. Thatword is a lamp unto my feet and
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a light onto my pad. WhenI feel afraid, I think of last
my way. Sorry, Still,you're the right beside me. Nothing well,
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life feed as long as you are, Ney, please be, need
be to the end. F wordis a lamb unto my feet and a
(04:38):
light onto my path. Far wordis a lamb unto my feet and the
light unto my pald. No,I will not forget your love for me,
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and yet my heart forver is widder. Read Jesus, be my guide
and hold me to your side.I will love you to the end.
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The word is a lad un tomy feet and a lie onto my pad.
(06:08):
The word is a land unto myfeed and a light onto my pad,
and nothing with life feed. Aslong as you are, please be,
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need me to the end. Aword is a land until my feed
and a lot unto my pal.You're the lie aunto bye pa Amen,
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Ali, Lujah, Father Son,Holy Spirit. Amen. Sorry for the
mistakes. I do not have theluxury of ever recording something more than once.
We're having edited, so when Imake mistakes, you get raw,
Mary Kloska. But anything worth doingfor the Lord is worth doing poorly.
(07:46):
If he's asked you to do something, you just go forward. Right.
So we are going to talk hereabout how the Lord speaks to us at
Mass. And it made a reallybig impact on me About twenty five years
ago when I graduated from Notre Dameand I went down to live in South
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Texas with SALT, the Society ofOur Lady of the Most Holy Trinity,
and I had the privilege of meetingevery day with the founder, Father Flanagan,
who not only was forming groups ofecclesial teams to go out into the
mission, and that was why Iwas included. I was preparing for their
mission in Russia, but I metwith him individually as well. And one
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thing that he really stressed was payingattention to what the Lord speaks to you
every day in Mass. Right.He said, you always listen to those
readings with one ear listening to whatthey're actually saying, and then the other
ear to what the Holy Spirit isspeaking to you through them. Right.
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And we would meet every single dayand go through through the Mass readings for
that day if we did it inthe morning, or sometimes we would do
it the day before Sunday and itwould be for the following Sunday's readings,
but and we would share, wewould break open the word really and from
that moment on, I never reallylistened to the readings at Mass the same
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because they became alive. I knew. I had this great confidence that the
Lord was speaking something very specifically tome, and it might be something different
than he speaks to you. Right, he knows each one of our lives,
and the Holy Spirit has this phenomenalway that he inspired the bishops to
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determine what Mass readings that we haveevery day, and he could apply them
to our lives every day. Godand his omnipotence and his all knowing love
predetermined what would be said at Massevery day that you're struggling or that you're
rejoicing, you know, So it'sreally beautiful to pay attention. And this
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started to really come alive again tome over the weekend. On Saturday,
I went to Mass, and boy, the Lord just spoke so much to
me, and I thought I shoulddo a podcast on this. And then
Sunday I went to Mass and Ithought, oh my goodness, the Lord
spoke so much I wanted to share. It was like, I need to
do either, you know, areflection on the Mass readings or a podcast
on this. And then yesterday thesame thing, this morning, the same
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thing, and I thought, goodness, I need to share this because I
don't think even many Catholics, eventhose who go to Mass every day,
realize how profoundly the Lord is speakingto them every day in those readings.
Right, So on Saturday, thatwould have been April twenty seventh, right,
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the first reading was from Acts,and it says the next Sabbath,
almost the whole town assembled to hearthe Word of God. And when they
saw the crowds, the Jews,prompted by jealousy, used blasphemies and contradicted
everything Paul said. And Paul andBarnabas spoke out boldly, we had to
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proclaim the word of God to youfirst. But since you have rejected it,
since you do not think yourselves worthyof eternal life, we must turn
to the Pagans. Right. Andit's interesting because in our lives we will
be persecuted for not only speaking butliving the word of God. And it's
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not always going to be from peopleoutside of the church. Very often it
will be from our own Satan isnot very creative, so he sees how
jealousy was a good tool to causethe death of Christ. So he used
it again against Paul and Barnabas,and jealousy the hearts of those that God
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sent them to. And it continuestoday. And you see right up to
the modern day how in different ministrieswithin the church, or you know,
in works that people come together todo. Sometimes you see it in families
that people become jealous and competitive insteadof being humble servants of each other and
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with each other to spread the Gospelof Christ. So that demon of jealousy
is still very active. And eachone of us, i'm sure, in
different ways, have been victims ofthat, and they spoke lies because they
were jealous. Right, But ourreaction to the evil that happens to us
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in that way needs to be likeChrist's on the cross, who prayed Father
forgive them. They know not whatthey do, and they don't know the
extent of the consequences of that,allowing that jealousy to take room and guide
their decisions against us. Right,the result that those lies or things like
that can cause. But then we'realso called to be like Paul and Barnabas,
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they didn't freak out. They said, you know what, we're in
the hands of God, and ifjealousy closes the hearts of those that we
were sent to, then the HolySpirit, who is constantly reading situations,
will guide us to the Pagans.And they went and it was because of
that sin, that jealousy of theJews, that the Pagans received the word
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of God right and Paul and Barnabaswent to people outside the church and they
said that they were remembering an actsthat says, you know, this is
what the Lord commanded us to dowhen he said, I have made you
a light to the nations, somy salvation shall reach the ends of the
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earth. You know, when Ifirst published my books, I thought I
was writing them for the parishes herein this diocese or the United States,
and many publishers wouldn't even look atthe work because I wasn't popular or cool
enough for them. Really, it'sbasically what I was told, and they
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didn't think they would sell because Iwasn't famous, and many people, not
all people in the United States kindof just got jealous of the writing and
turned their heads. And then Godsent me to Pagans and persecuted Christians,
and hundreds of thousands of them havebeen brought the truth of Christ only because
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the doors where I expected were closedand opened wide up to the poorest of
the poor. Right, So theCatholics in the United States rejected the teaching
of the holiness of womanhood from me, and yet Muslims are converting in other
countries, and it's forming the seminariansin Africa, and it's brought such healing
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to the Catholics in the Middle Eastwho are persecuted and the women who are
wounded. So God works in unexpectedways. That's what the spoke to me
on Saturday. So you know,when you reach failure. Someday, if
I've ever made a saint, Iwill be the patron saint of failure because
God allows everything I try really hardto fail. But that's what I offer
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on the altar when I go toMass, and that's what we're all called
to offer. If we succeed bythe grace of God in doing something beautiful
for him, praise him. Right, it's all his grace in us.
But when we fail, it's alsoa gift right. Saint Louis to Montfort's
feast day was on Sunday, andif you read one of his biographies,
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Eddie Dougherty wrote Wisdom's Fool and it'sa beautiful biography on Saint Louis to mom
There was a point where in Francehe was asked to build this huge shrine
with a cross on the top ofthe hill. And he raised all this
money and had all these volunteers andworked for like years, and finally the
day came for the bishop to consecrateit, and evil jealousy took the hold
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of I'm not sure if it wasthe bishop or the people under the bishop,
but he received word instead of thebishop arriving that he changed his mind,
condemned it and wanted it destroyed immediately. Here Saint Louis to Montfort had
worked and raised so much money andhad worked for years to make this with
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the blessing of his bishop, andthen the bishop just destroyed it like they
came and they knocked the whole thingdown. And yet he said this was
to bring glory to the cross.And instead of the cross remaining on the
top of this hill you know thisshrine were called to bleed with Jesus crucified,
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and he allowed that to happen,and he went on his own way,
kind of like Paul and Barnabas.He wasn't scandalized by the Lord allowing
failure. And so we're not eithercalled to be that way, and we're
called to trust that even when peoplesin against us, it's in the hands
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of God. He allows it touse it for something greater than we planned.
Right, Does he want people toclose their hearts to his will?
Does he want people to turn awayfrom his voice? No, But if
he allows it and it causes negativeeffects on us, it's only allowed so
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that He can bless us even morein a different way. So whether what
you feel like you're called to doin the world seems to be a big
failure or a little failure at times, right, Different people are called to
share the cross to different degrees,have hope. The cross is a sign
of predilection of Christ's love. Heonly shares the cross with those who he
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trusts and he knows won't abandon himin the midst of it. Right,
And so because of that, theGentiles received the message. It made the
Pagans very happy to hear this,and they thank the Lord for his message.
All who were destined for eternal lifebecame believers. God used it to
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save thousands of Pagans. Thus theword of the Lord spread through the whole
countryside. But the Jews, notsatisfied with rejecting the word of God,
worked upon some of the devout womenof the upper classes and the leading men
of the city and persuaded them toalso turn against Paul and Barnabas and expel
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them from their territory. So youknow, it wasn't enough to just reject.
They started calimnating them, lying aboutthem, twisting the truth behind their
back, and causing those who weredestined to believe the Gospel through their preaching
to instead reject the Gospel. Butwhat did Paul and Barnabas do. They
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shook the dust from their feet indefiance and went off to Ikonium, and
the disciples were filled with joy inthe Holy Spirit. They didn't even get
upset. They trusted the Lord andhad such hope in his plan that was
greater than the evil planned against them, that they actually rejoiced in the Holy
Spirit right and they shook the dustand went, if somebody rejects you,
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if they reject the gifts that theLord is trying to share with them through
you, shake the dust, beat peace and go on right. He
has a great plan that's greater thantheir rejection. And then we have the
Gospel. On Saturday. Jesus saidto his disciples, if you know me,
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you know my Father. From thismoment, you know him and have
seen him. Philip said, letus see the Father and we will be
satisfied. And Jesus replied, haveI been with you all this time,
Philip, and you still do notknow me to have seen me as to
have seen the Father. How canyou say, let us see the Father?
Do you not believe that I amin my Father and the Father is
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in me. The words I sayto you, I do not speak for
myself. It's the Father living inme who is doing this work. You
must believe me when I say Iam in the Father and the Father is
in me. And it's so beautifulbecause you see that union of hearts that
Christ has with the Father, andhe's modeling it for us. He's inviting
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us to also have that union ofhearts with him and with the Father,
and we'll see that in the Gospelreadings subsequent to this. Right. And
we are not called to say speakwords that are our own. We're called
to allow the Holy Spirit to fillus, to use us so that we
can speak the Word of God toothers. Sometimes it might seem silly in
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a situation, right, but something'son your heart to share with someone,
and in hindsight, after sharing it, you might find out that you know
there was a reason that you hadto share that word. It can be
an individual word, it can bean idea that came to in prayer for
them, whatever it is. ButGod wants us all to be a Barnabas
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in this world. Did you knowSaint Barnabas who's one of my favorite patrons.
His name means the encourager, soI pray to him all the time
so that I will be encouraged.Right. And God calls each of us
as Christians to encourage each other,to encourage each other to be a Barnabas.
Right, And sometimes both fail usand we're not encouraged by those around
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us. But that's when the Wordof God comes to us, especially at
Mass, to encourage us to fillus with courage to believe and to live
that which the Lord has asked ofus. And then Jesus goes on and
says, whoever believes in me willperform the same works as I do myself,
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and he will perform even greater works. How could we do greater works?
And what Christ is? Because we'rein his body, And just as
he chose the lowly handmaiden of ourlady to do the greatest work in the
world, which is to be hismother, so he wants to choose us
in our loneliness, in our dependenceupon him, while we strive to live
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in him and allow him to livein us. Right, particularly happens in
the Eucharist and in the sacraments,in a time of prayer. When we
have that indwelling of love with theLord, then he can work through us,
and he will do greater works thanwe even read about in scripture,
not because we deserve it, andnot because of us, but despite us,
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because he wants to show that heis so great he can even use
lowly instruments like we are. Andhe said, I am going to the
Father, and whatever you ask forin my name, I will do,
so the Father may be glorified inthe sun. And then he repeats it,
if you ask for anything in myname, I will do it.
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So let's take a moment and dothat. What is it that you desperately
need in order to fulfill the willof God for your life and the name
of Jesus Christ, through the powerof his word, the power of his
love, the power of his promise, we ask the Father in Heaven for
these graces. Amen. Then wemoved to Sunday right, and God is
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continuing to speak to our hearts again. We have acts. Again, we
have those characters of Paul and Barnabaswho become so beloved to us. You
know, Saint Paul was an evilman. He took you know, partook
in the murder of Saint Stephen,and he converted completely. Complete conversions of
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heart are possible with the grace ofGod. So if there's somebody who is
concerning you that you've prayed for foryears, whose heart remains cold or hard,
or distant or erroneous, don't giveup hope. Paul became the greatest
disciple. They might become your greatestfriend, your greatest advocate. The grace
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of God can penetrate that rocky heart. Saint Augustine took how many years of
his mother's prayer, Right, SaintPaul, it took the death of Stephen
praying Father forgive them. That wonthe grace for Paul. So it's so
beautiful to watch the way that Godworks in the history of the Church,
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because He wants to work in ourlives in the same way, the same
way. Do the same works aneven greater in our own time. So
on Sunday, when Saul got toJerusalem, he tried to join the disciples,
but they were all afraid of him. Of course they were right,
he'd killed Stephen. They couldn't believehe was really a disciple. Barnabas,
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however, took charge of him,introduced him to the apostles and explained how
the Lord had appeared to Saul andspoken to him on his journey, and
how he had preached boldly at Damascusin the name of Jesus. And so
then Saul started to go around withthem in Jerusalem, preaching fearlessly in the
name of the Lord. We allneed a Barnabas, right, It's like
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he reminds me of the Holy Spiritincarnate. He is an advocate right,
he stepped in. He advocated forPaul, he defended him. He was
a comforter. He encouraged Paul,and he comforted him when others would not
believe that he had converted. AndI'm sure that was a suffering to Paul.
Right. His conscience, if ithad been woken up already was bleeding.
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And he defended him from that saltbeing thrown in his wounds. And
he pushed Paul on to become oneof the greatest apostles for Christ. And
so you know, we ask theLord with great faith to send us barnabases
in our lives, to advocate forus when we can't defend ourselves, to
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encourage us when we're down, tohelp us become the best that we can
be. You know, you lookat spiritual friendships within the church, and
the saints who had them were greatersaints because of them. Right, Saint
Terresa Lasou and John of the Cross, they said the same thing that if
a friendship is based in the Lordand causes you to be more holy,
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it's something you do not want togive up. It's not only okay to
have, it's important to keep topreserve. Right, and we look at
Skalaska and her brother Benedict, andhow powerful that they are for the church
together. Saint Rose of Lima dependedso much on Martin de Porus encouraging her.
John of the Cross and Teresa ofAvala. They mutually helped each other
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mutually. Francis Saint Clair, andthen there's Catherine if Siena are spiritual director,
Saint Raymond of Capua. There isGemma Gilgani with her spiritual director,
Padre Pio. You know some ofthe women that he directed brought him great
encouragement. Right. There is nobodytoo holy in the church. And because
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like, who doesn't deserve to havespiritual friendship? Right, our lady,
nobody's holier than her. I mean, the Angel himself came and announced the
birth of Christ. Why in theworld did God give her John? Because
you can't just pick up a bookand read about God and find him.
Right. I write books, Igive them to people, they inspire them.
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That's great, But you need livingpeople, living voices, right.
I need the people on the groundthat teach what's in there to be that
face of Christ to those who receivethose books. Our lady needed, you
know, Joseph and Jesus and thenJohn afterwards. And so we see Paul
and Barnabas, and they have sucha beautiful relationship because they're encouraging each other
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and they're driving each that synergestic powerthat comes from two saints being together.
Right, look at France's savior andignacious. Just there's so many examples within
the church. Saint Faustina very deeplydepended upon her spiritual director, and Saint
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Mary Peter, the Golden Arrow sister, right, the one who has reparation
to the Holy Face reading about herright now, Oh what a gift.
Was her mother's superior in the conventwho really drove her onto holiness. But
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after Paul had spoken to the Hellenistsand argued with them, they became determined
to kill him. So when thebrothers knew, they took him to Caesarea
and set him off from there toTarsus Beautiful. The brothers again defended their
own right. They had to havecourage, what if they were killed.
So often people speak one thing withinthe church, but when a time of
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persecution comes, they fall away.Right, How is Nazism able to take
over in a Catholic Germany? Becausewhen the faith is put to the test
people the coward right, and itstarts with little things. If you can't
defend the Lord in the little things, then when the big trials come,
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you'll get knocked away. It's yourfoundation is not on rock, it's on
sand, right, So it's beautifulto see how these apostles give us an
example. We need to build ourhearts and our lives on that rock of
the love of Jesus Christ, andwe need to be determined to be faithful
to that love, even if itcosts us. You know, if by
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me helping persecute a Christians, mylife is threatened, or I suffer and
I struggle persecution, then I needto be able to drink that cop with
them for them. So it's beautifulto see the apostles encouraging each other.
And because of that encouragement, becausethere was not jealousy at that time,
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but there was help spiritual friendship ofeach other. It says the churches throughout
Judea, Galilee, Samaria were nowleft in peace. When you have hearts
that are humble, committed to fulfillingthe will of God at all costs,
peace is brought to the world.And they built themselves up, they encouraged
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each other, They lived in thefear of the Lord, and they were
filled with the consolation of the HolySpirit, and they shared that consolation with
others. And then the second readingon Sunday was from the first Letter of
Saint John. My children, ourlove is not to be just words or
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mere talk, but something real andact. If only by this can we
be certain that we're children of thetruth and be able to quiet our consciences
in His presence, whatever accusations itmay raise against us. Because God is
greater than our conscience, and heknows everything. He knows everything way more
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important than sharing the truth with youwith my mouth. I need to be
able to live it right. That'swhy you know. In the Letters of
Saint Paula says, you know,be careful if you're called to be a
teacher, because you will be heldaccountable for that which you're teaching. So
if I teach radical forgiveness, andyet I hold a bitterness in my heart
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against someone who has wounded me,even if it's severe, then those words
become a lie. Right. Sothat's why when I do my life rosaries,
we always pray for an autenicity right, because who we are in secret,
who we are within the center ofour hearts where only God sees us,
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needs to be the same face thatwe show to others. Right.
And so we ask for that grace. We pray for that grace that we
can live the word of God,we may live the truth given to us
by Christ and then share that withothers. Saint John continues, my dear
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people, if we cannot be condemnedby our own conscience, we need not
be afraid in God's presence, andwhatever we ask him, we shall receive
because we keep his commandments and livethe kind of life that He wants.
And his commandments are these that webelieve in the name of His son Jesus
Christ, that we love one anotheras he told us to. Whoever keeps
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his commandments lives in God, andGod lives in him. We know that
He lives in us by the spiritthat He has given to us. Right,
He's already you know, we're gettingdrawn into that word of the Holy
Spirit that will be kind of exemplifiedin the Gospel that Christ, God Christ
wants to live in us. WhenHe lives in us, then we're full
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of his love and anything that weask of God in love according to his
will, he will grant. Dowe believe that is our faith that great
right. I have a lot ofneeds. I have needs for the FIAT
Foundation, I have needs for thesefoster babies. I have needs for my
doctorate. I have financial needs outthe ying Yank And yet I have to
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be able to trust that if itis God's will, that I am doing
what He's asked right, that I'vegiven up my old life in this world
to fulfill his will. If I'masking in love in order to fulfill his
will, he will provide right.Anything that we ask according to the will
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of God with a heart full oflove will be answered. And he repeats
us over and over to us thelast few days. It's so beautiful.
The gospel acclamation Ali Lujah, verse, make your home in me as I
make mine in you. Whoever remainsin me bears fruit and plenty. You
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know. It's that verse in SaintJohn's Gospel, Remain in my love,
Remain in my love. What doesit mean? Sometimes we can say it
and it's clicheish. What does itmean to remain in the love of God?
It means to make your home inHim as he makes his home in
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us. We're going to talk aboutthat, but let me read the gospel.
Jesus said to the disciples, Iam the true vine. My father
is the vine dresser. Every branchin me that bears no fruit he can
huts away, and every branch thatdoes bear fruit he prunes to make it
bear even more. You are prunedalready by means of the word that I
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have spoken to you. Now thisis our great hope. We shouldn't be
afraid of the Lord. Oh,if I love him, if I allow
him in, what is he goingto take If you have poison that you're
eating, you want him to takeit, even if you don't recognize it
as poison. Right, So wecan trust that when we give ourselves over
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to the Lord fully, we cantrust that he is going to take away
everything that is not good for us. And we think him for that.
And even if we're living his willand perfection. Think about some of the
greatest saints. They don't have atrialless life. They still suffer. Why
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because he even prunes those limbs ofthe vine that are bearing beautiful fruit.
It's incredible and it should give usconfidence before him when we lay ourselves before
him completely, with full rein todo as he wishes. Then we can
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have peace that if something is bad, He's gonna take it. He continues.
Make your home in me as Imade mine in you, as a
branch cannot bear fruit all of itself, but must remain part of the vine.
Neither can you unless you remain inme. I am the vine.
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You are the branches. Whoever remainsin me and me and Him bears fruit
and plenty for cut off. Cutoff from me, you can do nothing
nothing. He didn't say, youcan't do very much without me. He
said, you can do nothing ifyou don't have Jesus Christ. Even what
seemingly looks like a success is smokein the world. It's a magic trick
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of some sort. Look at thesefamous people who reject Christ. Even their
fame. It's nothing. It doesn'tlast towards eternity. It can be blown
away by the winds of what's popularat the time. Right, we're called
to make our home in Christ andallow him to make his home in us,
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and then he bears fruit in us? What does that mean? Close
your eyes and imagine the heart ofChrist. Imagine the wounds in his hands
and his feet and his side.He wants us to enter them, not
just look at them, to makeour home in the cavern, in the
desert, in the hermitage of hiswounds, of his love, of his
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head heart. That means everything.When you live in a house, everything
you say and do, and youknow it's all surrounded by that house.
Right, when you live in Christ, everything you say and do is surrounded
by He and his love. You'reprotected, you're guided. Right, you
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can't live in the arms and theheart of Christ and not go where he
wants, because where he goes,he carries you. You live in him,
and he says, let me livein you. It's that indwelling love.
Saint Thomas Aquinas has such beautiful teachingsand the mutual indwelling of love between
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two friends, right, two lovers, sometimes two people who are very close
to being a parent and a child, but that mutual indwelling means that they
are. It's so close that it'salmost like two people with one heart.
And Christ is inviting us to livethat way with him. Not only does
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he want us to live in him, he said I live in you.
How through the sacraments in baptism,he enters us, the Trinity, like
boof, opens up a fountain oflife within our hearts and baptism. And
as fountains can get dirty or coveredup by rubbish like rocks or dirt or
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silt. When things, you know, the earth gets adjusted, so are
the fountain of his life can getcovered by sin. And in confession he
comes, he rips it away,so it's a fresh fountain coming out from
us, not only to refresh oursouls, but then everyone around us.
We become like sprinklers of his loveas he lives in us when we receive
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him in the Eucharist. He livesin us, just as he lived in
our lady and the incarnation. Youknow, there's some mysterious presence of his
in the sacrament of marriage, wherehe speaks to you through your spouse.
He's there in a living way.In priestly orders, where a priest becomes
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in persona Christie, he gets apermanent change within his heart is marked indelibly.
When you're suffering and you get theanointing of the sec he's living in
you in a new way as thehealer who can touch you and heal you
and strengthen you and unite you tohis own cross. You know, in
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confirmation, he's living in you,and he's breathing the Holy Spirit, and
it explodes like a fire from youinto the world. And you know,
if you have the fire, theHoly Spirit within you, first it purifies
you, then it purifies the worldright. And then he continues and he
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says, anyone who does not remainin me is like a branch that's been
thrown away. He withers. Thesebranches are collected and thrown in a fire,
and they're burnt because they're dead.We don't ever want to be dead.
So we have to live in Christand allow him to live in us.
But if you remain in me andmy words remain in you, how
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do you keep Christ's word in youby living it? He says, forgive,
forgive, He says, help thepoor, help the poor, you
know, he says, you know, don't turn away, turn your back
on a needy person. Then don'tdo that. And when his words live
in you, you can ask anythingyou will and you will get it.
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Once again, he's making that promise. We talked about it from the day
before. Anything. You ask theFather in my name al grant if you
live in me, and I livein you. You can ask whatever you
will and you'll get it. Let'spray, dear Lord, help us to
live in you, live in us. See our needs, our sufferings,
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our worries, our desires, andfulfill them. Help us. And it's
to the glory of my Father thatyou would bear much fruit. If you
have a holy desire that involves bearingfruit for him. The Father wants you
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to succeed. He wants you toask, to trust, to wait,
and to think him when it comes, maybe even think him beforehand, and
then you'll be his disciples. Sobeautiful. And if that was not enough,
on Monday, I was blessed togo to Notre Dame for mass.
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He spoke so powerfully to me againfrom the Book of Acts. Eventually,
with the con events of the authorities, a move was made by Pagans as
well as Jews to make attacks onthe Apostles and to stone them. So
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now you have the Jews reject Paul. He goes to the Pagans. Now
the Pagans and the Jews get togetheragainst Paul. If you are frustrated with
the Lord because your life is persecuted, you're in good company. Saint Paul,
right, if you're not persecuted atall, you gotta probably take a
double or triple look at your life, because all those that living according to
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Christ are crucified in some way.When the apostles came to hear of this,
they went off for safety to preachthe good news. And a man
sat there who had never walked inhis life because his feet were crippled from
birth, and he listened to Paulpreaching. He managed to catch his eyes.
Seeing that the man had the faithbe pured cured, Paul said in
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a loud voice, get to yourfeet and stand up, and the crippled
jumped up and began to walk.The cripple did not ask to be healed.
Jesus Christ saw his desire, andhe sent in Paul. And Paul
saw his desire, and Paul wentforward following the Holy Spirit and healed him.
For the glory of God. Godsees you, he sees where you're
(45:21):
crippled. He's already sending people toheal you, so trust him. When
the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the language of Lysonia,
Lyconia, these people are gods whohave come down to us disguised as
men. So they got confused,they're giving them the glory. And Paul
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was like, friends, what areyou doing? We're only human beings.
You know this is from God.Believe, believe in Jesus Christ, and
be converted. So like our ladyin the Magnificad, he gave all the
glory to God. Now it's interestingthe psalm that they have here online is
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not the psalm. The psalm thatwe had at Notre Dame was something about
the Lord gives. The Lord providesfor the little just as much as for
the great. And it was sobeautiful because it was the feast of Catherine
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of Sienna. She is great,she advised popes, she had the stigmata.
You know, she's a doctor ofthe church. She's great, and
very few, if any, ofus, will be raised to that kind
of greatness. We're the little onesof Christ. We're the hidden ones.
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We're the ones that fail. LikeI talked about before, right, we
try and we just fail. ButGod wants to provide for us and bless
us the little just as much asthe great. So we see this magnificent
thing done through Saint Paul, whowas great. He healed a cripple.
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God wants to use us, thelittle ones, to the same degree.
Right. In fact, there's aprocess that every saint has to go through
to become very little in order forGod to do great things. Right Paul
had to be humiliated and to suffera lot so that his ego would be
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crushed after he crushed the Christians,and it was only through his humility that
then God could use him. SaintCatherine of Sienna went through so many sufferings
brought on by yourself, brought onby others, so that God could do
great things through her. Saint JohnPaul the second the Great. Did you
know before he became a priest,his whole family died, right, He
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lost his older brother he was soclose to. He lost his mom,
then he lost his dad. Hehad no one. And then after being
crushed, seeing the ravages of warin his beloved Poland, hiding from the
Gestapo, persecuted by the Russians,then he was raised to greatness. God
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wants to provide and to bless allof us, the little, as much
as the great. So I guessthat's my message to you from the Holy
Spirit. In the readings yesterday,do not fear your littleness, offer it
to Christ. And then the gospelagain, opes the gospel. Anybody who
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receives my commandments and keeps them willbe one who loves me. And anybody
who loves me will be loved bymy Father, and I will love him
and show myself to him. Judasnot the Ascuriot said to him, Lord,
what is this all about? Doyou intend to show yourself to us
and not to the world. Jesusreplied, if anyone loves me, he
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will keep my word. Right,he will live as I asked, and
my Father will love him, andwe will come to him and make our
home in him. So on Sundayhe's saying, live in my love,
make your home in me. Andthen he's reiterating again, if you love
me, if you live in me, I will live in you with my
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father. Do we understand the powerof the Holy Spirit making the home of
Jesus Christ and his heavenly Father withinour own hearts? Come, Lord,
Jesus maranata. Those who do notlove me, do not keep my words.
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My word is not my own,it's the word of the one who
sent me. Lord, help allof our words be your words the word
of you who sent us. Ihave said these things to you while I'm
with you. But the advocate,the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name, he willteach you everything and remind you of all
(50:15):
I've said to you. You know, you could be sort of afraid and
say, oh, my goodness,how am I going to remember everything the
Lord wants? And I mess upall the time? Surrender yourself to the
Holy Spirit, and in this timebetween Easter and Pentecost, pray to the
Holy Spirit for fresh outpouring of theHoly Spirit in your life and all of
your work, in your vocation,in your relationships, in your ministry.
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Ask the Holy Spirit to renew you. Ask him to what does it say
to teach you everything and to remindyou of what the Lord wants. Jesus
himself said, ask the Holy Spirit. Ask him. He may speak to
you directly and the quiet of prayer. He might send you a bar and
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abez. But ask the Holy Spirit. And as our hearts are burning with
this desire to live in the woundedlove of Christ and his heart to have
him live as a fountain of lifewith his Father within us, then we're
given the readings from today, Soagain from Acts fourteen. Some Jews arrived
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in Antioch and Iconium and turn thepeople against the Apostles. Surprise, surprise,
they stoned Paul dragged him outside ofthe town, thinking he was dead.
The disciples came crowding around him,but as they did so, he
stood up and went back to thetown. The next day he and Barnabas
went off to Derby. How oftendo we feel so beat up by the
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world, by people, you know, with worldly thinking, by maybe the
evil one platting against God's will forus? Maybe it's people within the church
that we feel dead, or vocationdead, our ministry dead, are hope
dead. And yet the Holy Spiritis coming and He's gonna make us jump
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to our feet the way that Pauldid and send us to a new place.
Sometimes he will ask you to shakethe dust, to shake the dust
from those who persecute you, right, try to convert them if they refuse
to shake the dust. But Godcontinually renews us. He made us once
in our mother's womb, breathed hisbreath of life. He recreates us in
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the sacraments every single day. Andwhen people come at us and they try
to kill us. Right, notusually physically, although many of the people
I serve overseas have their life physicallythreatened. For us here in the United
States, it's more. And maybeyour reputations threatened, you know, maybe
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you're work is threatened. Whatever itis, God will give you enough life.
He will renew you, not evenexteriorly in you, because remember He
lives in us as a fountain oflife. He did not only just make
us once. He continually is recreatingus as a Christian. Having preached the
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good news in the town and madea considerable number of disciples, they went
back through Listria and Iconium to Antioch. They put fresh heart into the disciples,
encouraging them to persevere in the faith. They said, we all have
to experience many hardships before we enterthe Kingdom of God. Again, we
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see the God always desires to sendthe encouragers. Right, either he's going
to encourage us himself. He willsend us people, or he will send
us to others to do. Whatto do with the apostles did to put
a fresh heart into the disciples.The disciples they knew Jesus Paul, didn't
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They walked with him, you know, John he laid his hat on his
heart like they stood at the cross, they saw him resurrected. You'd think
that they would have courage, andyet they needed encouragement by the murderer Paul,
who converted to the apostle. Theyneeded a fresh heart. We need
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each other. It's so beautiful tosee God sending that. We pray that
He sends us more people like that, and that he turns us into encouragers
to give a fresh heart to allthose who we need, encouraging them to
persevere in the faith. We askedhim to send us people to do that
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too. We all have to experiencea lot of hardships in order to enter
Heaven. It's just the fact.But it's easier to suffer those hardships when
we're not alone. And in eachof these churches they appointed elders, and
with prayer and fasting, they commendedthem to the Lord in whom they had
come to believe. We asked theLord to raise up holy priests to encourage
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us right to guide us. Ontheir arrival, they assembled the church and
gave an account of all that Godhad done with them, and how he
had opened the door of the faithto the Pagans, and they stayed there
with the disciples for some time.There's nothing wrong with spiritual friendships. We
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got to pray for them. Weneed them more in the church. And
look at the psalm. Your friends, Oh Lord, shall make known the
glorious splendor of your reign. Youcan only have an authentic friendship with another
person if you first have it withChrist, because He makes you authentic.
He teaches you love. And sowe ask the Lord more than anything,
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make us your friends, make usyour friends, and then help us to
make known the glorious splendor of yourreign. Right. And then this really,
really beautiful gospel from John fourteen.We all need these words. Our
world needs these words. We're onthe brink of war in so many places,
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and hearts are wounded and bleeding andsad and discouraged. And Jesus comes
to each one of us. Hesays, peace. I give to you
my own peace. I give toyou my peaths. I bestow upon you
a peace that the world cannot give. You can live in the most secure
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community, with all the riches inthe world, everything you want at your
fingertips. I have worked for yearsand years and years among so many wealthy
people, they're not happy and peaceful. Why they don't have Christ. Christ
gives peace. And then you meetthese people in persecuted countries who are tortured
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sometimes, they're threatened constantly, andthey're at peace. Why because they know
that they're in the hand of theLord and nothing can touch them without his
explicit allowance. So Jesus says thatto us, and he's not just talking
to our brain. When God saysa word, it's living and effective.
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When he says peace, I giveto you, Peace is infused into us
unless in our own sin we blockit, and He gives us this gift
today. Did you know you weregiven the gift of perfect peace in the
Mass today? He says peace,I give to you my own peace.
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I'd give you a peace that theworld cannot give. This is my gift
to you. You don't have topurchase it with your good works, with
a perfect prayer life. It's agift. Do not let your hearts be
troubled or afraid. I think weall need to say this five hundred times
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a day. Do not let yourhearts be troubled or afraid. Do not
let your hearts be troubled or afraid. Do not let your hearts be troubled
or afraid. You heard me sayI'm going away and I'll return. Maybe
you don't see God in this youknow, this era, this season of
your life. He hasn't abandoned you. What He's doing in the darkness that
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you cannot see will blow your mindsomeday when in heaven it's revealed to you.
If you loved me, you wouldhave been glad to know that I'm
going to the Father, for theFather is greater than I. If you
love Christ, rejoice that he's not, you know, walking around the earth
anymore, but instead he's sitting atthe throne of God, the Father,
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and have an inner sea you.I've told you this now before it happens,
so when it happens to you,you may believe I will not talk
with you any longer, because thePrince of this world is on his way
in the midst of evil. Sometimessilence is the best answer. Have you
ever had somebody just attacking you andany word you say will be twisted?
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Those are the situations We're in greatlove and forgiveness without any bitterness. You
need to create a place of silence, so the Holy Spirit can come.
They can convict that person, andthey can give peace to you that you
can spread to those around you.In that situation with you, the Prince
of the world is coming. He'saround us today, and so Christ may
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remain silent, not because he's indifferent, but because he's giving us a strength
in his silence, a confidence.And this Prince of the world no power
over Christ. The world must bebrought to know that I love the Father
(01:00:06):
and I am doing exactly what theFather has told me. We too are
called to not only love the Father, but to do exactly what he's called
us to do. So it's beenan hour here. I just shared with
you the last four days the powerfulworking of the Holy Spirit to each one
of our hearts in these readings.I could continue every day to do something
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like this, and each one ofyou not only will receive something different when
you read those readings. Listening tome, you're gonna hear something different depending
on your need, depending on whatthe Holy Spirit is highlighting. But we
want to thank the Lord for that, and we want to ask him to
continue to make his word living andeffective in our lives. We ask for
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the grace to believe his words hispromises to help us to live in him
as He lives in us, toencourage us, to help us to believe
that anything we ask of the Fatherand his nameel grant to thank him for
that gift and to receive that ultimategift of his peace and his presence.
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Glory be to the Father and tothe Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,is known of her shallby world without and
Amen. And we ask all ofthis in union with our lady. Hail
Mary, full of grace. TheLord is with thee. Blessed art thou
among women, And blessed is thefruit of thy womb. Jesus, Holy
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Mary, Mother of God, Prayfor us sinners now and at the hour
of our death. Amen. Hello, God's beloved. I'm Annabel Moseley,
Author, professor of theology and hostof them sings My Soul and Destination Sainthood
(01:02:00):
on w c AT Radio. Iinvite you to listen in and find inspiration
along this sacred journey. We're travelingtogether to make our lives a masterpiece and
with God's grace, become saints.Join me, Annabel Moseley for then sings
my soul and destination sainthood on wc AT Radio. God bless you.
(01:02:22):
Remember you are never alone. Godis always with you. Thank you for
listening to a production of w cAT Radio. Please join us in our
mission of evangelization, and don't forgetlove lifts up when knowledge takes flight.
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