In this episode of The Heart of Fiat Crucified Love, Dr. Mary Kloska speaks about the beginnings of the Fiat Foundation and the Children of the Cross Prayer ministry. She takes the listener through the work that the Foundation has done in 2024 amongst persecuted Christians and explains the importance of the work of using books to spread the Gospel. Dr. Mary Kloska also explains how this all ties in the readings for Mass this weekend -the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time. (February 16, 2025)
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to WCAT radio, your home for authentic Catholic programming.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hello, and welcome to the Heart of Fiat Crucified Love.
This week, I'd like to share with you all about
the work of the FIAT Foundation, this not for profit
that I run, and we did the new annual report.
But what is so striking to my heart that I'd
like to share with you is the continued plight of
(00:31):
our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world. We primarily
work with the most persecuted communities and those who don't
have other Christian or Catholic organizations that support them. Right
it's in the most dangerous areas, and the work that
God is doing is so beautiful. This morning, when I
(00:53):
went to Mass early and I was listening to the readings,
I realized how or pos those readings were for this
podcast as well. So we're going to say a prayer
and I'm going to sing a song. I do have
a cold. My voice is not wonderful, but the children
(01:13):
I sing too, like it, and so I hope you
accept this not as a concert, but as part of
our prayer. Here at the beginning, I like to do
this and then we'll share some thoughts about the readings
and about the work of the Foundation, and specifically with
these prayer groups of children. We founded the children of
(01:33):
the Cross. So in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. Amen, Come, Holy Spirit, Fill the
hearts of your faithful and enkindle in us a fire
of your love. Send forth your Spirit, and we will
be recreated.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
And thou shalt renew the face of the earth. Come,
Holy Spirit, Come by the means of the powerful intercession
of Immaculate Heart of Mary, thy well beloved spouse.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
In Christ alone, I hope this fall.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
He is my life, my strength, my song, this coner song,
this solid ground, firm.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Through the fiarsest dreg.
Speaker 6 (02:59):
And so.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
What heights of love, what tabs of peace with fears ofsted.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Wind strive exceeds.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
My calm furt I a lander Here in the love
of Christ.
Speaker 7 (03:37):
I stand.
Speaker 8 (03:41):
In Christ alone, who took godfliesh.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Fulless of God and the space this gift, a fall
and righteousness scorned by the ones he came.
Speaker 9 (04:12):
To save to on bad cross as geeze a start.
Speaker 10 (04:26):
The real.
Speaker 11 (04:29):
God was sast.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Fun for every sin on him wastly. Here in the
death of Christ, I lived bry the crowd his body
(05:01):
land lad of the world by dog nest lay and
bursting for in coorious up from the Grevey roads, argast.
Speaker 11 (05:30):
And asy stands in factory Saints crisis lost.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
It's great buy for am his and he is mind.
But with the precious blood.
Speaker 10 (06:05):
Of Christs, no catan life, no fear, and.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
This is a power of Christ and me from life
first Christ too, fine old.
Speaker 12 (06:33):
Dad Jesus comments, my Dadtandy, no power of power, no
scheme of man.
Speaker 13 (06:54):
Canev plant be from miss Hartily Richards or calls me
home here in the power of Christ.
Speaker 7 (07:19):
I'll stand.
Speaker 8 (07:23):
No guiltan life, go fear and versus a power of Christ.
From Life's first Christ.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
To fine o bread.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
Jesus comments, my dad, steady.
Speaker 14 (07:59):
The power are of hands, no skime of man. Couldn't plod.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
We from his hand to the Richards or calls me
hold here in the power of Christ, all stand for
(08:38):
I am His and he is smile but with the
precious plood.
Speaker 6 (08:52):
Of Christ, Amon Ali Lujah, Father's son, holy spirited.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Then I prayed so hard I could do that song.
I just ran in where my music is and I
started flipping and I saw this and I thought, oh,
this will be perfect. But not till I played it
through before I started to record, did I realize exactly
how perfect this was for the topics that we will
(09:25):
cover today. Persecuted Christians. We celebrated Saint Valentine on Friday.
People remember Saint Valentine's Day as a day for people
(09:47):
who are in love, and yet Saint Valentine was martyred
terribly for his faith, and he shows to us how
authentic love is congruent with death, death to self right.
We have the wonderful examples not only of martyrs, but
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of parents, of mothers right who have given their lives
for their children, Fathers who tireuslee give themselves over and
over again to provide for their families. Priests who not
only have full schedules during the day, but are called
throughout the night to wake up and to go to
(10:33):
the hospital, to go to the bedside of someone dying,
someone grieving the death of a loved one. Sisters who
give up that prospect of marriage to a human man,
to live in community which is not always easy for them,
and to be married to Christ so that they can
(10:54):
serve the poorest of the poor. I'm worry reading a
beautiful book on one of the newer saints in our church,
or Venerables, and he followed l I forget the last name.
It's like Schwartz something.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
But uh, oh goodness.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
He went to Korea to become a missionary. But he
founded two different communities, and one is a group of
sisters at works in Mexico, and they have three thousand,
over three thousand girls in their orphanage. And it writes
so beautifully of how they see their vocation of completely
(11:39):
giving up everything in order to pour themselves out to
take care of these girls who are victims often of trafficking,
or of dire poverty, of abusive situations at home. We're
all called to love unto the Cross. And yet the
(12:01):
cross and martyrdom for your faith are not simply something
that existed twenty, you know, two thousand years ago that
we're supposed to just think about sometimes. But as concretely,
as we embrace the Catholic faith with our body and
our minds and our hearts, we will suffer the Cross
(12:22):
with Christ in our bodies and our minds and our hearts.
It was ten years ago yesterday that the Pope canonized
twenty one men who were killed by Isis in Libya.
I believe they were Egyptian, twenty Egyptian men and one
(12:46):
African Ghanian soul Matthew, who wasn't even Christian, and they
accidentally kidnapped him and then they tried to let him go,
and he was so impressed by the faith of these
Coptic Egyptian men that he said, my God is their God,
and if they will die for that God, so will I.
(13:08):
And they were beheaded on the beach, and a video
was released and both the Coptic Church and then Pope
Francis followed with the Catholic Church canonize them. They were
killed for their faith. Right, And that's not an isolated story,
as you know that from the first time I published
(13:32):
a book, now I've published many, right, and we have
all sorts of work. I thought I had written The
Holiness of Womanhood, which is a book on the vocation
and dignity of women, and it actually came out of
a negative feminism that I ran into during my years
at the University of Notre Dame, and many feminist sisters
(13:53):
and then even sadly some people that were still left
over in the theology department there who were teaching things
very erroneous, and really despised our lady for her humility
and her fiat, which is like the center of my life, right,
that were fiat, this surrender, And so I began a
(14:15):
women's group there, and then I began to write, and
I went on to give some retreats on the vocation
of women, and wrote out these retreats and continued to
teach for many years. The book was probably fifteen twenty
years twenty years in the making before I finally decided
to publish it. And I thought it would be a
(14:38):
gift to just the few people in the United States
that I had contact with, parishes locally or something. I
had spent so many years in the physical missions, living
in eastern Siberia and returning to Russia while it was
allowed in the Philippines and the trash dump there, just
(15:00):
all over Africa and the orphanages, and my life had
been a constant pilgrimage. And then I would settle as
a hermit for a while and then continue, as the
Russians call it, a stra meiku, right, a pilgrim who
would carry that contemplative message that a hermit receives in
(15:21):
prayer to the world and to serve the poorest of
the poor. And it was done in a unique way,
since I wasn't married, and I had given myself to
Christ for this work, but clearly not called to a
community life as a sister. And so I lived that
(15:42):
for a long time. And when I published that first book,
I truly thought my mission life had ended. I was exhausted.
I lived out of a backpack for fifteen years, and
all my possessions fit in that I still have it upstairs,
and I just I wanted to disappear, to become that
(16:05):
seed that dies, And so I followed an authentic vocation
to the aramitical life in a permanent way and had
diaceisan vows temporary for three years. And then, as always
happens when you follow a radical call of God, the
evil one tries to throw you off your course right,
(16:29):
and it happened to the saints. So I really lost support,
spiritual support, financial support, and I decided to continue to
go forward and to try to live as contemplative as
a life as I could, and I became a nanny.
Originally it was just at night to babies, because it
(16:50):
was more contemplative. But the Lord has taken me into
the hearts and the homes of so many people. And
it turned more into serving the wealthy, who are very
poor in their connection with God. Often right, they don't
know Him the way that you know the street people do.
(17:15):
Who I had served for years, because when you have nothing,
you have to cling to Him for everything. But when
you have everything, there's more of a choice, right, and
there's there's probably a greater merit when you choose to
follow Christ on a way of suffering when you are
given comfort, because you've got to you've got to set
(17:36):
that aside right for him. So I did this, and
I thought that the way I would reach the missions
would be just through my writing. I was contacted by
a gentleman in Pakistan, and it kind of threw me
a little. I didn't know if I should attempt to
(17:58):
work in a country where people are murdered daily for
their Catholic faith. And my publisher said, Mary, when God
opens the door, run through. Let's see what happens. And
so thus began an explosive ministry to persecute Christians all
(18:18):
over the world. I started to be contact by priests
and catechists, and sisters from these countries where where daily
people were being killed for their faith. And they said, well,
when I would get online and google help for persecuted Christians,
only your name and contact came up. Well that was
(18:41):
kind of funny because at that time I wasn't helping
persecutor Christians. But God gave them my name and number
and email. And it has happened to me many times
in other countries where you know, somebody miraculously would be
given my phone number or something. Because I keep that
very hidden. I like a quiet life. So I began
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to work and it catapulted into a great work, a
huge work. It was not just allowing some people to
translate my books and then trying to find funding to
print those, but it turned into a full time ministry
for me and for the people I work with. Unfortunately,
we don't have any money to pay any of us
(19:25):
right and I trust that on the ground in these
other countries, just as I do so much for free,
and sometimes I have to take on second third jobs
to pay for this ministry because I just don't have
the donors. I trust that they also, you know, are
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are using the money that we send for that which
we have asked, and they report back. They send me
the receipts from the printers or that. You know a
few times we've paid school fees for somebody and they
sent me the receipt from the school. So the people
I work with in these countries have proven themselves to
be very trustworthy. I get leary with starting new missions
(20:10):
because I've vetted the people that I work with so strongly.
They know my spirituality, they know my predilection for the poor,
the way that I work, and I know that I
can trust them to make decisions with that same spirit
as the Lord has given to me for this mission work.
(20:33):
So we started to print so many books. We were
invited to sneak thousands. We ended up sneaking six thousand
books into Afghanistan. When the United States pulled out and
the Taliban took over. We had you know, underground paths
into the country into the people in hiding, and we
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had my books translated into Dari and we sent them there.
And all of this takes lots of money, and I
had people so creatively trying to donate. I had, you know,
a friend that met me on when I was doing
my rosaries on Facebook who said she used to buy
really expensive purses, so she went in her closet and
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she started selling them on some of those websites. And
anytime she'd get one sold for you know, maybe it
was seventy dollars, maybe it was one hundred and fifty dollars,
she'd send me that and you know, all sorts of love,
little people trying to help. And they did mention to
(21:39):
me though, it would be helpful if you had a foundation,
if we could get tax exemption on this, and that
intimidated me because that is not my greatest gift. The
people I work for would probably argue with me when
I say I don't have business savvy because I run,
you know, a lot of things for them, but I
(22:01):
don't enjoy that. I might be good at it, but
I don't understand you know, math and accounting and legal
things and all of that. But I didn't have any help.
So I had to put a foundation together and you know,
set that up with the I R S and you know,
file all those forms. And I had some people who
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said they'd be on my board, but they didn't really
have the inclination to do that. So as the president
of the FIAT Foundation, I had to, and I continue
to do the accounting and the filing of the different
forms you have to do every year, so and then
sending out the receipts to the donors, and you know,
(22:44):
sending the money, getting the transfers over to the countries
where we work. So that is how the Fiat Foundation began.
It was just out of necessity of this work that
God started through me, kind of despite me. It was
not like I had an idea to do this. Oh
I like persecuted people, I should start a ministry.
Speaker 10 (23:06):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
God did all of this through me despite my own inaptitude,
and I've continued to say yes and do what I
can do. I often speak about the Fiat Foundation and
the Children of the Cross. Those are actually two separate entities.
At some point, when I find a good and holy
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bishop who would like to work with me, I would
love to set up this little apostolate that we have
as a private association of the faithful or something something official.
But for now we just we took one of my
(23:49):
books about the spiritual formation of children, and we have
used it to touch the lives of thousands of children
and to start groups. I've also anybody who knows me knows.
I have a great love for praying for priests, and
so it was originally a prayer group to meet on
(24:11):
First Fridays to pray for priests, especially since they're targeted
in a special way in these countries. But then it
kind of expanded to also pray for persecuted Christians and
the children themselves and their families who are so persecuted.
So the Children of the Cross are children who meet
(24:35):
usually at least on First Friday, but oftentimes once a
week to pray for priests and persecuted Christians in a
Catholic way. I would prefer it would be done in
a church with the Blessed Sacrament. It's not always possible
for some of these countries, so I ask that they
pray the Rosary and the Chaplet of Mercy, the Litanys,
(24:57):
and different Catholic prayers. We do have many non Catholics
that join these prayer groups, but it is a Catholic.
It is a Catholic prayer group. So the FIAT Foundation
is the non for profit that funds the printing and
the distribution of books all over the world for the
poorest of the poor and the persecuted. The children of
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the Cross are the prayer groups of children that came
from the spread of these books. And it was really
amazing because once we started printing books, it wasn't just
like we don't just do it like here in the
United States. People like maybe at Christmas or at Easter,
a priest still decide to buy a lot of a
(25:41):
book and to put it in the back of the
church and then people can take it. These are often
the only catecotical materials that the parishes or the communities have,
and they gather groups of people and read them aloud.
(26:01):
Many times. In Pakistan, the women in the rural areas
are illiterate, and so they'll take The Holiness of Womanhood
and read it to one hundred illiterate women and to
teach to bring a live the message in there about
the dignity and vocation of women. And in Pakistan especially
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that has then catapulted into a whole pro life work.
We are the only pro life presence in Pakistan, and
so they use the book The Holiness of Womanhood to
teach about the dignity of motherhood and all of that.
And then I asked a blessed soul here to who's
(26:42):
very involved with pro life work and who is anonymous
to write a booklet, a pro life booklet about you know,
fetal development and what is abortion and why shouldn't.
Speaker 9 (26:56):
You have it?
Speaker 2 (26:56):
And the beauty of motherhood and ways to pray through
a pregnancy and ways to pray for post abortion healings.
It's very little, but it's going to be We just
printed it be very powerful because there's nothing like that
in that whole country and also in the Middle East. Oftentimes,
even the priests of religious the seminarians have not had
(27:20):
written material. They get killed for carrying a Bible, but
they don't get killed carrying my books. So my book
Out of the Darkness, which is about the Passion of Christ,
they carry everywhere and it gives them strength and courage
to be willing to risk death even for their faith.
(27:41):
The book Mornings with Mary, that is that rosary prayer
book we had translated both into Urdu and Pakistan and
Dari and Afghanistan.
Speaker 12 (27:50):
And.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
It's the first time that these people have learned the
Rosary in their own language. Even the priests not know
Pope Leo the thirteenth, Saint Michael the Archangel prayer. Imagine
that for now we have the Saint Michael prayer being
prayed in the Middle East. What a powerful tool and
(28:13):
defense against the wickedness that happens there. So there's there's
so many fruits. And then we expended expanded into Africa
and Nigeria. As you know, there is great persecutions in
the north, and so we serve the seminaries there and
the priests and the sisters and those who get kidnapped,
(28:36):
you know, when they are released have asked for my
books to help heal their hearts and to encourage them.
And the Cameroon, we have met a Cistercian who works
amongst especially the children, and he has gone out and
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even he's been attacked by the rebels and held at
gunpoint and had his wallet and his phone and everything stolen.
But when they opened my books and saw what they were,
they said, we'll deliver these for you, and they took
them across the border to the women waiting in the
next village and they actually delivered them in Uganda. Boy,
(29:23):
oh boy. The diocese and Uganda are so excited about
my work. And I try to focus on the priests,
religious and the catechists, because if you can form the
leaders they naturally form the people, right, and they are
taking my books everywhere. They're used in parishes, they are
(29:44):
used in you know, prayer groups that they have in
little villages and neighborhoods. They've taken a thousand copies of
Out of the Darkness into the high security prisons throughout Uganda,
and both the guards and the prisoners have come to
the faith. Gang members, sex traffic, sex workers, different groups
(30:08):
of taxi drivers Bodha Bodha drivers they call them, you know,
get together and they have prayer groups now, and it's
just incredible. And Ethiopia as well, we're upholding one whole
diocese and the parish is right continually asking for just
(30:29):
enough books for their priest, religious and catechists. We're in
the universities. We do a lot with the orphanage there.
That is my main contact. And it's just amazing to
see where I thought the Lord was going to make
me give all of that up. Now that I'm getting older,
(30:50):
it's harder to live out of a backpack, right, And
I returned to the United States, and yet he catapulted
me into places I actually couldn't visit. If I went,
they would love for me too. But if I went
to Pakistan right now, I would be killed. My picture
is on books throughout the country, and the people we
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work with are threatened all the time, and some of
our Children of the Cross are little girls, have been
attacked by muslimen and raped, and so it would definitely
be a death sentence to visit there. And in Northern Nigeria,
I actually lived there for a while, serving with a
bishop in the north, and I believe because of the dangers,
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so it would be very difficult to visit some of
these places, not all of them, but some of them.
And of course I don't have finances. I barely can
keep up with the needs here and then just bills
and things. So I reach people through books. And it's
(32:00):
actually the way of the saints. It goes. It's scriptural.
You go back to the New Testament and how Christ
sent out his apostles and what did they do. They
wrote down his message in the gospels, right, Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John and Saint Paul wrote letters to the
churches where he couldn't always visit, you know, and eventually
(32:23):
when he did, you know, in the end, he was
put to death. He was also killed for the faith,
and so it's very biblical to reach people through writing,
and we can do it through things like social media.
We can, and unfortunately I have to be part of that.
(32:45):
I despise social media. I'll be honest. I like to
have a hidden, quiet life. It's the opposite. But every
time I think about pulling down everything, I had to
do it in order to publish my first books. And
the thing that really keeps me going is I have
(33:05):
contact with all of the people who support the FIAT
Foundation only through social media. The people who I'm caring
for on the other side of the world only connect
with me through social media. Underground, you know, Catholic networks
put on social media and pray the Rosary with me.
(33:26):
I pray with thousands and thousands of people every day,
and it's being able to reach and unite with people
in prayer that keeps me on there. But it's not
really an ideal way to reach people, because no matter
how authentic and how much prayer and love you put
(33:46):
into social media, it's not the same as sitting somewhere
with somebody and having a cup of coffee right and
having a chat. There's something distant and the spiritual warfare
that comes is so great. There is so much trash
(34:09):
on social media. It's hard for people to navigate to
find that which the Lord wants to use for their heart.
And then they're not in an atmosphere of silent contemplation
when they need it, right, they have all these commercials
and people selfies and videos about farming and whatever your
interest is, right, all bombarding your head. Even my poor mother.
(34:33):
There was a beautiful homily that the Divine Mercy Fathers
had the other day, and I was at her house
helping her with something, and I said, here, why don't
you sit here and listen to this. I think you'll
appreciate what Father said. So I put it on for
her and went to do some work and she screams,
and I come running in there and some horrible commercial
(34:55):
comes on. But it was like, I've never even seen
that on my phone.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
It was awful.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
It was like pornographic because what did I touch? I said, nothing,
that's just spiritual warfare and social media.
Speaker 12 (35:06):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
She was so scandalized. And you know, it's hard to navigate.
And in order for God to really touch a heart,
you have to have some kind of semblance of silence
and solitude and focus so that the world can fall away. Right,
(35:31):
if you really want to touch the depth of somebody's heart,
if you're just entering in a debate or on some
issue or something, you could just jump in and be
one of the many voices yelling, and that might enter
into somebody's mind and help them think correctly. If you
want to touch the human heart, you got to take
them with your very presence of God's love flowing through you.
(36:00):
Is difficult to do if you're in the midst of
a crazy world, right, And that's what it is online.
So in some ways, the hearts that I'm able to
touch on the other side of the world, these persecuted Christians,
they're more prepared than people here because they have more
(36:23):
of a quiet life. They're always on that cusp of
being attacked and persecuted, so they cling to only that
which is necessary.
Speaker 6 (36:35):
Right.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Even their poverty kind of pushes away the world in
a way. And so you know, instead of just scrolling
the internet, these people don't have phones and time to
do that. You know, the parish priest, can you know,
just get a link from me and put up a
(36:56):
retreat that I want to give to them from here
in the United States and then they watch it. And
so social media can be a gift like that. I can,
you know, give a talk to a group of thirty
altar boys who could be killed the next time they
go to church. But you know, more profound is being
(37:17):
able to touch people through through writing, kind of in
books in a quieter way. I'm cleaning out my parents'
basement after sixty years of marriage and all this, and
their books are incredible, and you know, there's so much
that a book can do that that is beyond what
(37:40):
you can get on a computer. You can have the
same words written on a computer and then written in
a book. But there's a solitude that can come from
putting yourself in a room that's quiet and reading alone
with God. Then where you know, there's the beat, beat
beep of all these other interactions and other open windows
(38:01):
and all of that when you're on a computer. So
I do see the wisdom of God in having me
work through books. So I want to go through this
and just share with you a little more. What is FIAT?
(38:23):
Why did I call it the Fiat Foundation? Anybody who
knows me knows my word is FIAT. Right, I am
the handmaiden of the Lord. Let it be done unto
me according to thy word. Our lady said, let it
be done, Let it be done, Let it be done.
All throughout my life, I've tried to follow the Lord,
and I have my own desires, and he uses them
(38:45):
to guide me, but he doesn't always fulfill them. Sometimes
he crucifies them. And fiat is saying fiat, like our
lady and the Annunciation, or like Christ the Cross, who
said that I will be done. You know, let this
cup cop be taken from me, but not my will,
but yours be done. When we pray in our Father,
(39:08):
you know thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven. What is that when we say fiat,
we open ourselves up to that exciting plan of God
for our lives. We have a willingness to do his
will and yet simultaneously a resignation to things that we
(39:31):
may desire being crucified in order for His will and
His gospel is mission of salvation to take greater fruit. Right, So,
if I had published my first book and a big
publisher and e WTNN picked up on it, and I
was suddenly everywhere in the United States, maybe I could
(39:52):
have helped people there's a lot of people who do
that though, But by that form of success being crucified,
the Lord was able to guide me to those who
are literally on the verge of death, who are the
most desperate, the poorest of the poor, the most persecuted.
I would never have had this ministry in these other
(40:13):
countries if I was doing things the American way. And
so that's a great example of how fiat, you know,
opens you to what God wants and you go forward,
and then he crucifies some and he bears fruit in
other places. Right, I will never be a Champagne rose,
but I will be a desert rose, a bloom in
(40:37):
the desert. And you see that just in the story
I shared with you of my life, you know, always
wanting to just get married and have a lot of children,
and the Lord crucifying that with a missionary vocation, and
then loving my life and the missions and that being
crucified in a call to the aramitical life and contemplative
(40:59):
life life. And it's like every time I followed the Lord,
I found deeper and deeper joy, even in the sacrifice.
I loved my life as a hermit, that is really
my vocation. But then even that he crucified in a
way through people, so that I was then catapulted back
out to the world. But it's really not that different
(41:20):
than what I was living before. You know, in Russia,
maybe we didn't have clean water or we were followed
by the KGB. But in the United States, you know,
the crosses are still existent. You know, everything's loud and
people are mean sometimes. I don't know, the government has
persecuted Christians here too, you know. And it he just
(41:46):
kind of sent me as this hermit into the world,
like in the old Russian way of the Stramich the pilgrim,
where I carry his contemplative life into deep into the
homes of millionaires and billion children who wouldn't be wouldn't
be taught to love him without that presence. And then
(42:08):
through having a job, I'm able to fund helping my
poor right and reaching places I couldn't go. I could
not go to twenty countries, I could go to one.
And I couldn't speak in all these languages. I speak
in a lot of languages, but not all right. I
couldn't touch like I think we've printed here. It says
(42:30):
sixty one sixty five thousand books we've provided for free.
And then sometimes one book is read to one hundred souls. Right,
think about that, How could I physically touch that many
souls as a spiritual mother if I was there, I
kind of have to just be here and to allow
(42:52):
God to do this through me. Right. So sometimes God
crucifies one thing to put you forward to the next, right,
and we just take that step forward with Fiat saying Fiat.
That's why it's a Fiat Foundation. It's a foundation completely
dedicated to the will of God and whatever for me
(43:12):
wants right, being willing not only to accept His grace
wherever he wants, follow his call wherever he wants, but
also be crucified wherever he wants. So the mission of
the Fiat Foundation primarily is to provide funding for free
Catholic materials to those physically or spiritually most in need,
(43:32):
both here in the United States and abroad. The primary
focus is on helping priest religious foreign missions, and persecuted
Christians through providing free copies of my books, art, music, retreats,
and catechetical materials. We also have provided from time to
time things for priests when they didn't have vestments, they
(43:54):
didn't have what they needed for mass a few times
for the education of some really poor orphans. But we
get requests for it all the time. It's not we
don't have the money to do it continually. And then
some of the great needs that have come up through
the poor here locally, through the foster children that I've
(44:17):
taken it and stuff I've I've used, people have said
they would donate to provide clothing and things for those
children are Ukrainian refugees if they put it through the foundation.
So we do help the poor that way too, but
just it's not our primary focus. We work in twenty
countries or we I mean, they're not.
Speaker 4 (44:40):
We don't.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
We don't have big missions in twenty countries. We have
done work in twenty countries. We have you know, probably
a major six or seven where we continually are growing
and provided over sixty five thousand books to bishops, priest,
religious seminarians category and the poorest of the poor and
(45:01):
those most persecuted and abused. In Pakistan. We've printed twenty
one three hundred books and we've had many many conversions.
In fact, we have a problem because they need a
place to hide Muslims who want to convert, and I
don't have the money for that. We've prevented many abortions
(45:25):
or many children who've been born. In Pakistan and Afghanistan.
We sent six thousand books and started these prayer groups.
I know stories of nurses hiding in the closet at
the hospital reading the holiness of womanhood to another nurse
to teach them the faith right. We also snuck exorcism
(45:46):
salt into the country, so the Taliban took over, and
I said, next time we send books, I want you
to get many large bags of salt and to have
the bishop in Pakistan exercise it and then send it in.
And if the Taliban skates it, then they are eating
exorcism salt, and it's fine. It'll just get the demons away.
(46:06):
And if they don't, the Christians can sprinkle it around
their homes. So that's kind of beautiful. It ties in
my years of work and the Exorcism Deliverance Ministry with
working with the persecuted in Nigeria. We have printed twenty
two thousand, six hundred books, and even some of my
(46:27):
books are being taught in Muslim universities because they emphasize
the dignity of women. And you know, when the Muslims
hear the authentic Catholic teaching as I present it, they're
just blown away. They hear truth and they want to
be part of it.
Speaker 7 (46:46):
Right.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Sometimes they'll have to put books and like they travel
for days to the outskirts, you know, like oh, in
boats and motorcycles and walking through water up to their
knees and they but just to deliver books to some
schools so that these children learn the message of Christ.
And we're so blessed. The seminarian who arranges everything in
(47:11):
Nigeria was then ordained a deacon and is now a priest,
and he has offered to be the official chaplain for
the Children of the Cross. He regularly offers mass for
me for this mission work for our donors. In Uganda,
we have printed two two hundred books and that's where
we work so much, in the prisons. And that's hard
(47:33):
because Uganda is a more expensive country to print. In
Nigeria by far is the cheapest. So I like working
there because you reach most people through just a little bit.
Right Ethiopia, we've printed two four hundred books and we're
providing the katakatakull materials for seven different parishes and we
(47:55):
have letters from the Vicaria there and the different priests
and even the bishop recommending the people who we're working
with as being trustworthy and requesting more help. We've also
sent rosaries over there the camera roon. We have printed
nine thousand books in both English and in French in
(48:21):
Sudan and Malawi. We've been able to reach some sisters,
and we have seminarians in Malawi who offered to translate
the Holiness of Womanhood into chich Chichawa and Tumbuka, but
I'm not sure how that's going. Sometimes we connect with
(48:41):
people and then they lose contact because they don't have
computer excess, and then a year later I'll hear, and
then a year later I'll here and eventually it's like
in India, we printed the Roman Kankani translation of Out
of the Darkness. I think for the Ghones and Mandalorians,
but I'm not I can't control it all. I give
(49:04):
permission and then I trust the people who are doing it.
In India. Our books are all available on potipotchi dot com,
so all throughout India and then just the East there
people can very reasonably purchase any of my books there
(49:24):
on that Indian website Nicaragua, three hundred and sixty books.
We snuck into Bishop Alvarez his diocese and they've requested more,
but the priests have been arrested and the young man
helping me was taken at gunpoint by the militants who
wanted my books. So I don't believe it's prudent for
(49:48):
me to send him more money to continue this right now,
we just continue to pray for the people that are there. Mexico,
we've printed a thousand of Lasanti dad la moucher the
Holiness of Womanhood and Catholic charities carried past there is
using it with the persecuted women, and the same thing
in Columbia, Belize, Puerto Rico. We have projects that we've
(50:14):
tried right and we've only been able to get a
few copies in Brazil, same thing Poland. We have a
struggle in Poland because Amazon increases the price of my
books in Polish to such high prices nobody can afford it.
But my English ones are available, and so I've tried
(50:38):
with my old contacts in Poland to find a printer
who would help us there, but a profit's never accepted
in their own home. I have struggled greatly to find
vendors and people to help in Poland, so I pray
for the people there. I've given the Polish people so much,
and we just ask the Lord to find his own
(50:59):
weight beer fruit. Russia. My desire when I wrote the
book Out of the Darkness was for Russia. I wrote
it in Russia for Russia, and everything's closed right now
because of our problems with the country and the war
and Putin. I have sent digital copies into the country
without a response. Probably the people are a little nervous,
(51:22):
and I have used the Russian translation to help immigrants here,
Russians and Ukrainians. I was able to send some books
into the Ukraine, so we'll see what the Lord opens up.
I would love a path into Uzbekistan and Georgia, India,
(51:42):
and then here in the United States. My publisher has
sent copies of all my books to the seminaries and
to the bishops and the vocation directors. So it speaks
more about here what we do who we serve, right.
But of course, like Christ, I particularly have a love
(52:05):
for the poorest of the poor, the most vulnerable, abused
and danger broke and abandoned. And since we began in
twenty twenty one, so we've been doing this for four years.
We've spent just about thirty thousand dollars a year on this.
We've been able to gather and spend. Last year we
(52:26):
had one very large donor, so we had raised forty
six thousand dollars. But I just assume this is what
the Lord wants. I always have my goals. I beg
and beg and beg. I add everything that I can
personally to the point where I literally have nothing more
to give, and then we see. But there is a
(52:50):
saint who was just well beatified in Mexico. I forget
his name. It was a priest. He worked amongst the
pro life movement there stopping him and he said a
quote I will not forget. Blessed are those who are small,
or blessed are the smallest. It is blessed to be small.
(53:14):
And so I think about that with my ministry. It
would be exciting in a human way if I had
big donors who supported me and we could reach all
these people. And I'll accept it. I've begged for it,
I've looked for it, I've suffered for it. But there
is something beautiful about being small, and when you read
(53:35):
the lives of the saints, most were not successful in
an exterior way. It was in that little crucifixion of faithfulness,
in the midst of disappointments and failures, that they bore
the greatest fruit for the Kingdom of heaven. So we
continue to ask for help, and I would be, you know,
(53:59):
as static if somebody out there is like, oh, you know,
I'd like to make a large donation to this. You
could even assign it to a particular country that you have,
you know, a passion for I know a family who
adopted a child from Ethiopia, so they always make sure
their donations go to Ethiopia. But even in our littleness,
(54:22):
it does not mean we're not bearing fruit. Right, Saint Therez,
I've got that big statue of Saint Therez here.
Speaker 9 (54:29):
Should I show you.
Speaker 2 (54:30):
I'll turn this sere Therez, she's sitting here with me.
Saint Terrez teaches us that littleness is a powerful instrument
in the hands of God. Right and administrative costs like
other places, other foundations and things, they have enough donations,
(54:53):
they can have a secretary, they can you know, have
an office space or things like that that I have nothing.
I have to do everything for free. The office space
is my home, and I have to pay for that
mortgage too. So really, when you give a donation to
(55:15):
the FIAT Foundation, you can trust it is going to
a dire need. There is, you know, no extra coffee
being bought for the employees. It is going directly to
the porest of the poor. We're just more of like
a funnel to get it to them. Right, So when
I say I need seventeen hundred dollars for Pakistan, that
(55:38):
means the printer in Pakistan said, I will print these
books for seventeen hundred dollars, and then I throw in
the transfer fee, and the translator that arranges everything gets nothing.
And distribution is nothing like. Everybody's got to come up
with it, just like I have to come up with,
you know, the extra stuff to get my stuff out here.
(56:00):
So we try to be very very responsible with that
which is given. Why is this important? Why are books important?
Why is this ministry important? Sorry, that's gonna drive me nuts.
I like things to be equal. It's monumental. It's not
(56:24):
just important in order to strength and heal comfort our
modern day martyrs, in order to heal and educate women,
the men who abuse them and the children who are
the future of the world. And the Church's teaching these
books have inspired modern day youth to be missionaries in
the Middle East. They're just trying to stay alive, and
(56:44):
now there are teenagers dreaming about being a missionary like
Mary Klaska. That's incredible. The people on the ground are
Catechists said, never before have we heard the word missionary
amongst our young like now right. It's not just surviving,
it's going out. There's such a fruit from our prayer groups.
(57:06):
This prayer heals, it gives peace, strength, wisdom, and through
prayers the people on the ground are inspired as to
how to help their own people the best way. In Pakistan,
even priests have said that they don't know the prayers
that we have taught them. In two thousand years, nobody
(57:26):
has ever taught in Afghanistan the rosary for praying the Rosary.
Now right, man does not live by bread alone, but
every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
People say, why in the world do you not provide food?
You know you can't eat a book. But even Christ said,
(57:47):
man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word.
And when I share these books and these teachings of Christ.
It fills the heart with something greater than human food. Right,
it's the bread of the soul. And we reach places
no one else can We could never reach there. Saint
Hilary spoke of this. He said, banish though we may be,
(58:11):
we will speak with books. The word of God, which
cannot be held in captivity, will make holy excursions everywhere.
And books are like a seed that God can plant
in his own time and water in his own way.
Sometimes we look at like the Saint Luis de Momfort
who wrote True Devotion to Mary. Right, Satan hid that
(58:35):
book for hundreds of years. He persecuted him, but when
it exploded, it brought about a new age in the
world of the children of Mary, the knights of the
Immaculada who live under her protection, and a consecration to her.
Saint John Boscow on March nineteenth, eighteen eighty five, spoke
(58:55):
about this power of books. A good book can find
its way in to homes where the priest is not welcome.
It will be kept as a souvenir or accepted as
a present, even if by a bad person. A good
book enters a home without blushing if rebuffed, it's not discouraged.
If taken up and read, it teaches the truth calmly.
(59:18):
If set aside, it does not complain, but patiently awaits
the time when conscious conscience may rekindle the desire to
know truth. It may perhaps be left to collect dust
on a table or a library shelf, like in my
mom's basement. I'm finding all these books now that are
really helpful to me, given no attention for a long time,
(59:41):
But then comes the hour of solitude, sadness, sorrow, boredom,
a need for relaxation, of anxiety about the future, just
a necessary cleaning of your recent right. And this faithful
friend shakes off its dust, opens its pages. As was
the case with Augustine and Ignacious, it may bring about conversions.
(01:00:05):
A good book is gentle with those who are hampered
by human respect and addresses them without arousing suspicion in anyone.
It's on familiar terms with good people, and always ready
to make meaningful conversation, to travel along with them anywhere.
How many souls have been saved, preserved from error, encouraged
(01:00:25):
in the practice of virtue through good books. The person
who gives a good book as a gift may only
barely succeed in awakening the thought of God thereby. In
most instances, however, the good that has done is much
greater once brought into the family. If it's not read
by the person to whom it was given, the book
(01:00:45):
will be read by a son or a daughter, a
friend or a neighbor. In a small town. That book
may touch the lives of one hundred people likes going
on in Pakistan for us right now. Only God knows
how much good a book can do in a say city,
in a public library and a worker's association, in a
hospital where the friendly gift of a book is much appreciated.
(01:01:10):
And then in this annual report, I just have testimonies
from the countries where we work in Pakistan. They said,
Mary Klaska is helping and giving us peace, hope and
light as our mother. Mary, your books, your voice, your
message is like a prophet in my place. After reading
(01:01:34):
these books, we're finally getting free. Now we know the
real dignity of the person. Peace is flowing and will
flow through the Middle East through these books. As we
have shared them with government leaders. You have healed the
(01:01:57):
people who received these books know them. But you've touched them.
You've given them a ray of hope and joy. In
this small village where young girls are not allowed to
get an education, they are not treated nicely. These young
girls are dreaming of following you and becoming a missionary.
They're saving unborn souls immediately. Mothers have asked me to
(01:02:21):
go to their newborn children and to pray for them,
those same children that they had wanted to kill by abortion.
I've handwritten thank you notes from families saying that when
the women gave these books to their husbands, they stopped
abusing them. In Uganda, I have a whole report from
(01:02:46):
the work that they're doing in Uganda. You can see
that here in the prison libraries right how they've turned
from the evil lives that they were living. In Ethiopia.
I have those official letters from the parish priests asking
(01:03:09):
for more. A family came to me. This is in Pakistan.
The mother said that she has six daughters. She told
me that she was crying that the father used to
beat these girls because he wanted sons. But after reading
and talking to the teachers and the sessions about your books,
(01:03:35):
he has grown to accept the dignity of women. He's
respecting his daughters and he's sending them to pray with
the children of the Cross Group. So it's making a
concrete different in lives. Then I have our goals and
a little bit about the different books that I provide here,
(01:03:55):
these nine different ones you can or ten, I guess
because of the new Pro lifebook. You can find that here.
If you are watching this and you would like a
copy of the Annual Report and you can't afford the
couple dollars, it is on Amazon. This is available. I
can mail you one. Just let me know in the
(01:04:18):
United States. Right, if you are a big donor outside
the United States, I can try, but it's very expensive
to mail things internationally, so I can only do that
if it's able to help the foundation go further. Right,
But you can also see on my Facebook. I have
screenshots of this whole thing, and Amazon does okay with
(01:04:40):
the printing. The images are not very clear, so it's
probably better to look at my Facebook. But we do
what we can do. Before I end, I want to
touch upon both the readings at Mass today in this song,
the song that I chose in Christ alone speaks to
(01:05:01):
the work of the FIA Foundation, Right in Christ alone,
my hope is found. And we hear that in the
first reading today, right from Jeremiah. Cursed is the man
who puts his trust in men, right, whose heart turns
(01:05:26):
from the Lord.
Speaker 4 (01:05:27):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
But blessed is the man who puts his trust in
the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord. If you
put your trust in men, then your heart becomes like
a wasteland. And as soon as troubles come, you know,
everything that you've created falls apart. But if you put
(01:05:50):
your trust in God alone, right here, in Christ alone,
my hope is found. You know, A blessed is the
man who puts his trust in the Lord alone. Then
you're like a tree planted by water, and no matter
what comes, and what storms come, or what drought comes,
you bear powerful fruit. Right the song says, He is
(01:06:10):
God is my light, my strength, my song, my cornerstone,
the solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace when fears
are stilled and striving sees my comforter my all in all,
here in the love of Christ I stand. It speaks
(01:06:31):
directly to this first rating from Jeremiah right that we
stand in the firm love of Christ as a tree
planted by his water, the water coming from his crucified heart.
And not only do we do that here at the
FIA Foundation, we form the children of the Cross to
do that. We form those involved in our organization to
(01:06:53):
do that because they are faced with storms and drought.
You know, at any point, I can be cut off
from any of these missions. But I hope that we
have formed the people on the ground enough that they
can take the books they already have and the teachings
they've already learned, and for two hundred years, carry this
(01:07:13):
mission forward even without any contact with me. Right say,
the Taliban takes over in another country where we are
and prevents any communication with the outside, they can still
bear fruit because they're planted in Christ. They're not planted
in Mary, right, and Christ supports them even with their
(01:07:33):
threat of death daily. Right, He is their comfort. He
is there all in all. And it talks about this
suffering of Christ and the song. But I love this
last verse. No guilt in life, no fear in death. Right,
(01:07:55):
when we're planted in Christ, we're not afraid of death.
I try to be prudent myself, but if somebody were
to martyr me for my faith. I'm okay with that.
My whole life is lived with that perspective that it's
in the hands of God and may his will be done.
(01:08:17):
That's the power of Christ in me. Right. Jesus commands
my destiny from my first cry to my final death breath.
Jesus and his will guides my life. Right, That's why
I have faat to it. And no power of Hell,
no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from his hand. No,
(01:08:41):
I have endured incredible spiritual warfare in my life, and
the powers of Hell cannot take me from Christ. The
schemes of men. I think about all the way that
men try to complicate my life and persecute me. You know,
Saint Night, a priest tell me that once in confession,
not long ago, and I had nothing to do with
(01:09:02):
what we were talking about. I think it was just prophetic.
He said, just no, the devil can use anyone against you.
So basically, only put your trust in the Lord is
what he was saying. It was holy African, and it's true.
No scheme of man to mess up you know, my
ministry or you know where people get jealous or competitive
(01:09:27):
in ways that would disrupt our service of the poor.
It cannot pluck me from the hand of the Lord.
And if he made everything shut down today and I
ended up having to just live locked alone in this house,
it still couldn't pluck me from the hand of the Lord,
because he is where I'm planted, and he is the
(01:09:50):
source of my joy. He is if I have Jesus,
I'm fine. And it's true for these people here in
these persecuted countries. They can get cut off from the
of the world, they can get cut off from their needs.
But if I've given them Christ and planted them next
to His heart crucified, then no matter what happens, they
can't be taken from Him, and they have that peace
(01:10:12):
and that joy right here in the power of Christ.
I stand and we hear that in the Psalm happy
is the man who has placed his trust in the Lord,
right from Psalm one. Happy, indeed is the man who
follows not the counsel of the wicked, nor walks in
the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of
(01:10:32):
the insolent, but whose delight is the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on it day and night. He is
like a tree planted beside flowing water that yields its
fruit in due season, whose leaves never fade, and whatever
he does prospers.
Speaker 4 (01:10:48):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
I remember when I was little, wanting to memorize the Psalms,
and I only got to Psalm one. But I do
know that one. And you know our hope again comes
through Christ and him being our foundation. And the second
reading from the First Corinthians speaks about if Christ is
(01:11:10):
raised from the dead, then how could you say there
is no resurrection. Right, it's the resurrection of Christ is true,
then even our own death shouldn't matter. Right, No suffering
on earth is final. The final say is the resurrection Christ.
(01:11:32):
Everything was crucified with Christ and in Christ, and was
raisen and from the dead with him and made new.
He said, I make all things new. So regardless of
the difficulties that we may face as the foundation, that
we may face as individuals, the difficulties we could face
as a country, as a church, and that the people
(01:11:57):
we serve face on a daily basis, one of those matter.
If we have faith in Christ and we unite those
sufferings to Him, and we know that our hope is
that He makes all things new in his own time,
in his own way, right, and the will of God
is incredible because people are free and he allows them
to mess up his plan for our lives. But his
(01:12:20):
plan is bigger than other people's free will.
Speaker 15 (01:12:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:12:24):
God might want to provide me with work for the foundation,
and you know, maybe something won't work out here or there,
this employer is being unjust, or you know, I don't know.
His providence is not dependent just on that. Right, He'll
(01:12:46):
find somebody else. He'll find somebody new.
Speaker 12 (01:12:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:12:50):
He might want me to work in Pakistan, and the
particular connections I have get cut off or somebody chooses
to kill them, or you know, who knows what might
shut that door. God opens another door. His providence is
not dependent just on that. He might want my books
published and they're prideful people at this publisher that say no,
(01:13:15):
even though that was God's will. And he finds a
different publisher and he does greater work because his providence
is not dependent upon that. So look in your own lives.
It doesn't mean just because something feels that it wasn't
God's will. It might be his will, and it might
be spiritual warfare. It might be other people's free choice.
To sin, that mess set up. But his will is
(01:13:38):
bigger than that, and he just he finds another way, right,
he finds another way, and then we just have The
Gospel is the Beatitudes, and I serve the people of
the Beatitudes. I strive to be a woman of the Beatitudes.
And that's what I want to leave each one of
you with. Happy are we when we're poor, right, primarily
(01:14:02):
poor in spirit. When we're humble, the Lord can fill us.
When we live a simplicity of life, we have room
for God. Right, the kingdom of Heaven is ours. Happy
are we who are hungry, whether we be hungry for
food because you know, finances are tight, whether we be
hungry for love, for relationships when people are cruel. If
(01:14:24):
we're hungry for Him and we thirst after the Eucharist,
we will be satisfied. Happy are us are us? Yeah?
Happy are we who weep? Who are sad from time
to time? It means that the Cross of Christ does
not lost its freshness. Right, it is a grace to
suffer with the Lord. Happy are we when people hate us,
(01:14:48):
when they exclude us and they drive us out. It's
very disappointing when you try, especially in the church, to
bring the Gospel to people, and they hate you, they're
jealous or competible, when they reject you, when they exclude you,
when they say you're not good enough, we won't include you.
There's a lot of cliques in the Catholic Church, especially
in the United States, and if you're not one of
(01:15:12):
the cool people, that you're not known, and that's not
a missionary heart. It's not the heart of the Gospel.
And I address that in that Missionary Handbook for priests
and laity that I wrote. We're blessed when we're hated.
We're blessed when we're excluded, when we're driven out right,
(01:15:33):
even when we're abused. I don't say you should stay
in abusive situations right use prudence, but when you are,
you know, treated poorly, you are blessed in a way.
Christ was treated the same way. When you're denounced, when
you're calimnated, when you're treated like a criminal, or when
you're treated as crazy, even though you're simply following the gospel.
(01:15:57):
Rejoice when it happens, because you will be great in heaven.
That is how the prophets were treated, and that is
how Christ was. He was called a fool. He was hated,
he was treated as a criminal, He was excluded, he
was driven out. He wasn't part of the popular Catholic
Christian people right Jewish people. And if you are, it
(01:16:21):
doesn't mean you're bad. Right, God may bless you and
have you succeed like Mother Angelica with e wtn to
reach a lot of souls. But your heart needs to
rejoice not in that success, but in identifying with Christ crucified.
Speaker 6 (01:16:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:16:41):
You have to be holly despite the success because of it,
you know. But woe to you who are rich. You
have your consolation now right, If you have everything you
want in life, then you don't have a room or
a need for God. Woe to you who have you
(01:17:03):
know your fill. You will hunger for the Lord later
because you'll realize what you filled your life with is
not authentic food. And woe to you who are who laugh,
who maybe are superficial, or who seek out pleasure so
that you are happy in a worldly way. You know,
(01:17:29):
death will reach you and suffering will reach you, and
you won't know how to handle it. If you don't
have Christ, right, you will mourn and weep. And but
it's interesting those who are used to suffering. They find
joy and peace even in the midst of the whole experience. Right,
(01:17:51):
we see how the saints rejoiced as they were being
killed as a diet of cancer, of you know whatever.
Speaker 11 (01:17:58):
And.
Speaker 2 (01:18:00):
And woe for you when the world speaks well of you,
because Christ wasn't spoken well and we want to be
with him and his suffering. So here we are at
the end. We talked about the fat Foundation, We talked
(01:18:22):
about this beautiful song that the Lord just gave me
this morning, and Christ alone, and we talked about the
Gospel and the readings. I invite you to find the
Annual Report online and to take pray through it. If
you can't help us financially, please help us spiritually. I'm
(01:18:46):
going to end by singing the song one more time.
We're already over an hour. The good thing about podcasts
is you're not limited to a time slot like on
TV or something before. Right, So we're gonna end with
the song again, and we're just going to ask the
Lord to continue to bless us so that we can
be children of the Kingdom of Heaven. Right following his crucified,
(01:19:13):
his crucified path and footsteps. I'm not sure I can
see after talking that.
Speaker 16 (01:19:30):
Long in Christlonde, I hope this fall.
Speaker 17 (01:20:00):
He's my life, my strength, my song, his corner stone,
the solid ground, firm.
Speaker 4 (01:20:18):
Through the fierce stre and storm, wood, hides of love,
wood tubs of peace.
Speaker 15 (01:20:36):
With fearce ofstand win striveving seeds.
Speaker 4 (01:20:46):
I comforted, I an a here in the love of Christ.
I stand in Christ alone, who took God, f formness
(01:21:13):
of God.
Speaker 2 (01:21:14):
And have.
Speaker 7 (01:21:16):
This space, this gift of love.
Speaker 4 (01:21:25):
And righteousness. Scorned by the wants.
Speaker 7 (01:21:31):
He came to save.
Speaker 4 (01:21:37):
To the crows as g's a stun.
Speaker 9 (01:21:47):
The rough.
Speaker 7 (01:21:49):
God was said.
Speaker 4 (01:21:53):
As fine.
Speaker 7 (01:21:57):
For every cent.
Speaker 9 (01:22:02):
On him was la.
Speaker 4 (01:22:06):
Here in the death of Christ, I live very the ground,
his body, lane, light of.
Speaker 8 (01:22:24):
The world by dogs, slade.
Speaker 4 (01:22:31):
And bursting for in glorious state.
Speaker 8 (01:22:40):
Up from the grave he roads again and dazyts.
Speaker 4 (01:22:53):
In the factory saints CRUs bass lost head, scrap on me.
Speaker 5 (01:23:08):
For his.
Speaker 4 (01:23:13):
And he is my but with the precious blood, love.
Speaker 7 (01:23:22):
Chrime, no guilt in life, no fear and da.
Speaker 4 (01:23:34):
This is a power of Christ in from life's first
cry to find our bread. Jesus comments, my Dad stand
(01:23:59):
no power tho schame move canver plok be from his
hand to reach.
Speaker 7 (01:24:24):
Or calls me home.
Speaker 4 (01:24:28):
Here in the power of Christ, I.
Speaker 7 (01:24:32):
Will stand.
Speaker 2 (01:24:39):
Scorned by the ones He came to save. Sweet Jesus,
we asked you to give us the courage to love
those who you send us to, to love those who
scorn us, even when we're sent to them. We pray
that the people we serve in these countries that are
(01:25:01):
so persecuted may become the missionary saints to convert those
who persecute them. We ask you to call many more
to join our mission, to send us people willing to
finance our work, to encourage us on our work, and
to help us. And we ask you to continue to
bear powerful fruit amongst the hearts and souls that we
(01:25:23):
have already touched throughout the world. Glory be to the
Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit
as it was in the beginning, as now never shall
be world without end aim and ali Lujah. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:25:40):
Hello, God's beloved. I'm Annabel Moseley, author, professor of theology,
and host of then Sings My Soul and Destination Sainthood
on WCAT Radio. I invite you to listen in and
find inspiration along this sacred journey We're traveling together to
make our lives a masterpiece and with God's grace, become saints.
(01:26:04):
Join me Annabel Moseley for then sings My Soul and
Destination Sainthood on w c AT Radio. God bless you.
Remember you are never alone. God is always with you.
Speaker 2 (01:26:22):
Thank you for listening to a production of w c
ET Radio. Please join us in our mission of evangelization,
and don't forget Love lifts up when knowledge takes flight.
You're listening to WCAT radio, your home for authentic Catholic programming.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hello, and welcome to the Heart of Fiat Crucified Love.
This week, I'd like to share with you all about
the work of the FIAT Foundation, this not for profit
that I run, and we did the new annual report.
But what is so striking to my heart that I'd
like to share with you is the continued plight of
(00:31):
our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world. We primarily
work with the most persecuted communities and those who don't
have other Christian or Catholic organizations that support them. Right
it's in the most dangerous areas, and the work that
God is doing is so beautiful. This morning, when I
(00:53):
went to Mass early and I was listening to the readings,
I realized how or pos those readings were for this
podcast as well. So we're going to say a prayer
and I'm going to sing a song. I do have
a cold. My voice is not wonderful, but the children
(01:13):
I sing too, like it, and so I hope you
accept this not as a concert, but as part of
our prayer. Here at the beginning, I like to do
this and then we'll share some thoughts about the readings
and about the work of the Foundation, and specifically with
these prayer groups of children. We founded the children of
(01:33):
the Cross. So in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. Amen, Come, Holy Spirit, Fill the
hearts of your faithful and enkindle in us a fire
of your love. Send forth your Spirit, and we will
be recreated.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
And thou shalt renew the face of the earth. Come,
Holy Spirit, Come by the means of the powerful intercession
of Immaculate Heart of Mary, thy well beloved spouse.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
In Christ alone, I hope this fall.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
He is my life, my strength, my song, this coner song,
this solid ground, firm.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Through the fiarsest dreg.
Speaker 6 (02:59):
And so.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
What heights of love, what tabs of peace with fears ofsted.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Wind strive exceeds.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
My calm furt I a lander Here in the love
of Christ.
Speaker 7 (03:37):
I stand.
Speaker 8 (03:41):
In Christ alone, who took godfliesh.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Fulless of God and the space this gift, a fall
and righteousness scorned by the ones he came.
Speaker 9 (04:12):
To save to on bad cross as geeze a start.
Speaker 10 (04:26):
The real.
Speaker 11 (04:29):
God was sast.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Fun for every sin on him wastly. Here in the
death of Christ, I lived bry the crowd his body
(05:01):
land lad of the world by dog nest lay and
bursting for in coorious up from the Grevey roads, argast.
Speaker 11 (05:30):
And asy stands in factory Saints crisis lost.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
It's great buy for am his and he is mind.
But with the precious blood.
Speaker 10 (06:05):
Of Christs, no catan life, no fear, and.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
This is a power of Christ and me from life
first Christ too, fine old.
Speaker 12 (06:33):
Dad Jesus comments, my Dadtandy, no power of power, no
scheme of man.
Speaker 13 (06:54):
Canev plant be from miss Hartily Richards or calls me
home here in the power of Christ.
Speaker 7 (07:19):
I'll stand.
Speaker 8 (07:23):
No guiltan life, go fear and versus a power of Christ.
From Life's first Christ.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
To fine o bread.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
Jesus comments, my dad, steady.
Speaker 14 (07:59):
The power are of hands, no skime of man. Couldn't plod.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
We from his hand to the Richards or calls me
hold here in the power of Christ, all stand for
(08:38):
I am His and he is smile but with the
precious plood.
Speaker 6 (08:52):
Of Christ, Amon Ali Lujah, Father's son, holy spirited.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Then I prayed so hard I could do that song.
I just ran in where my music is and I
started flipping and I saw this and I thought, oh,
this will be perfect. But not till I played it
through before I started to record, did I realize exactly
how perfect this was for the topics that we will
(09:25):
cover today. Persecuted Christians. We celebrated Saint Valentine on Friday.
People remember Saint Valentine's Day as a day for people
(09:47):
who are in love, and yet Saint Valentine was martyred
terribly for his faith, and he shows to us how
authentic love is congruent with death, death to self right.
We have the wonderful examples not only of martyrs, but
(10:11):
of parents, of mothers right who have given their lives
for their children, Fathers who tireuslee give themselves over and
over again to provide for their families. Priests who not
only have full schedules during the day, but are called
throughout the night to wake up and to go to
(10:33):
the hospital, to go to the bedside of someone dying,
someone grieving the death of a loved one. Sisters who
give up that prospect of marriage to a human man,
to live in community which is not always easy for them,
and to be married to Christ so that they can
(10:54):
serve the poorest of the poor. I'm worry reading a
beautiful book on one of the newer saints in our church,
or Venerables, and he followed l I forget the last name.
It's like Schwartz something.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
But uh, oh goodness.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
He went to Korea to become a missionary. But he
founded two different communities, and one is a group of
sisters at works in Mexico, and they have three thousand,
over three thousand girls in their orphanage. And it writes
so beautifully of how they see their vocation of completely
(11:39):
giving up everything in order to pour themselves out to
take care of these girls who are victims often of trafficking,
or of dire poverty, of abusive situations at home. We're
all called to love unto the Cross. And yet the
(12:01):
cross and martyrdom for your faith are not simply something
that existed twenty, you know, two thousand years ago that
we're supposed to just think about sometimes. But as concretely,
as we embrace the Catholic faith with our body and
our minds and our hearts, we will suffer the Cross
(12:22):
with Christ in our bodies and our minds and our hearts.
It was ten years ago yesterday that the Pope canonized
twenty one men who were killed by Isis in Libya.
I believe they were Egyptian, twenty Egyptian men and one
(12:46):
African Ghanian soul Matthew, who wasn't even Christian, and they
accidentally kidnapped him and then they tried to let him go,
and he was so impressed by the faith of these
Coptic Egyptian men that he said, my God is their God,
and if they will die for that God, so will I.
(13:08):
And they were beheaded on the beach, and a video
was released and both the Coptic Church and then Pope
Francis followed with the Catholic Church canonize them. They were
killed for their faith. Right, And that's not an isolated story,
as you know that from the first time I published
(13:32):
a book, now I've published many, right, and we have
all sorts of work. I thought I had written The
Holiness of Womanhood, which is a book on the vocation
and dignity of women, and it actually came out of
a negative feminism that I ran into during my years
at the University of Notre Dame, and many feminist sisters
(13:53):
and then even sadly some people that were still left
over in the theology department there who were teaching things
very erroneous, and really despised our lady for her humility
and her fiat, which is like the center of my life, right,
that were fiat, this surrender, And so I began a
(14:15):
women's group there, and then I began to write, and
I went on to give some retreats on the vocation
of women, and wrote out these retreats and continued to
teach for many years. The book was probably fifteen twenty
years twenty years in the making before I finally decided
to publish it. And I thought it would be a
(14:38):
gift to just the few people in the United States
that I had contact with, parishes locally or something. I
had spent so many years in the physical missions, living
in eastern Siberia and returning to Russia while it was
allowed in the Philippines and the trash dump there, just
(15:00):
all over Africa and the orphanages, and my life had
been a constant pilgrimage. And then I would settle as
a hermit for a while and then continue, as the
Russians call it, a stra meiku, right, a pilgrim who
would carry that contemplative message that a hermit receives in
(15:21):
prayer to the world and to serve the poorest of
the poor. And it was done in a unique way,
since I wasn't married, and I had given myself to
Christ for this work, but clearly not called to a
community life as a sister. And so I lived that
(15:42):
for a long time. And when I published that first book,
I truly thought my mission life had ended. I was exhausted.
I lived out of a backpack for fifteen years, and
all my possessions fit in that I still have it upstairs,
and I just I wanted to disappear, to become that
(16:05):
seed that dies, And so I followed an authentic vocation
to the aramitical life in a permanent way and had
diaceisan vows temporary for three years. And then, as always
happens when you follow a radical call of God, the
evil one tries to throw you off your course right,
(16:29):
and it happened to the saints. So I really lost support,
spiritual support, financial support, and I decided to continue to
go forward and to try to live as contemplative as
a life as I could, and I became a nanny.
Originally it was just at night to babies, because it
(16:50):
was more contemplative. But the Lord has taken me into
the hearts and the homes of so many people. And
it turned more into serving the wealthy, who are very
poor in their connection with God. Often right, they don't
know Him the way that you know the street people do.
(17:15):
Who I had served for years, because when you have nothing,
you have to cling to Him for everything. But when
you have everything, there's more of a choice, right, and
there's there's probably a greater merit when you choose to
follow Christ on a way of suffering when you are
given comfort, because you've got to you've got to set
(17:36):
that aside right for him. So I did this, and
I thought that the way I would reach the missions
would be just through my writing. I was contacted by
a gentleman in Pakistan, and it kind of threw me
a little. I didn't know if I should attempt to
(17:58):
work in a country where people are murdered daily for
their Catholic faith. And my publisher said, Mary, when God
opens the door, run through. Let's see what happens. And
so thus began an explosive ministry to persecute Christians all
(18:18):
over the world. I started to be contact by priests
and catechists, and sisters from these countries where where daily
people were being killed for their faith. And they said, well,
when I would get online and google help for persecuted Christians,
only your name and contact came up. Well that was
(18:41):
kind of funny because at that time I wasn't helping
persecutor Christians. But God gave them my name and number
and email. And it has happened to me many times
in other countries where you know, somebody miraculously would be
given my phone number or something. Because I keep that
very hidden. I like a quiet life. So I began
(19:04):
to work and it catapulted into a great work, a
huge work. It was not just allowing some people to
translate my books and then trying to find funding to
print those, but it turned into a full time ministry
for me and for the people I work with. Unfortunately,
we don't have any money to pay any of us
(19:25):
right and I trust that on the ground in these
other countries, just as I do so much for free,
and sometimes I have to take on second third jobs
to pay for this ministry because I just don't have
the donors. I trust that they also, you know, are
(19:45):
are using the money that we send for that which
we have asked, and they report back. They send me
the receipts from the printers or that. You know a
few times we've paid school fees for somebody and they
sent me the receipt from the school. So the people
I work with in these countries have proven themselves to
be very trustworthy. I get leary with starting new missions
(20:10):
because I've vetted the people that I work with so strongly.
They know my spirituality, they know my predilection for the poor,
the way that I work, and I know that I
can trust them to make decisions with that same spirit
as the Lord has given to me for this mission work.
(20:33):
So we started to print so many books. We were
invited to sneak thousands. We ended up sneaking six thousand
books into Afghanistan. When the United States pulled out and
the Taliban took over. We had you know, underground paths
into the country into the people in hiding, and we
(20:56):
had my books translated into Dari and we sent them there.
And all of this takes lots of money, and I
had people so creatively trying to donate. I had, you know,
a friend that met me on when I was doing
my rosaries on Facebook who said she used to buy
really expensive purses, so she went in her closet and
(21:18):
she started selling them on some of those websites. And
anytime she'd get one sold for you know, maybe it
was seventy dollars, maybe it was one hundred and fifty dollars,
she'd send me that and you know, all sorts of love,
little people trying to help. And they did mention to
(21:39):
me though, it would be helpful if you had a foundation,
if we could get tax exemption on this, and that
intimidated me because that is not my greatest gift. The
people I work for would probably argue with me when
I say I don't have business savvy because I run,
you know, a lot of things for them, but I
(22:01):
don't enjoy that. I might be good at it, but
I don't understand you know, math and accounting and legal
things and all of that. But I didn't have any help.
So I had to put a foundation together and you know,
set that up with the I R S and you know,
file all those forms. And I had some people who
(22:22):
said they'd be on my board, but they didn't really
have the inclination to do that. So as the president
of the FIAT Foundation, I had to, and I continue
to do the accounting and the filing of the different
forms you have to do every year, so and then
sending out the receipts to the donors, and you know,
(22:44):
sending the money, getting the transfers over to the countries
where we work. So that is how the Fiat Foundation began.
It was just out of necessity of this work that
God started through me, kind of despite me. It was
not like I had an idea to do this. Oh
I like persecuted people, I should start a ministry.
Speaker 10 (23:06):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
God did all of this through me despite my own inaptitude,
and I've continued to say yes and do what I
can do. I often speak about the Fiat Foundation and
the Children of the Cross. Those are actually two separate entities.
At some point, when I find a good and holy
(23:28):
bishop who would like to work with me, I would
love to set up this little apostolate that we have
as a private association of the faithful or something something official.
But for now we just we took one of my
(23:49):
books about the spiritual formation of children, and we have
used it to touch the lives of thousands of children
and to start groups. I've also anybody who knows me knows.
I have a great love for praying for priests, and
so it was originally a prayer group to meet on
(24:11):
First Fridays to pray for priests, especially since they're targeted
in a special way in these countries. But then it
kind of expanded to also pray for persecuted Christians and
the children themselves and their families who are so persecuted.
So the Children of the Cross are children who meet
(24:35):
usually at least on First Friday, but oftentimes once a
week to pray for priests and persecuted Christians in a
Catholic way. I would prefer it would be done in
a church with the Blessed Sacrament. It's not always possible
for some of these countries, so I ask that they
pray the Rosary and the Chaplet of Mercy, the Litanys,
(24:57):
and different Catholic prayers. We do have many non Catholics
that join these prayer groups, but it is a Catholic.
It is a Catholic prayer group. So the FIAT Foundation
is the non for profit that funds the printing and
the distribution of books all over the world for the
poorest of the poor and the persecuted. The children of
(25:19):
the Cross are the prayer groups of children that came
from the spread of these books. And it was really
amazing because once we started printing books, it wasn't just
like we don't just do it like here in the
United States. People like maybe at Christmas or at Easter,
a priest still decide to buy a lot of a
(25:41):
book and to put it in the back of the
church and then people can take it. These are often
the only catecotical materials that the parishes or the communities have,
and they gather groups of people and read them aloud.
(26:01):
Many times. In Pakistan, the women in the rural areas
are illiterate, and so they'll take The Holiness of Womanhood
and read it to one hundred illiterate women and to
teach to bring a live the message in there about
the dignity and vocation of women. And in Pakistan especially
(26:22):
that has then catapulted into a whole pro life work.
We are the only pro life presence in Pakistan, and
so they use the book The Holiness of Womanhood to
teach about the dignity of motherhood and all of that.
And then I asked a blessed soul here to who's
(26:42):
very involved with pro life work and who is anonymous
to write a booklet, a pro life booklet about you know,
fetal development and what is abortion and why shouldn't.
Speaker 9 (26:56):
You have it?
Speaker 2 (26:56):
And the beauty of motherhood and ways to pray through
a pregnancy and ways to pray for post abortion healings.
It's very little, but it's going to be We just
printed it be very powerful because there's nothing like that
in that whole country and also in the Middle East. Oftentimes,
even the priests of religious the seminarians have not had
(27:20):
written material. They get killed for carrying a Bible, but
they don't get killed carrying my books. So my book
Out of the Darkness, which is about the Passion of Christ,
they carry everywhere and it gives them strength and courage
to be willing to risk death even for their faith.
(27:41):
The book Mornings with Mary, that is that rosary prayer
book we had translated both into Urdu and Pakistan and
Dari and Afghanistan.
Speaker 12 (27:50):
And.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
It's the first time that these people have learned the
Rosary in their own language. Even the priests not know
Pope Leo the thirteenth, Saint Michael the Archangel prayer. Imagine
that for now we have the Saint Michael prayer being
prayed in the Middle East. What a powerful tool and
(28:13):
defense against the wickedness that happens there. So there's there's
so many fruits. And then we expended expanded into Africa
and Nigeria. As you know, there is great persecutions in
the north, and so we serve the seminaries there and
the priests and the sisters and those who get kidnapped,
(28:36):
you know, when they are released have asked for my
books to help heal their hearts and to encourage them.
And the Cameroon, we have met a Cistercian who works
amongst especially the children, and he has gone out and
(28:57):
even he's been attacked by the rebels and held at
gunpoint and had his wallet and his phone and everything stolen.
But when they opened my books and saw what they were,
they said, we'll deliver these for you, and they took
them across the border to the women waiting in the
next village and they actually delivered them in Uganda. Boy,
(29:23):
oh boy. The diocese and Uganda are so excited about
my work. And I try to focus on the priests,
religious and the catechists, because if you can form the
leaders they naturally form the people, right, and they are
taking my books everywhere. They're used in parishes, they are
(29:44):
used in you know, prayer groups that they have in
little villages and neighborhoods. They've taken a thousand copies of
Out of the Darkness into the high security prisons throughout Uganda,
and both the guards and the prisoners have come to
the faith. Gang members, sex traffic, sex workers, different groups
(30:08):
of taxi drivers Bodha Bodha drivers they call them, you know,
get together and they have prayer groups now, and it's
just incredible. And Ethiopia as well, we're upholding one whole
diocese and the parish is right continually asking for just
(30:29):
enough books for their priest, religious and catechists. We're in
the universities. We do a lot with the orphanage there.
That is my main contact. And it's just amazing to
see where I thought the Lord was going to make
me give all of that up. Now that I'm getting older,
(30:50):
it's harder to live out of a backpack, right, And
I returned to the United States, and yet he catapulted
me into places I actually couldn't visit. If I went,
they would love for me too. But if I went
to Pakistan right now, I would be killed. My picture
is on books throughout the country, and the people we
(31:12):
work with are threatened all the time, and some of
our Children of the Cross are little girls, have been
attacked by muslimen and raped, and so it would definitely
be a death sentence to visit there. And in Northern Nigeria,
I actually lived there for a while, serving with a
bishop in the north, and I believe because of the dangers,
(31:37):
so it would be very difficult to visit some of
these places, not all of them, but some of them.
And of course I don't have finances. I barely can
keep up with the needs here and then just bills
and things. So I reach people through books. And it's
(32:00):
actually the way of the saints. It goes. It's scriptural.
You go back to the New Testament and how Christ
sent out his apostles and what did they do. They
wrote down his message in the gospels, right, Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John and Saint Paul wrote letters to the
churches where he couldn't always visit, you know, and eventually
(32:23):
when he did, you know, in the end, he was
put to death. He was also killed for the faith,
and so it's very biblical to reach people through writing,
and we can do it through things like social media.
We can, and unfortunately I have to be part of that.
(32:45):
I despise social media. I'll be honest. I like to
have a hidden, quiet life. It's the opposite. But every
time I think about pulling down everything, I had to
do it in order to publish my first books. And
the thing that really keeps me going is I have
(33:05):
contact with all of the people who support the FIAT
Foundation only through social media. The people who I'm caring
for on the other side of the world only connect
with me through social media. Underground, you know, Catholic networks
put on social media and pray the Rosary with me.
(33:26):
I pray with thousands and thousands of people every day,
and it's being able to reach and unite with people
in prayer that keeps me on there. But it's not
really an ideal way to reach people, because no matter
how authentic and how much prayer and love you put
(33:46):
into social media, it's not the same as sitting somewhere
with somebody and having a cup of coffee right and
having a chat. There's something distant and the spiritual warfare
that comes is so great. There is so much trash
(34:09):
on social media. It's hard for people to navigate to
find that which the Lord wants to use for their heart.
And then they're not in an atmosphere of silent contemplation
when they need it, right, they have all these commercials
and people selfies and videos about farming and whatever your
interest is, right, all bombarding your head. Even my poor mother.
(34:33):
There was a beautiful homily that the Divine Mercy Fathers
had the other day, and I was at her house
helping her with something, and I said, here, why don't
you sit here and listen to this. I think you'll
appreciate what Father said. So I put it on for
her and went to do some work and she screams,
and I come running in there and some horrible commercial
(34:55):
comes on. But it was like, I've never even seen
that on my phone.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
It was awful.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
It was like pornographic because what did I touch? I said, nothing,
that's just spiritual warfare and social media.
Speaker 12 (35:06):
Right.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
She was so scandalized. And you know, it's hard to navigate.
And in order for God to really touch a heart,
you have to have some kind of semblance of silence
and solitude and focus so that the world can fall away. Right,
(35:31):
if you really want to touch the depth of somebody's heart,
if you're just entering in a debate or on some
issue or something, you could just jump in and be
one of the many voices yelling, and that might enter
into somebody's mind and help them think correctly. If you
want to touch the human heart, you got to take
them with your very presence of God's love flowing through you.
(36:00):
Is difficult to do if you're in the midst of
a crazy world, right, And that's what it is online.
So in some ways, the hearts that I'm able to
touch on the other side of the world, these persecuted Christians,
they're more prepared than people here because they have more
(36:23):
of a quiet life. They're always on that cusp of
being attacked and persecuted, so they cling to only that
which is necessary.
Speaker 6 (36:35):
Right.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Even their poverty kind of pushes away the world in
a way. And so you know, instead of just scrolling
the internet, these people don't have phones and time to
do that. You know, the parish priest, can you know,
just get a link from me and put up a
(36:56):
retreat that I want to give to them from here
in the United States and then they watch it. And
so social media can be a gift like that. I can,
you know, give a talk to a group of thirty
altar boys who could be killed the next time they
go to church. But you know, more profound is being
(37:17):
able to touch people through through writing, kind of in
books in a quieter way. I'm cleaning out my parents'
basement after sixty years of marriage and all this, and
their books are incredible, and you know, there's so much
that a book can do that that is beyond what
(37:40):
you can get on a computer. You can have the
same words written on a computer and then written in
a book. But there's a solitude that can come from
putting yourself in a room that's quiet and reading alone
with God. Then where you know, there's the beat, beat
beep of all these other interactions and other open windows
(38:01):
and all of that when you're on a computer. So
I do see the wisdom of God in having me
work through books. So I want to go through this
and just share with you a little more. What is FIAT?
(38:23):
Why did I call it the Fiat Foundation? Anybody who
knows me knows my word is FIAT. Right, I am
the handmaiden of the Lord. Let it be done unto
me according to thy word. Our lady said, let it
be done, Let it be done, Let it be done.
All throughout my life, I've tried to follow the Lord,
and I have my own desires, and he uses them
(38:45):
to guide me, but he doesn't always fulfill them. Sometimes
he crucifies them. And fiat is saying fiat, like our
lady and the Annunciation, or like Christ the Cross, who
said that I will be done. You know, let this
cup cop be taken from me, but not my will,
but yours be done. When we pray in our Father,
(39:08):
you know thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven. What is that when we say fiat,
we open ourselves up to that exciting plan of God
for our lives. We have a willingness to do his
will and yet simultaneously a resignation to things that we
(39:31):
may desire being crucified in order for His will and
His gospel is mission of salvation to take greater fruit. Right, So,
if I had published my first book and a big
publisher and e WTNN picked up on it, and I
was suddenly everywhere in the United States, maybe I could
(39:52):
have helped people there's a lot of people who do
that though, But by that form of success being crucified,
the Lord was able to guide me to those who
are literally on the verge of death, who are the
most desperate, the poorest of the poor, the most persecuted.
I would never have had this ministry in these other
(40:13):
countries if I was doing things the American way. And
so that's a great example of how fiat, you know,
opens you to what God wants and you go forward,
and then he crucifies some and he bears fruit in
other places. Right, I will never be a Champagne rose,
but I will be a desert rose, a bloom in
(40:37):
the desert. And you see that just in the story
I shared with you of my life, you know, always
wanting to just get married and have a lot of children,
and the Lord crucifying that with a missionary vocation, and
then loving my life and the missions and that being
crucified in a call to the aramitical life and contemplative
(40:59):
life life. And it's like every time I followed the Lord,
I found deeper and deeper joy, even in the sacrifice.
I loved my life as a hermit, that is really
my vocation. But then even that he crucified in a
way through people, so that I was then catapulted back
out to the world. But it's really not that different
(41:20):
than what I was living before. You know, in Russia,
maybe we didn't have clean water or we were followed
by the KGB. But in the United States, you know,
the crosses are still existent. You know, everything's loud and
people are mean sometimes. I don't know, the government has
persecuted Christians here too, you know. And it he just
(41:46):
kind of sent me as this hermit into the world,
like in the old Russian way of the Stramich the pilgrim,
where I carry his contemplative life into deep into the
homes of millionaires and billion children who wouldn't be wouldn't
be taught to love him without that presence. And then
(42:08):
through having a job, I'm able to fund helping my
poor right and reaching places I couldn't go. I could
not go to twenty countries, I could go to one.
And I couldn't speak in all these languages. I speak
in a lot of languages, but not all right. I
couldn't touch like I think we've printed here. It says
(42:30):
sixty one sixty five thousand books we've provided for free.
And then sometimes one book is read to one hundred souls. Right,
think about that, How could I physically touch that many
souls as a spiritual mother if I was there, I
kind of have to just be here and to allow
(42:52):
God to do this through me. Right. So sometimes God
crucifies one thing to put you forward to the next, right,
and we just take that step forward with Fiat saying Fiat.
That's why it's a Fiat Foundation. It's a foundation completely
dedicated to the will of God and whatever for me
(43:12):
wants right, being willing not only to accept His grace
wherever he wants, follow his call wherever he wants, but
also be crucified wherever he wants. So the mission of
the Fiat Foundation primarily is to provide funding for free
Catholic materials to those physically or spiritually most in need,
(43:32):
both here in the United States and abroad. The primary
focus is on helping priest religious foreign missions, and persecuted
Christians through providing free copies of my books, art, music, retreats,
and catechetical materials. We also have provided from time to
time things for priests when they didn't have vestments, they
(43:54):
didn't have what they needed for mass a few times
for the education of some really poor orphans. But we
get requests for it all the time. It's not we
don't have the money to do it continually. And then
some of the great needs that have come up through
the poor here locally, through the foster children that I've
(44:17):
taken it and stuff I've I've used, people have said
they would donate to provide clothing and things for those
children are Ukrainian refugees if they put it through the foundation.
So we do help the poor that way too, but
just it's not our primary focus. We work in twenty
countries or we I mean, they're not.
Speaker 4 (44:40):
We don't.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
We don't have big missions in twenty countries. We have
done work in twenty countries. We have you know, probably
a major six or seven where we continually are growing
and provided over sixty five thousand books to bishops, priest,
religious seminarians category and the poorest of the poor and
(45:01):
those most persecuted and abused. In Pakistan. We've printed twenty
one three hundred books and we've had many many conversions.
In fact, we have a problem because they need a
place to hide Muslims who want to convert, and I
don't have the money for that. We've prevented many abortions
(45:25):
or many children who've been born. In Pakistan and Afghanistan.
We sent six thousand books and started these prayer groups.
I know stories of nurses hiding in the closet at
the hospital reading the holiness of womanhood to another nurse
to teach them the faith right. We also snuck exorcism
(45:46):
salt into the country, so the Taliban took over, and
I said, next time we send books, I want you
to get many large bags of salt and to have
the bishop in Pakistan exercise it and then send it in.
And if the Taliban skates it, then they are eating
exorcism salt, and it's fine. It'll just get the demons away.
(46:06):
And if they don't, the Christians can sprinkle it around
their homes. So that's kind of beautiful. It ties in
my years of work and the Exorcism Deliverance Ministry with
working with the persecuted in Nigeria. We have printed twenty
two thousand, six hundred books, and even some of my
(46:27):
books are being taught in Muslim universities because they emphasize
the dignity of women. And you know, when the Muslims
hear the authentic Catholic teaching as I present it, they're
just blown away. They hear truth and they want to
be part of it.
Speaker 7 (46:46):
Right.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Sometimes they'll have to put books and like they travel
for days to the outskirts, you know, like oh, in
boats and motorcycles and walking through water up to their
knees and they but just to deliver books to some
schools so that these children learn the message of Christ.
And we're so blessed. The seminarian who arranges everything in
(47:11):
Nigeria was then ordained a deacon and is now a priest,
and he has offered to be the official chaplain for
the Children of the Cross. He regularly offers mass for
me for this mission work for our donors. In Uganda,
we have printed two two hundred books and that's where
we work so much, in the prisons. And that's hard
(47:33):
because Uganda is a more expensive country to print. In
Nigeria by far is the cheapest. So I like working
there because you reach most people through just a little bit.
Right Ethiopia, we've printed two four hundred books and we're
providing the katakatakull materials for seven different parishes and we
(47:55):
have letters from the Vicaria there and the different priests
and even the bishop recommending the people who we're working
with as being trustworthy and requesting more help. We've also
sent rosaries over there the camera roon. We have printed
nine thousand books in both English and in French in
(48:21):
Sudan and Malawi. We've been able to reach some sisters,
and we have seminarians in Malawi who offered to translate
the Holiness of Womanhood into chich Chichawa and Tumbuka, but
I'm not sure how that's going. Sometimes we connect with
(48:41):
people and then they lose contact because they don't have
computer excess, and then a year later I'll hear, and
then a year later I'll here and eventually it's like
in India, we printed the Roman Kankani translation of Out
of the Darkness. I think for the Ghones and Mandalorians,
but I'm not I can't control it all. I give
(49:04):
permission and then I trust the people who are doing it.
In India. Our books are all available on potipotchi dot com,
so all throughout India and then just the East there
people can very reasonably purchase any of my books there
(49:24):
on that Indian website Nicaragua, three hundred and sixty books.
We snuck into Bishop Alvarez his diocese and they've requested more,
but the priests have been arrested and the young man
helping me was taken at gunpoint by the militants who
wanted my books. So I don't believe it's prudent for
(49:48):
me to send him more money to continue this right now,
we just continue to pray for the people that are there. Mexico,
we've printed a thousand of Lasanti dad la moucher the
Holiness of Womanhood and Catholic charities carried past there is
using it with the persecuted women, and the same thing
in Columbia, Belize, Puerto Rico. We have projects that we've
(50:14):
tried right and we've only been able to get a
few copies in Brazil, same thing Poland. We have a
struggle in Poland because Amazon increases the price of my
books in Polish to such high prices nobody can afford it.
But my English ones are available, and so I've tried
(50:38):
with my old contacts in Poland to find a printer
who would help us there, but a profit's never accepted
in their own home. I have struggled greatly to find
vendors and people to help in Poland, so I pray
for the people there. I've given the Polish people so much,
and we just ask the Lord to find his own
(50:59):
weight beer fruit. Russia. My desire when I wrote the
book Out of the Darkness was for Russia. I wrote
it in Russia for Russia, and everything's closed right now
because of our problems with the country and the war
and Putin. I have sent digital copies into the country
without a response. Probably the people are a little nervous,
(51:22):
and I have used the Russian translation to help immigrants here,
Russians and Ukrainians. I was able to send some books
into the Ukraine, so we'll see what the Lord opens up.
I would love a path into Uzbekistan and Georgia, India,
(51:42):
and then here in the United States. My publisher has
sent copies of all my books to the seminaries and
to the bishops and the vocation directors. So it speaks
more about here what we do who we serve, right.
But of course, like Christ, I particularly have a love
(52:05):
for the poorest of the poor, the most vulnerable, abused
and danger broke and abandoned. And since we began in
twenty twenty one, so we've been doing this for four years.
We've spent just about thirty thousand dollars a year on this.
We've been able to gather and spend. Last year we
(52:26):
had one very large donor, so we had raised forty
six thousand dollars. But I just assume this is what
the Lord wants. I always have my goals. I beg
and beg and beg. I add everything that I can
personally to the point where I literally have nothing more
to give, and then we see. But there is a
(52:50):
saint who was just well beatified in Mexico. I forget
his name. It was a priest. He worked amongst the
pro life movement there stopping him and he said a
quote I will not forget. Blessed are those who are small,
or blessed are the smallest. It is blessed to be small.
(53:14):
And so I think about that with my ministry. It
would be exciting in a human way if I had
big donors who supported me and we could reach all
these people. And I'll accept it. I've begged for it,
I've looked for it, I've suffered for it. But there
is something beautiful about being small, and when you read
(53:35):
the lives of the saints, most were not successful in
an exterior way. It was in that little crucifixion of faithfulness,
in the midst of disappointments and failures, that they bore
the greatest fruit for the Kingdom of heaven. So we
continue to ask for help, and I would be, you know,
(53:59):
as static if somebody out there is like, oh, you know,
I'd like to make a large donation to this. You
could even assign it to a particular country that you have,
you know, a passion for I know a family who
adopted a child from Ethiopia, so they always make sure
their donations go to Ethiopia. But even in our littleness,
(54:22):
it does not mean we're not bearing fruit. Right, Saint Therez,
I've got that big statue of Saint Therez here.
Speaker 9 (54:29):
Should I show you.
Speaker 2 (54:30):
I'll turn this sere Therez, she's sitting here with me.
Saint Terrez teaches us that littleness is a powerful instrument
in the hands of God. Right and administrative costs like
other places, other foundations and things, they have enough donations,
(54:53):
they can have a secretary, they can you know, have
an office space or things like that that I have nothing.
I have to do everything for free. The office space
is my home, and I have to pay for that
mortgage too. So really, when you give a donation to
(55:15):
the FIAT Foundation, you can trust it is going to
a dire need. There is, you know, no extra coffee
being bought for the employees. It is going directly to
the porest of the poor. We're just more of like
a funnel to get it to them. Right, So when
I say I need seventeen hundred dollars for Pakistan, that
(55:38):
means the printer in Pakistan said, I will print these
books for seventeen hundred dollars, and then I throw in
the transfer fee, and the translator that arranges everything gets nothing.
And distribution is nothing like. Everybody's got to come up
with it, just like I have to come up with,
you know, the extra stuff to get my stuff out here.
(56:00):
So we try to be very very responsible with that
which is given. Why is this important? Why are books important?
Why is this ministry important? Sorry, that's gonna drive me nuts.
I like things to be equal. It's monumental. It's not
(56:24):
just important in order to strength and heal comfort our
modern day martyrs, in order to heal and educate women,
the men who abuse them and the children who are
the future of the world. And the Church's teaching these
books have inspired modern day youth to be missionaries in
the Middle East. They're just trying to stay alive, and
(56:44):
now there are teenagers dreaming about being a missionary like
Mary Klaska. That's incredible. The people on the ground are
Catechists said, never before have we heard the word missionary
amongst our young like now right. It's not just surviving,
it's going out. There's such a fruit from our prayer groups.
(57:06):
This prayer heals, it gives peace, strength, wisdom, and through
prayers the people on the ground are inspired as to
how to help their own people the best way. In Pakistan,
even priests have said that they don't know the prayers
that we have taught them. In two thousand years, nobody
(57:26):
has ever taught in Afghanistan the rosary for praying the Rosary.
Now right, man does not live by bread alone, but
every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
People say, why in the world do you not provide food?
You know you can't eat a book. But even Christ said,
(57:47):
man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word.
And when I share these books and these teachings of Christ.
It fills the heart with something greater than human food. Right,
it's the bread of the soul. And we reach places
no one else can We could never reach there. Saint
Hilary spoke of this. He said, banish though we may be,
(58:11):
we will speak with books. The word of God, which
cannot be held in captivity, will make holy excursions everywhere.
And books are like a seed that God can plant
in his own time and water in his own way.
Sometimes we look at like the Saint Luis de Momfort
who wrote True Devotion to Mary. Right, Satan hid that
(58:35):
book for hundreds of years. He persecuted him, but when
it exploded, it brought about a new age in the
world of the children of Mary, the knights of the
Immaculada who live under her protection, and a consecration to her.
Saint John Boscow on March nineteenth, eighteen eighty five, spoke
(58:55):
about this power of books. A good book can find
its way in to homes where the priest is not welcome.
It will be kept as a souvenir or accepted as
a present, even if by a bad person. A good
book enters a home without blushing if rebuffed, it's not discouraged.
If taken up and read, it teaches the truth calmly.
(59:18):
If set aside, it does not complain, but patiently awaits
the time when conscious conscience may rekindle the desire to
know truth. It may perhaps be left to collect dust
on a table or a library shelf, like in my
mom's basement. I'm finding all these books now that are
really helpful to me, given no attention for a long time,
(59:41):
But then comes the hour of solitude, sadness, sorrow, boredom,
a need for relaxation, of anxiety about the future, just
a necessary cleaning of your recent right. And this faithful
friend shakes off its dust, opens its pages. As was
the case with Augustine and Ignacious, it may bring about conversions.
(01:00:05):
A good book is gentle with those who are hampered
by human respect and addresses them without arousing suspicion in anyone.
It's on familiar terms with good people, and always ready
to make meaningful conversation, to travel along with them anywhere.
How many souls have been saved, preserved from error, encouraged
(01:00:25):
in the practice of virtue through good books. The person
who gives a good book as a gift may only
barely succeed in awakening the thought of God thereby. In
most instances, however, the good that has done is much
greater once brought into the family. If it's not read
by the person to whom it was given, the book
(01:00:45):
will be read by a son or a daughter, a
friend or a neighbor. In a small town. That book
may touch the lives of one hundred people likes going
on in Pakistan for us right now. Only God knows
how much good a book can do in a say city,
in a public library and a worker's association, in a
hospital where the friendly gift of a book is much appreciated.
(01:01:10):
And then in this annual report, I just have testimonies
from the countries where we work in Pakistan. They said,
Mary Klaska is helping and giving us peace, hope and
light as our mother. Mary, your books, your voice, your
message is like a prophet in my place. After reading
(01:01:34):
these books, we're finally getting free. Now we know the
real dignity of the person. Peace is flowing and will
flow through the Middle East through these books. As we
have shared them with government leaders. You have healed the
(01:01:57):
people who received these books know them. But you've touched them.
You've given them a ray of hope and joy. In
this small village where young girls are not allowed to
get an education, they are not treated nicely. These young
girls are dreaming of following you and becoming a missionary.
They're saving unborn souls immediately. Mothers have asked me to
(01:02:21):
go to their newborn children and to pray for them,
those same children that they had wanted to kill by abortion.
I've handwritten thank you notes from families saying that when
the women gave these books to their husbands, they stopped
abusing them. In Uganda, I have a whole report from
(01:02:46):
the work that they're doing in Uganda. You can see
that here in the prison libraries right how they've turned
from the evil lives that they were living. In Ethiopia.
I have those official letters from the parish priests asking
(01:03:09):
for more. A family came to me. This is in Pakistan.
The mother said that she has six daughters. She told
me that she was crying that the father used to
beat these girls because he wanted sons. But after reading
and talking to the teachers and the sessions about your books,
(01:03:35):
he has grown to accept the dignity of women. He's
respecting his daughters and he's sending them to pray with
the children of the Cross Group. So it's making a
concrete different in lives. Then I have our goals and
a little bit about the different books that I provide here,
(01:03:55):
these nine different ones you can or ten, I guess
because of the new Pro lifebook. You can find that here.
If you are watching this and you would like a
copy of the Annual Report and you can't afford the
couple dollars, it is on Amazon. This is available. I
can mail you one. Just let me know in the
(01:04:18):
United States. Right, if you are a big donor outside
the United States, I can try, but it's very expensive
to mail things internationally, so I can only do that
if it's able to help the foundation go further. Right,
But you can also see on my Facebook. I have
screenshots of this whole thing, and Amazon does okay with
(01:04:40):
the printing. The images are not very clear, so it's
probably better to look at my Facebook. But we do
what we can do. Before I end, I want to
touch upon both the readings at Mass today in this song,
the song that I chose in Christ alone speaks to
(01:05:01):
the work of the FIA Foundation, Right in Christ alone,
my hope is found. And we hear that in the
first reading today, right from Jeremiah. Cursed is the man
who puts his trust in men, right, whose heart turns
(01:05:26):
from the Lord.
Speaker 4 (01:05:27):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
But blessed is the man who puts his trust in
the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord. If you
put your trust in men, then your heart becomes like
a wasteland. And as soon as troubles come, you know,
everything that you've created falls apart. But if you put
(01:05:50):
your trust in God alone, right here, in Christ alone,
my hope is found. You know, A blessed is the
man who puts his trust in the Lord alone. Then
you're like a tree planted by water, and no matter
what comes, and what storms come, or what drought comes,
you bear powerful fruit. Right the song says, He is
(01:06:10):
God is my light, my strength, my song, my cornerstone,
the solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace when fears
are stilled and striving sees my comforter my all in all,
here in the love of Christ I stand. It speaks
(01:06:31):
directly to this first rating from Jeremiah right that we
stand in the firm love of Christ as a tree
planted by his water, the water coming from his crucified heart.
And not only do we do that here at the
FIA Foundation, we form the children of the Cross to
do that. We form those involved in our organization to
(01:06:53):
do that because they are faced with storms and drought.
You know, at any point, I can be cut off
from any of these missions. But I hope that we
have formed the people on the ground enough that they
can take the books they already have and the teachings
they've already learned, and for two hundred years, carry this
(01:07:13):
mission forward even without any contact with me. Right say,
the Taliban takes over in another country where we are
and prevents any communication with the outside, they can still
bear fruit because they're planted in Christ. They're not planted
in Mary, right, and Christ supports them even with their
(01:07:33):
threat of death daily. Right, He is their comfort. He
is there all in all. And it talks about this
suffering of Christ and the song. But I love this
last verse. No guilt in life, no fear in death. Right,
(01:07:55):
when we're planted in Christ, we're not afraid of death.
I try to be prudent myself, but if somebody were
to martyr me for my faith. I'm okay with that.
My whole life is lived with that perspective that it's
in the hands of God and may his will be done.
(01:08:17):
That's the power of Christ in me. Right. Jesus commands
my destiny from my first cry to my final death breath.
Jesus and his will guides my life. Right, That's why
I have faat to it. And no power of Hell,
no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from his hand. No,
(01:08:41):
I have endured incredible spiritual warfare in my life, and
the powers of Hell cannot take me from Christ. The
schemes of men. I think about all the way that
men try to complicate my life and persecute me. You know,
Saint Night, a priest tell me that once in confession,
not long ago, and I had nothing to do with
(01:09:02):
what we were talking about. I think it was just prophetic.
He said, just no, the devil can use anyone against you.
So basically, only put your trust in the Lord is
what he was saying. It was holy African, and it's true.
No scheme of man to mess up you know, my
ministry or you know where people get jealous or competitive
(01:09:27):
in ways that would disrupt our service of the poor.
It cannot pluck me from the hand of the Lord.
And if he made everything shut down today and I
ended up having to just live locked alone in this house,
it still couldn't pluck me from the hand of the Lord,
because he is where I'm planted, and he is the
(01:09:50):
source of my joy. He is if I have Jesus,
I'm fine. And it's true for these people here in
these persecuted countries. They can get cut off from the
of the world, they can get cut off from their needs.
But if I've given them Christ and planted them next
to His heart crucified, then no matter what happens, they
can't be taken from Him, and they have that peace
(01:10:12):
and that joy right here in the power of Christ.
I stand and we hear that in the Psalm happy
is the man who has placed his trust in the Lord,
right from Psalm one. Happy, indeed is the man who
follows not the counsel of the wicked, nor walks in
the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of
(01:10:32):
the insolent, but whose delight is the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on it day and night. He is
like a tree planted beside flowing water that yields its
fruit in due season, whose leaves never fade, and whatever
he does prospers.
Speaker 4 (01:10:48):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
I remember when I was little, wanting to memorize the Psalms,
and I only got to Psalm one. But I do
know that one. And you know our hope again comes
through Christ and him being our foundation. And the second
reading from the First Corinthians speaks about if Christ is
(01:11:10):
raised from the dead, then how could you say there
is no resurrection. Right, it's the resurrection of Christ is true,
then even our own death shouldn't matter. Right, No suffering
on earth is final. The final say is the resurrection Christ.
(01:11:32):
Everything was crucified with Christ and in Christ, and was
raisen and from the dead with him and made new.
He said, I make all things new. So regardless of
the difficulties that we may face as the foundation, that
we may face as individuals, the difficulties we could face
as a country, as a church, and that the people
(01:11:57):
we serve face on a daily basis, one of those matter.
If we have faith in Christ and we unite those
sufferings to Him, and we know that our hope is
that He makes all things new in his own time,
in his own way, right, and the will of God
is incredible because people are free and he allows them
to mess up his plan for our lives. But his
(01:12:20):
plan is bigger than other people's free will.
Speaker 15 (01:12:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:12:24):
God might want to provide me with work for the foundation,
and you know, maybe something won't work out here or there,
this employer is being unjust, or you know, I don't know.
His providence is not dependent just on that. Right, He'll
(01:12:46):
find somebody else. He'll find somebody new.
Speaker 12 (01:12:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:12:50):
He might want me to work in Pakistan, and the
particular connections I have get cut off or somebody chooses
to kill them, or you know, who knows what might
shut that door. God opens another door. His providence is
not dependent just on that. He might want my books
published and they're prideful people at this publisher that say no,
(01:13:15):
even though that was God's will. And he finds a
different publisher and he does greater work because his providence
is not dependent upon that. So look in your own lives.
It doesn't mean just because something feels that it wasn't
God's will. It might be his will, and it might
be spiritual warfare. It might be other people's free choice.
To sin, that mess set up. But his will is
(01:13:38):
bigger than that, and he just he finds another way, right,
he finds another way, and then we just have The
Gospel is the Beatitudes, and I serve the people of
the Beatitudes. I strive to be a woman of the Beatitudes.
And that's what I want to leave each one of
you with. Happy are we when we're poor, right, primarily
(01:14:02):
poor in spirit. When we're humble, the Lord can fill us.
When we live a simplicity of life, we have room
for God. Right, the kingdom of Heaven is ours. Happy
are we who are hungry, whether we be hungry for
food because you know, finances are tight, whether we be
hungry for love, for relationships when people are cruel. If
(01:14:24):
we're hungry for Him and we thirst after the Eucharist,
we will be satisfied. Happy are us are us? Yeah?
Happy are we who weep? Who are sad from time
to time? It means that the Cross of Christ does
not lost its freshness. Right, it is a grace to
suffer with the Lord. Happy are we when people hate us,
(01:14:48):
when they exclude us and they drive us out. It's
very disappointing when you try, especially in the church, to
bring the Gospel to people, and they hate you, they're
jealous or competible, when they reject you, when they exclude you,
when they say you're not good enough, we won't include you.
There's a lot of cliques in the Catholic Church, especially
in the United States, and if you're not one of
(01:15:12):
the cool people, that you're not known, and that's not
a missionary heart. It's not the heart of the Gospel.
And I address that in that Missionary Handbook for priests
and laity that I wrote. We're blessed when we're hated.
We're blessed when we're excluded, when we're driven out right,
(01:15:33):
even when we're abused. I don't say you should stay
in abusive situations right use prudence, but when you are,
you know, treated poorly, you are blessed in a way.
Christ was treated the same way. When you're denounced, when
you're calimnated, when you're treated like a criminal, or when
you're treated as crazy, even though you're simply following the gospel.
(01:15:57):
Rejoice when it happens, because you will be great in heaven.
That is how the prophets were treated, and that is
how Christ was. He was called a fool. He was hated,
he was treated as a criminal, He was excluded, he
was driven out. He wasn't part of the popular Catholic
Christian people right Jewish people. And if you are, it
(01:16:21):
doesn't mean you're bad. Right, God may bless you and
have you succeed like Mother Angelica with e wtn to
reach a lot of souls. But your heart needs to
rejoice not in that success, but in identifying with Christ crucified.
Speaker 6 (01:16:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:16:41):
You have to be holly despite the success because of it,
you know. But woe to you who are rich. You
have your consolation now right, If you have everything you
want in life, then you don't have a room or
a need for God. Woe to you who have you
(01:17:03):
know your fill. You will hunger for the Lord later
because you'll realize what you filled your life with is
not authentic food. And woe to you who are who laugh,
who maybe are superficial, or who seek out pleasure so
that you are happy in a worldly way. You know,
(01:17:29):
death will reach you and suffering will reach you, and
you won't know how to handle it. If you don't
have Christ, right, you will mourn and weep. And but
it's interesting those who are used to suffering. They find
joy and peace even in the midst of the whole experience. Right,
(01:17:51):
we see how the saints rejoiced as they were being
killed as a diet of cancer, of you know whatever.
Speaker 11 (01:17:58):
And.
Speaker 2 (01:18:00):
And woe for you when the world speaks well of you,
because Christ wasn't spoken well and we want to be
with him and his suffering. So here we are at
the end. We talked about the fat Foundation, We talked
(01:18:22):
about this beautiful song that the Lord just gave me
this morning, and Christ alone, and we talked about the
Gospel and the readings. I invite you to find the
Annual Report online and to take pray through it. If
you can't help us financially, please help us spiritually. I'm
(01:18:46):
going to end by singing the song one more time.
We're already over an hour. The good thing about podcasts
is you're not limited to a time slot like on
TV or something before. Right, So we're gonna end with
the song again, and we're just going to ask the
Lord to continue to bless us so that we can
be children of the Kingdom of Heaven. Right following his crucified,
(01:19:13):
his crucified path and footsteps. I'm not sure I can
see after talking that.
Speaker 16 (01:19:30):
Long in Christlonde, I hope this fall.
Speaker 17 (01:20:00):
He's my life, my strength, my song, his corner stone,
the solid ground, firm.
Speaker 4 (01:20:18):
Through the fierce stre and storm, wood, hides of love,
wood tubs of peace.
Speaker 15 (01:20:36):
With fearce ofstand win striveving seeds.
Speaker 4 (01:20:46):
I comforted, I an a here in the love of Christ.
I stand in Christ alone, who took God, f formness
(01:21:13):
of God.
Speaker 2 (01:21:14):
And have.
Speaker 7 (01:21:16):
This space, this gift of love.
Speaker 4 (01:21:25):
And righteousness. Scorned by the wants.
Speaker 7 (01:21:31):
He came to save.
Speaker 4 (01:21:37):
To the crows as g's a stun.
Speaker 9 (01:21:47):
The rough.
Speaker 7 (01:21:49):
God was said.
Speaker 4 (01:21:53):
As fine.
Speaker 7 (01:21:57):
For every cent.
Speaker 9 (01:22:02):
On him was la.
Speaker 4 (01:22:06):
Here in the death of Christ, I live very the ground,
his body, lane, light of.
Speaker 8 (01:22:24):
The world by dogs, slade.
Speaker 4 (01:22:31):
And bursting for in glorious state.
Speaker 8 (01:22:40):
Up from the grave he roads again and dazyts.
Speaker 4 (01:22:53):
In the factory saints CRUs bass lost head, scrap on me.
Speaker 5 (01:23:08):
For his.
Speaker 4 (01:23:13):
And he is my but with the precious blood, love.
Speaker 7 (01:23:22):
Chrime, no guilt in life, no fear and da.
Speaker 4 (01:23:34):
This is a power of Christ in from life's first
cry to find our bread. Jesus comments, my Dad stand
(01:23:59):
no power tho schame move canver plok be from his
hand to reach.
Speaker 7 (01:24:24):
Or calls me home.
Speaker 4 (01:24:28):
Here in the power of Christ, I.
Speaker 7 (01:24:32):
Will stand.
Speaker 2 (01:24:39):
Scorned by the ones He came to save. Sweet Jesus,
we asked you to give us the courage to love
those who you send us to, to love those who
scorn us, even when we're sent to them. We pray
that the people we serve in these countries that are
(01:25:01):
so persecuted may become the missionary saints to convert those
who persecute them. We ask you to call many more
to join our mission, to send us people willing to
finance our work, to encourage us on our work, and
to help us. And we ask you to continue to
bear powerful fruit amongst the hearts and souls that we
(01:25:23):
have already touched throughout the world. Glory be to the
Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit
as it was in the beginning, as now never shall
be world without end aim and ali Lujah. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:25:40):
Hello, God's beloved. I'm Annabel Moseley, author, professor of theology,
and host of then Sings My Soul and Destination Sainthood
on WCAT Radio. I invite you to listen in and
find inspiration along this sacred journey We're traveling together to
make our lives a masterpiece and with God's grace, become saints.
(01:26:04):
Join me Annabel Moseley for then sings My Soul and
Destination Sainthood on w c AT Radio. God bless you.
Remember you are never alone. God is always with you.
Speaker 2 (01:26:22):
Thank you for listening to a production of w c
ET Radio. Please join us in our mission of evangelization,
and don't forget Love lifts up when knowledge takes flight.
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