Consoling the Heart of Jesus

we're seeing a radical collapse of Christian culture in the world today humanity is losing its bearings its direction because it's walking in the dark a lot of people aren't seeking God sincerely God wants to give a gift to the human race through Jesus in him there is no darkness in God alone his light in God alone his life he wants to live his life in you and through you and extend it to the whole world to be Christian means to live by the shirt to walk by the spirit that's what Christianity is all about is saving people Jesus is inside knocking on the door he wants to come out he's alive he continues to say the kingdom of God is at hand because the king is on the throne hey welcome to another week of the choices we face you know what a privilege we all have to be able to talk to people who are living for Christ and can share a story that could encourage us or wisdom that can guide us and today we have as our guest Deacon Michael Gately welcome Deacon Michael thanks for having Ralph and we have Peter Herbeck of course and Deacon Michael is going to be ordained in just a few weeks by the time the program actually gets out of post-production on the air he'll be father Michael Gately I'm going to ask father Michael he's written a book as she called consoling the heart of Jesus and we're going to talk about that in a little while but I'm going to ask father Michael to begin but just tell us a little about your story you know how'd you end up wearing a collar okay well I I grew up in Southern California a family we didn't really practice our faith very much when I was a senior in high school I had kind of a conversion I started going to a parish where they were very exemplary priests and they recommended that I be a priest and I told them well I don't want to be a priest I'll get married and raise a bunch of priests yeah so the priest the pastor changed his tactics and he said well where you going to go to college and yes he recommended I go to Steubenville so I went to stew and Ville and and for a lot of the University a Franciscan University of Steubenville and while I was there I started to discern more of a vocation I was dating at the time I there was a gal that I was at dating for a little bit and at one point while we were dating I felt more the Lord was calling me to the priesthood tonight I told her it's not going to work out because I feel called the priesthood and and she said okay and we broke it off and then one day I was I was kind of still going back and forth I was still thinking about if I wanted to get married or and I would go back and forth I was wondering if I'd done the right thing and I remember I went to the chapel one day and I remember I didn't hear a voice with my ears but very clearly I felt like the Lord was speaking to my heart he was very gentle and he basically presented me with a choice he said Michael you can get married and you'll be very happy but I want you to be a priest will you quench my thirst for souls and I remember the way he said it oh and there was one other thing he said to is when he when he was talking about it when he mentioned that he said if you choose to get married I won't love you any less but this is what I want I want you to be a priest and I remember thinking about everything that the Lord had given to me and I thought well if I say no who would say yes and so I I did it and it was interesting because the Lord blessed that it was it was difficult after that time I still had three years of Steubenville there was a lot of beautiful girls there and couple my daughters you knew did exactly there were many beautiful girls there yes eyeko who were the guys never not a boy there's a lot more girls like that's right yeah yeah yeah that I think I was trying to decide between UCLA or Steubenville and the girl the guy ratio at the time made students oh oh wow so ever gets him there right yeah especially if I was going to raise a bunch of priests as I told that priests yeah get married and raise much rece but yeah so basically yeah I broke up with that girl as I mentioned I told the Lord I'm going to do that it was a difficult few years and then one day and that girl that I had dated she was a French girl a French exchange student beautiful girl and she graduated year before me she called me on the phone my last year at stu ville and she said Michael I said oh hello hey her name was blush I said hey blush and she said I just want to tell you next week I'll be entering the convent Wow and I'll be I'll be giving my life in prayer for you to be a holy priest she said every day I'll be sacrificing and praying for you for all priests but particularly for you so that was that's really the heart of my vocation it was it was difficult choice but the Lord really blessed me she's still in the convent she still prays for me in fact one day the the priest who founded her community called me on the phone and he said he said brother Michael I said oh hello father and he was the famous priests he's a founder of a community and I said I just want to tell you I have holy envy of you and I said why he said because her name was blush then it changed to Bernadette he said because I've never seen a nun pray for someone as much as I see sister Bernadette praying for you I just wanted to tell you that bye-bye and that was it so yeah so it was it's been a huge consolation to me in the seminary and and when I when she called to tell me she'd be praying for me I told her I would work very hard and I have like when you were when you were praying and the Lord spoke to you and gave you that you know will you quench where you can soul my heart a question fire did you hear when you heard the Lord how did you hear the Lord exactly what do you mean yeah it was you know it's strange the way I kind of look at is sort of it was almost like it was a dream you know when you have a dream at night you wake up in the morning and it's there but it's kind of like did that really happen but you know what happened it was sort of like while it was happening in the time of prayer I wasn't really thinking about it it was just it was very natural it was just I knew that's what the Lord was saying I can't explain exactly how or why kind of like a dream how they're sort of mysterious when you reflect on them afterwards but I knew for sure that's what he'd said and that was the decision that he'd offered me and I think the biggest thing that came was just a sense of his gentleness and his sadness in a way like he was just saying will you help me basically and I didn't want to do it but I was sort of overcome by his his gentleness is kindness and that he needed help yeah so yeah that's really amazing now after that it's been a little bit of a journey hasn't been kind of finding out where you should be a priest and how you should be a priest no just tell us a little bit about that okay yeah so those people feel like well once you get a word like that from the Lord everything just falls into place you know no I think yeah it's true I think sometimes the Lord as one priest said he said I told them about all these special graces the Lord's given me along my journey he's like that's because he said for two reasons you've been given those graces I said why he said knit one because you're a very little soul and you need those graces and he said second it's because there's been a lot of suffering and the Lord's needed to to give you that extra boost because it's been a difficult road but but a joyful grow too in a lot of ways but basically you know I was in a for six years religious community right at the very end right when I was about to be make my final vows and then get ordained the superior just decided you know he just had a sense it wasn't God's will he said wasn't anything you know human formation or any he just didn't think I would in with the rest of the guys and he was kind of right I I didn't fit in as well I was real hard worker I was thinking about sister Burnett praying for me all the time and all the guys were hard worker but I was a little over the top at the time admittedly it was a little over the top I mean I wrote a book I wrote this while I was in the seminary this book so that tells you anything most seminarians aren't writing books in their spare time they're trying to scramble to keep up with read yeah class a lot of times they don't get their readings done yeah and it was it was a bit much I think that I think this appear was right but I switched to another community and with the Marian's of the Immaculate Conception community I'm in now and the reason I joined them was I love the message of divine mercy and the Marian's there are the big promoters of the message of divine mercy and the whole time I was in the other community that's what I wanted in the United States that's that's located at Stockbridge Massachusetts and it's like a famous Center where that's right yeah people come yeah that's right that's that's where the Association of Marion helpers is located we're you know if any pretty much anybody who has a holy card with the image of divine mercy yeah if you flip it over it probably says Stockbridge what's that just real simply what's the heart of that message for maybe some of our listeners who don't know what the Divine Mercy is possibly what is the heart of that briefly just the simplest way you can express it the heart of the message of divine mercy is basically that Jesus's heart Jesus wants to love in a particular way more than anything else he wants to love with merciful love and what is Mercy Mercy is love when it encounters suffering mercy is love when it encounters broken a sinfulness poverty weakness and that basically the amazing thing about the message of divine mercy is that the Heart of Jesus looks for those souls and he loves them with a particularly love and most people I think think in order to go to Jesus I have to be perfect and he's not only going to love me if I've got this virtue this virtue it's just the opposite his heart is particularly moved for sinners for broken weak little souls and so it's that message that's why I love it is because it's saying God doesn't love you because you're perfect or good he loves you because you need his love and and it's just the message of ein mercy really concretize is for people the an image of God that's divine mercy and it helps him to open to his love and to receive his love that's st. st. Faustina is the one that the Lord used to bring this message to the world the Emperor and a lot of people have heard about say Palestina and divine mercy and yeah yeah that's right yeah now you're going to be running a magazine right and a whole association of people who are blessed inspired by the Divine Mercy revelations by st. Palestina and yeah this is gonna be a major part of your life and ministry isn't it that's right yeah when I was in Poland for a year as I was studying the message of my mercy and things learning polish because a lot of the sources are in Polish st. Faustina was from Poland and when I got back the provincial was basically like brother Michael because I was brother Michael at the time how do you feel about being the next father Joseph which is our title for the director of the association bearing helpers and I said well what is that and he said well if I tell you you'll say no so just say yes so basically yeah it's it's a it's to be the director of our whole our whole Divine Mercy operation and it's kind of funny the way God works is he takes a very broken soul that's had this long path and he says all right now I want you to be spreading my divine mercy in a special way and so yeah we have publishing arm we have magazines we have there's a we employ of over eighty people up in Stockbridge so it's sort of ahead all those operations well listen what's the website address that people get in contact if they want to learn more about the Divine Mercy if they want to learn more about the Divine Mercy we have we have two websites one for the Marian's and one for the Divine Mercy and basically it's the Divine Mercy org it's swollen word that Divine Mercy org and that has you know all kinds of information about the message of vine' mercy it has recent articles on the message and and you know things like that okay well I want to talk to you about this book about consoling the Heart of Jesus and it's really like party location Jesus wants you to bring souls to them like the soul it's hard we're going to take a little break before we do that so get ready to talk about consoling the Heart of Jesus okay I know that what's being taught here is Catholic and that is what I believe that's what the Church teaches we're Christians little Christ we don't go around always talking about Jesus but Jesus is always at the heart of every conversation because our relationship is built on Christ the same way this school is built on Christ after we've come here and gotten our formation and grown in our faith we're called to go out and share the truth Jesus Christ with the rest of the world Franciscan University is academically challenging and passionately Catholic welcome back to the choices we face my name is Ralph Martin and Peter Herbeck is our co-host and Deacon Michael Gately is with us and it's kind of exciting time in Deacon Michaels life he's going to be ordained a priest in just a couple weeks at the end of a long journey and he's written a book called consoling the Heart of Jesus a do-it-yourself retreat inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of setting nations will make the book available on renewal ministries website Reno Lynette it's also available through health different kinds of ways and Deacon Michael tell us a little bit about how this book came about what it's about sure basically I wrote that I wrote this book during my first semester of theology studies in the seminary and the reason I wrote it is because during my novitiate I which was the year before then I had a great desire I want to become a saint but good yeah I want to become a saint at the same time I like that yeah we like that I want to become a saint but I was also really discouraged because I thought there's no way I mentioned earlier there was this nun praying for me all the time and when I would think about her she seemed so holy and and I just thought I'm in a disappoint because I'm such a weak sinner and I miss and I just begged though I remember spending the new bishop begging the Lord please help me to find a way where even I can become a saint and I felt like during my officia he was teaching me a lot about like st. - Reza yes you her little way well so she fell - and the mess exactly the message of divine mercy and I felt like he really was showing me this is a way that you reel it Michael you can become a saint and it centers around trust so at the end of my novitiate the parish priests at my home parish invited me to give a talk in california i went my home visit he said once you give a talk to the parish so I gave a talk to them people in the parish a one-day retreat and they loved the retreat and they said ah brother Michael could you give it could you write down for us the talks that you gave I said sure so I spent my first semester of the studies working on working on this book it wasn't meant to be a book it was meant to just be but it grew and so as I was working on over the semester I was starting to think I don't like this I don't like how it's how it's coming together one of the priests from the parish came to the seminary I was living and I said could you read this over and tell me if you know what you think of this should I just throw it away or whatever so he read it and he called me back a few weeks later and he said Michael you have to finish that and I said okay and he said I'm not kidding you finish that retreat and then send it to me when you're done so I I spent the rest of the semester in the midst of a full load of courses I would wake up real early in the morning I'd work on the retreat I finished it I sent it off to him and then he made photocopies of it and he gave it to all his spiritual directors yet over 100 spiritual directors are very active priests very active Rees and so while I was in the seminary those hundred people or so of his spiritual directives they would start to make photo they would make photocopies of the retreat and then they was make photocopies and for the last eight years or so there's been kind of like an underground following for the book I would get emails or phone calls from people hey did you write that book because I didn't put my name on it yeah you got to publish that thing so then finally just I think the the straw that broke the camel's back where I was like okay I have to finish this was I was in Austria for a wedding two years ago and I met this couple who was from England and they we were just got to talking and they were saying how much they loved the message of divine mercy I said well where did you where did you get this great love for divine mercy and you know because I love it too and you know we were talking about it and they said why is the strangest thing you know we got this booklet it was strange it was just a photocopy and it was all about divine mercy it was this return and it just said on the cover didn't have a name or anything just said consoling the heart of Jesus I said I wrote that they said so I felt like that was kind of a sign all right better finish that thing okay so well how can people use this book it says it's a do-it-yourself retreat and that's really strikes me as something really useful to have was a lot of people can't get away from retreat you know how can they use this book as a do-it-yourself retreat okay so basically it's it's a do-it-yourself retreat in the sense of not that it's full of meditations that you do you know have set times for meditation it's rather this the retreat is the spiritual reading so you just if you use it as spiritual reading you pause if there's something that touches your heart and you just you read through it I think people may be looking at the book and it's like four hundred and thirty pages that's a long retreat yeah some are thinking yeah exactly and there it's supposed to be ideally it's made in a weekend so people are thought are you kidding me you're going to do that in a weekend but actually half of the book is the retreat the other half is appendices that are meant to be read after the retreats over okay Alton oh yeah so basically someone would either get away for a weekend and do the spiritual reading they could usually finish in a weekend Friday night all day Saturday Sunday morning or people like my sister who has six kids doesn't have time to get away for a weekend they just do it whenever they can and they just read it make it over a long period of time like it like a spiritual reading a kiss part of their regular yeah but it's it's but it's very ordered that's a lot of people said they liked about it is this also doesn't have a Ignatian spirituality of st. Ignatius so you have a blending of the Divine Mercy and the blending of the Ignatian exercises it's exactly what basically the reason I wrote it like well one of the reasons I wrote the book was I loved the diary of st. Faustina I loved the spiritual autobiography st. Torres the problem is both of those books are the genre of Diaries and I don't know if you ever kept a diary but they're not well ordered other than dates right so when you're when I've read the diary Festina or of st. Torres there's full of all these gems and spiritual insights and other you know ups and downs of but that's not ordered and so I forget well where did I read that worth it so basically what I did is I try to take all the spiritual gems of saint Torres and Faustina and then put them together using ordering principles of Ignatian spirituality Kasane Ignatius was a masterís oh yeah Ignatius was a master of you know giving order to the spiritual life and a practicality so what I did is I tried to blend the Divine Mercy spirituality of Torres and Faustina that was beautiful but kind of all over the place and put it into a very structured way of retreat and meditation according to st. Ignatius what do you mean what do you mean his ordering principles like what would give us example what's your by his ordering principles okay probably that one of the one of the most important ordering ordering principles for st. Ignatius is what he calls the print first principle and foundation and that's basically a paragraph summary of the whole spiritual life in just a paragraph and for the Jesuits that was very important because the Jesuits were like the first religious community that left the walls of the monastery and would go out and stay out and try and evangelize the world and you know originally that the walls of the monastery kept your face secure your community but Ignatius the way the spirituality was is that with the prince first principle and foundation it gave you a way of staying rooted remembering what you're about when you're in the midst of all the busyness of apostille and things like that in fact one of the secretaries of the Jesuits Jerome Nadal said he summarized the spirit of the order of the Jesuits as a clarity that grips you and leads you on so when I try to provide with this book is a very clear spiritual principle and foundation that anybody can live it's the idea of consoling the Heart of Jesus yeah now tell us about consoling the Heart of Jesus what's that okay yeah see that it's a lot of people they read the title or they hear they say that's kind of strange like when I think about Jesus I think of him consoling me does he need consolation that and that's the thing people say well Jesus is happy in heaven you know so what it you know and somebody if if you're going to console somebody it's usually means they're suffering but he's happy in heaven right well without getting there's a lot of theology in that there's a appendix that talks about that just ties into the your vocation like where the Lord said what do you say he said will you quench my thirst for soul yeah and the way of consoling Hadj exactly because Saint Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta her spirituality is very nation I thirst right that's their principal and foundation for them the essence of it is to hear the thirst of Christ it's it not a thirst for water but a thirst for love to hear that thirst of Christ and then to strive to quench that thirst by giving him your love so consoling the Heart of Jesus is just another way of describing that it's and it basically it comes from the revelation of the Sacred Heart to st. Margaret Mary where Jesus appeared to Saint Margaret Mary in France from the cross he was very sorrowful and he saw her because everybody was afraid of him because of jansenism a heresy were you know people thought in order to go to Jesus I have to be perfect and Jesus was so saddened by that heresy nobody was receiving the Eucharist he appeared to Saint Margaret Mary he was sorrowful he's on the cross and he said behold this heart which loves so much yet which is so little loved is there anyone who will console this heart is there anyone who be my friend Margaret Mary was like I will do that Lord and so I am Lord said they yes and and the st. Therese Saint Faustina Blessed Mother Theresa st. Margaret Mary for all of them the principle and foundation of their spiritualities was to console jesus how and the idea is sometimes people think well how do you consult Jesus is that going to cost a lot you know I have to do all this fasting and it's actually with st. Faustina it's very simple she says you know what her she said if look if you want to console the Heart of Jesus if you want to if you want to relieve the suffering of Jesus you have to look at what hurts him most and according to st. Torres according to st. Faustina the thorn that pierces the heart of Jesus more than anything is is not murder not abortion not another form or not you know adultery all the different sins that are you know way up on our radar screens but what appears as his heart more than anything is lack of trust it's when those that are closest to him don't trust him so if that's the wound that pierces his heart most what is what is the way to console him best it's to remove that thorn how do you do it with your trust and one day father Seraphim me kolonko is expert on divine mercy I told them nice and far that's all about consoling the Heart of Jesus right he said that's right and so we want to remove the thorn that hurts in most it's lack of trust he said that's right so we've got a trust and he said that's right and he said and how do you live of that trust and I said I don't know yeah and and he said his words changed my life he said the way you live Trust is by praise and thanksgiving is to praise and thank God in all things that for the good things that is the things it's easy to praise and thank him for a nice cup of water praise and thank him but even when the Cross has come to praise integra yeah that makes it makes a lot of sense because a lot of times we we gear our spiritual life relationship with the Lord based on our circumstances it gets rid goes well we're happy we trust them things go difficult he must have abandoned me and we lose that trust in which he taught us how his whole coming was to teach us how to trust the father because the father's trustworthy and then for us to be able to live that life as well so I think isn't it Jesus I trust in you isn't that a big part of the divine versus never songs you know and all that did my my theory on the image of divine mercy is basically that Jesus wrote his own heart medication that basically he has this broken heart that's wounded because so many Christians that are supposed to be his friends are afraid of him and it breaks his heart and so he's like st. Faustina look get an image painted put my picture on it where mercy is coming out of my heart I'm gentle I'm taking a step towards you and I want you to write on the bottom Jesus I trust in you that's what I want that's what this in the helplessness this is so biblical you know Luke chapter 12 Matthew chapter 6 you know Jesus says the nations of the world are worried about this that the other thing for seek first the kingdom of God and these other things will be provided look at how God the Father takes care of the flowers and the birds you know you have little faith I mean how much more will God the Father take care of you so it's at the heart of you know the invitation of the gospel to seek first the kingdom of God and trust God the Father to provide for us as we seek to do his will but we're going to pause here for a moment we've written a new booklet is called a new Pentecost and one of the things that helps us trust in Jesus is the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit helps us know who Jesus is the Holy Spirit helps us trust in Jesus and we like to tell you how you get this booklet at no cost just for the asking but when we come back Deacon Michael I'm going to ask you if you would pray for people just pray for people that they're able to trust that they're able to open their hearts that they're able to yield themselves could sole the Heart of Jesus for Pope's in a row have now asked us to fervently pray for new Pentecost they know that what we need is an outpouring of God's Spirit I've written a booklet about what this new Pentecost is and how we can personally appropriate more of the Holy Spirit we'd like to make it available as a gift from us to you just call 1-800 to a two four seven eight nine or go to our website renewal ministries dotnet click on new booklet and we'll send you your own copy come Holy Spirit we need the Holy Spirit and so we'd like to help you to kind of open your life to the Holy Spirit right now I'd like to ask you can Michael would you just kind of pray for us that we can all trust more and all believe more and all hope Warren and kosoul harder Jesus sure I'm happy to good name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit amen Heavenly Father thank you for the gift of your son Jesus they've given to us as our closest friend Jesus thank you for being our friend thank you for being there to listen to our joys and our sorrows thank you for watching over us in our daily lives caring for us in so many different ways giving us all the good things that we have and also even providing crosses for us that help us grow in holiness but don't crush us Jesus please help us to deepen our friendship with you that we might be open to listening to your joys and your sorrows that the ears of our hearts will be attentive to what you're going through in the way that your heart is broken when people don't understand you or don't trust in you don't turn to you help us to open to your compassionate love to our neighbors who are suffering or Jesus give us more your heart make our hearts more like your gentle and merciful heart we thank you Jesus for this deep friendship help us also above all the to console you in the way that that you desire to be consoled most by having great trust in you and Trey great trust in your mercy Mary our mother we ask you to intercede for us for this grace we ask this all in jesus name amen amen next week same time same place the choices we face you

Channel: Renewal Ministries

Views: 30,599

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Keywords: Christianity, Jesus, Christ, Evangelism, Mission, Spirituality, Evangelization, Religion, Catholic, Church, God, Trinity

Id: MbwoAyz8Ido

Length: 28min 31sec (1711 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 03 2016