Divine Mercy Sunday - 2020 Pre-Show

welcome to our Divine Mercy Sunday celebration here on the grounds of the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge Massachusetts my name is father Kirsch Wallach and I'm the provincial superior of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception here in the United States and in Argentina joining me today is the director of the association Marian helpers for the Kris LR and the director of evangelization father Michael Gately it's good to be here with both of you now clearly this is a unique Divine Mercy Sunday nobody's here normally we have tens of thousands of people here to celebrate at the shrine with thousands of confessions but now everyone is at home practicing social distancing normally father Joe Roche is hosting this show with father Chris but father Joe is stuck in Rome because of the corona virus pandemic and been on international travel normally we have a full live show with several guests at our outdoor shrine but here it's just for the Chris for the Mike and myself in a makeshift studio having to do a recorded program despite all that this is going to be a very special program I talked with father Chris and father Mike earlier and we chose to scrap our previous version of the show and decided to speak to you very personally with a message of comfort as you watch from your home in isolation and maybe you could use that comfort maybe you and your family are struggling with some anxiety and fear of the unknown future maybe you're mourning the death of a friend or family member who's very sick with the virus maybe you have lost your job and feeling depressed and there's no question is not an easy time and what makes it even harder is that so many of you don't even have the consolation of being able to attend Mass to receive Holy Eucharist or to go to confession so again for the Chris father Mike and I decided to bring you a message of hope and consolation the consolation of divine mercy and here's how we're going to do that each one of us is going to speak to you from our experience of God's mercy from our positions here on the grounds of the National Shrine of divine mercy so I as provincial we'll be sharing with you some special gifts of divine mercy that console me in my work of leading the province for the Chris is going to share from his experience promoting divine mercy as a director of the association of Maron hoppers and finally father Mike is going to talk with us about the mercy of our Father in Heaven so I hope you'll enjoy our program and I pray that it will comfort you in this difficult time we'll begin with my story but first let's head over to my office so this is my office this is where I serve the American province of our religious congregation and even though we're a modest community here there's a lot of work and you would be able to tell that if you could see all of the provincial offices now there are three things about the charism and history of the marian father's that have been inspiring me as we're going through this coronavirus pandemic and they're not just a gift for me I believe they will be a gift and an inspiration to you as well actually before I get to those three things I'd like to share something about my background that may be relevant to what we're all going through I was born in Poland shortly after the end of war - as you may know Poland suffered greatly during that terrible war and so when I was growing up many people around me but especially my father shared stories about the war and the terrible tragedy stay suffered at the hands of the Nazis but then after the war Poland was taken over by the Communists and that brought its own suffering for instance the Communists forced atheistic ideology upon the people violently eliminated any opposition jailed clergy and sought to conscript good people to join the Communist Party by literally putting guns to their heads this actually happened to my father but thanks to the grace of God and our ladies protection he didn't give in was a difficult time anyway something that is helping me now in our present trials is that there have been other times of great suffering but we can get through it with our faith and one of the wonderful gifts of our faith is the Saints you know lately I've been thinking of one particular Saint who suffered during a time of Poland's greatest suffering which wasn't actually during World War two now think of that for a moment the worst war in human history was war - and the place that suffered the most during that were was the country of my birth but that wasn't actually the time of suffering in Poland the worst time happened centuries earlier during a tragic period of foolish history called the deluge that was about a twenty year period in a seventeenth century when no less than six neighboring peoples invaded Poland causing unprecedented destruction of the country all of Poland's major cities and most of its towns were destroyed and Poland lost one-third of her population it was terrible but amid all that chaos the destruction God raised up an amazing Saint who has been inspiring me in our present situation his name is Saint Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary pops insky and he's the founder of our community the Marian fathers of the Makah Concepcion and even though you're not a Marian priest like me I believe his message can give all of us a lot of light amid the darkness we're facing now now since dinosaurs lived during the period of the deluge so he saw a lot of bloodshed starvation and many sick and dying people as a man of holiness and prayer his heart went out to all those hurting people in fact his spirit was so sensitive to human suffering that the souls of many people who had died would come to Stanislas to ask him for prayers well today many people are dying of the corona virus and many of those who have died were not prepared to meet the Lord so God in His great mercy offers us the gift of purgatory in other words those needing to be cleansed and purified by Christ's merciful love so they may enter into full union with the old holy God now there is no doubt if Saint Stanislaus were alive today he would be spending much time praying for the souls in purgatory and he'll be encouraging us to do the same unfortunately we don't think much of the souls in purgatory these days and why the souls there are blessed because they will enter into full presence of God they still must go through a period of purification beforehand now make no mistake purgatory is a gift of divine mercy but it also involves terrible heartache for the souls they're in a diary of st. Faustina we learn about that heartache for instance there's a time when Faustina another Polish saint and mystic had a vision of purgatory and the souls there revealed to her their great suffering specifically they all said in unison that they're a great pain was their longing for God you know during this time of social distancing many of you may be experiencing longing to be with others especially your closest family members you may be feeling lonely well that feeling of loneliness gives us a small taste of that longing that the souls in purgatory are suffering perhaps at this very moment some who perished from that pandemic are longing to be embraced by God and yet must undergo the isolation of purgatory well it's the truth of our faith that we can and should help them with our prayers now Jesus taught st. Faustina a beautiful and powerful prayer that can help alleviate the suffering of the souls in purgatory it's called the chaplet of divine mercy many of you probably already know this prayer since it is pray daily on EWTN if you don't know it it's very easy to pray and you can learn more about it and our website the Divine Mercy dar org or by downloading our free Divine Mercy app it's a powerful prayer not only for the soul suffering in purgatory but for the dying and for every need through it we ask the Father to bestow his mercy upon us and on the whole world an account of the atoning death of his beloved son Jesus our Lord so because so many people are dying each day as a result of the present pandemic please join me in praying 1 decade of the chaplet for them and actually because my office is just below the main altar of the National Shrine of divine mercy see let's go up there now and free so here we are at the National Shrine which is usually filled with people but as you can see nobody's here except Jesus in the Eucharist and Giuseppe our cameraman now before we start a decade of the chaplet for the souls in purgatory I'd like to show you some of the images we have here of Saint Stanislaus first here is a statue of him in white habit which we used to wear before our constitutions were renewed by blessed George Mata lightest and up there we have a mural of our founder kneeling in front of Pope Innocent 12th who approved our congregation and approved us as a papal institution again if Saint Stanislaus were here I am sure he would invite us to pray for all the souls of the deceased who have died from this pandemic so let us now pray one decade of the chaplet of divine mercy together for the souls in purgatory learn of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil amen hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen Eternal Father I offer you the body and blood soul and divinity of your dearly beloved son our Lord Jesus Christ in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world for the sake of his sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world for the sake of his sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world for the sake of his sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world for the sake of his sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world for the sake of his sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world for the sake of his sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world for the sake of his sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world for the sake of his sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world for the sake of his sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world for the sake of his sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world holy God holy Mighty One holy immortal one have mercy on us and on the whole world holy God holy Mighty One holy immortal one have mercy on us and the whole world holy God holy Mighty One holy immortal one have mercy on us and on the whole world by the way if you're inspired by praying together here and I encourage you to join us for the chaplet of divine mercy and mass which we live stream every day from the shrine but now let's get back to Saint Stanislaus another thing that deeply inspires me from the example of Saint Stanislaus that can help us during this time of pandemic is his love for Mary and you can see that love for Mary for instance in a very title he gave to the community founded the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary now there's a lot of Mary in that title also if you look up at the main altar of the shrine there's a lot of Mary there too for all of us look at that size of that statue you can tell that this shrine was built by Marian's of the Immaculate Conception and we put such an emphasis on Mary because we know that she always leads us to Jesus the divine mercy but that statue of the Immaculate mother is not the only image of Mary in our shrine there's another image here in the back of the shrine that gets to the heart of why Mary was so beloved by Saint Stanislaus and so many other Polish people it's that image there over the choir that image of Mary is the most popular Marian image of all of Poland there are several reasons for this but for our purposes here I wish to focus on just one of them take a closer look at that image do you see those marks on her cheek those marks are actually on the original image because an enemy soldier who hated Mary had tried to destroy the image with three slashes of his sword those slashes tell us a lot about Mary they tell us that she doesn't leave us alone in our suffering but rather they show us that she her solved no suffering and that's why the Polish people who suffered so much in their history could easily relate to this image I believe all of us can relate to this image especially now in a diary of st. Faustina there's a moment that powerfully illustrates this compassion our Heavenly Mother who suffers with us at one time when Saint Faustina is going through terrible suffering Mary appeared to her with the Child Jesus in her arms Postino then asked Mary Mary my mother do you know how terribly I suffer now think of that for a moment maybe many of us want to say the same prayer to Mary Mary do you see how terribly I suffer or how my family suffers or how my whole country is suffering and very response to Faustina and to all of us I know how much you suffer but do not be afraid I share with you your suffering and I shall always do so isn't that consoling Mary our mother is with us sharing in our suffering she's like every mother who has compassion on her children and she has compassion on us on you and me right now who are maybe undergoing great suffering but you might say yes but Mary's happy in heaven and I'm down here feeling miserable filled with fears and worries from this pandemic and its effects well pope benedict xvi addresses this point by asking a powerful question how could a mother be completely and unreservedly happy so long as one of her children is suffering well the answer is she's not she's not completely happy because she chooses to suffer with us and she told Saint Faustina so be assured that she's close to us in this time after all that's what mothers do they're close to their children during times of suffering and they help carry their children's burdens and Mary our mother would like us to be close to her - because her joy comes from when we let her love us console us and bring us to the mercy of her divine son so st. Stanislaus the founder of the Marian Fathers has a lot of wisdom for us during this coronavirus pandemic as we've seen he reminds us to pray for the souls in purgatory he also points us to our Heavenly Mother Mary immaculate wants to console us in our suffering but there's one more gift from Saint Stanislaus that I'd like to share with you let me begin by telling you a story from when he was founding the Marion fathers when Saint Stanislaus first founded the congregation of Marian's of the Immaculate Conception in Poland in 1670 it wasn't easy after he started one of the first houses of the community the neighbors used to steal for the Marian's and tried to get the community shut down thankfully the Marion said a friend in a local bishop he protected the congregation from his attackers and supported Stanislaus with his friendship unfortunately however in 1687 the good Bishop fell ill and was dying this came as difficult news for Stanislaus and his new community because they knew they would be losing a powerful protector right when they needed him most after all they still didn't have full approval from the Vatican at that time and many enemies were attacking them and seeking their destruction shortly before the Bishop's death Stanislas visited him on that one last time knowing the difficulties the Marion's would still face the bishop fretted about their future worried that he couldn't do more to help him as he had already distributed all his material possessions to others but then at the end of the visit it suddenly dawned on him he knew exactly what he could do for the Marian's raising his hand to give a final blessing he solemnly declared I leave to you divine providence now that gift of divine providence means a special protection from god over the marion congregation a gift of particular care in our material and spiritual needs over the centuries the Marion father's have relied on that blessing of the bishop that blessing of divine providence and it's never let us down in fact this year congregation celebrates is 350th anniversary and we Marian's are spending this time thanking God for his faithfulness and the gift of his divine providence well because this is such a special year for us Marian's and because many of you watching may also feel the need of a blessing of divine providence to care for you provide for you and watch over you I'd like to give you that blessing but before I do I'd like to show you something do you see that image of divine mercy there what is Jesus doing in that image he's blessing us he's giving us a blessing of divine providence a blessing of God's loving care for each one of us do you know why I say that because of that prayer at the bottom that's how we receive the blessing we pray Jesus I trust in you that is a powerful prayer during this time when so many of us are tempted to give in to anxiety and fear to trust in Jesus to trust in our Heavenly Father is how we receive the blessing so now as the provincial superior of the Marian father's in America and the occasion of the 350th anniversary of our founding I like to give all of you a special blessing of divine providence Heavenly Father I ask that on this three hundred fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception a congregation to which you have given a special blessing of divine providence that you would bless everyone who is watching this program with a powerful blessing of your providential care and love I ask that you would particularly care for all those who live in fear of the unknown future those who have lost jobs or sources of income and are unable to provide for their families please grant them the assurance of your peace and protection provide for them and their families and fill their hearts with loving trust in you and a deep and lasting joy as they received his blessing grant us through the intercession of Mary the immaculately conceived virgin and mother and through the merits of Jesus your son and I ask this blessing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen thank you I gave the best thing but I'm grateful to you for being here with me and now I invite you to keep praying the prayer Jesus I trust in you and in fact if you really want to get into this beautiful prayer there's a longer version that Jesus taught st. Faustina that longer version goes like this a blood and water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a farmer see for us I trust in you I really love that prayer in fact at the beginning of this segment I shared that as provincial it's my job to serve all the Marian's in our community and in their apostolic ministries now it's not an easy job in fact spiritual battles accompany me each day anxieties and worries for the members of the community and the many people who are associated with us they rely on us are always with me temptations to discouragement song by our mortal enemy the evil one keep coming at such times and at other times when I see a great danger for my fellow Marian's or for the many faithful whom I have befriended alone my priestly journey I don't wait I pray and sometimes I just keep praying the O blood and water prayer over and over again it has brought me great spiritual consolation and has obtained protection for others including people whom Satan was pushing to despair and even suicide in fact I became so convinced of its power that I often tell people especially my fellow brother priest father Chris and father Mike whom you met earlier and who also bear many responsibilities to pray this prayer when they were feeling overwhelmed I see that father Chris slipped into the shrine while I was speaking for the Chris come over here and let's pray together thank you father Cass and I also invite all of you watching to join us in praying this prayer from the heart for peace peace in our homes for healing for those who suffer in any way and for spiritual protection o blood and water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fountain of mercy for us I trust in you O blood and water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fountain of mercy for us I trust in you O blood and water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fountain of mercy for us I trust in you again I invite all of you to keep saying this prayer with a shorter version of Jesus I trust in you of the longer version we just recited so you can keep receiving the blessing of divine mercy and speaking of a blessing father Chris is now going to bless you by sharing his experience of divine mercy as a director of the association of Marian Harper's thank you for the cars and now all of you join me as we go to my office just right across the property here from the shrine thank you [Music] [Music] so this is where my office is welcome to the Marian helper center the headquarters of the association of Marian helpers please come on in so this is my office and as you can see we really love the image of divine mercy here actually father might got that image when he was the director because he said we need all the mercy we can get and he was right the job of director which carries the honorary title of father Joseph is not easy I say that not just because there's a ton of ministry work at this office of about 80 employees but because it's from this building that the message of divine mercy really goes out to the whole world and if there's one thing that Satan hates it's divine mercy believe me I know when I took over the position from Father Mike he warned me that saying would put a big target on my back and there would be a lot of spiritual attacks and man he was right but he also told me not to worry because Jesus has got my back and he was right again Jesus does have my back literally as you can see and he's got your back too if you let them especially during this difficult time you know I'd like to tell you a story to illustrate why that's the case why the Lord also has your back to help me tell that story though why don't you come follow me into the hallway I want to show you something so as you can see we have a tradition here at the Marian helpers center of placing up a photo of each director or each father Joseph and as you can see I was obedient to that tradition Oh father Mike on the other hand was not so obedient so I put a picture up of him that you can see well before this job aged him now we have father Seraphim he was actually one of the heroes of the Divine Mercy message and devotion is he actually smuggled the diary of st. Faustina out of communist Poland on microfilm and published the first copies of the diary of st. Faustina it was also part of the team from the Vatican that prepared the way for Faustina's beatification and canonization as Vice postulator now here we have beloved provincial superior father Kaz whom you've already met and he really is as kind and joyful as he looks in this photo now here we have brother Andrew and many others now here's a director I really wanted to tell you about his name was father pelt schinsky and he was the very first director they used to call him father pal now father pail was not only a great apostle of divine mercy like father seraphim but there's a story from his life that helps us to see how Jesus really does have our backs especially if we honor his mercy as I mentioned father pal was the first director of the Marion helper Center well he also constructed this building in fact he's the one who found and acquired this beautiful property that we're on called Eden Hill he's also the one that oversaw the building of the National Shrine of the divine mercy and he's the one who founded the mercy of God apostolate which ended up becoming the Association of Marion helpers and has spread the message of divine mercy throughout the world of course because he was such an apostle of divine mercy same put a big target on his back but the Lord also had his back too before I tell you how I'd like to first read you a relevant passage from the diary of st. Faustina that also happens to be one of my favorites in this passage Jesus says souls who spread the honor of my mercy I shield through their entire lives as a tender mother her infant and at the hour of death I will not be a judge for them but the merciful Savior obviously I love that quote because my job as father Joseph is to spread the message of divine mercy and since becoming father Joseph I've seen that the promise of Jesus is spiritual protection that promise to shield me like a mother does her infant really is true I mean I myself have experienced that spiritual protection in some powerful ways especially since I became father Joseph I mean if we had more time I would tell you story after story of how the Lord literally saved my life and I believe the reason that I'm here now is because of that promise of spiritual protection for me it's like the blessing of divine that father cast told us about in the last segment the blessing of divine providence that we can all have when we put our trust in Jesus okay but there's more to that quote from the diary of Faustina that I just read remember Jesus also said that at the hour of death for those who spread the honor of his mercy he will come as the merciful Savior and not as the just judge now I'm obviously still alive so I can't speak from experience of that promise being fulfilled but the story of father pal certainly can as I mentioned father pal really spearheaded our apostolate of divine mercy way back in the early 1940s in fact I'd call him one of the biggest apostles of divine mercy ever which raises a question in view of the quote from the diary of st. Faustina that I just read we could ask in father pals case did God really keep his promise about those who spread divine mercy in other words at the hour of other Pels death did God really come to him as the merciful Savior or as the just judge well here's the thing Father Pell was a Marian of the Immaculate Conception and he loved our Blessed Mother so in the Jubilee year of 2000 on December 8th which is the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and the main feast day of our congregation Father Pell didn't show up for an appointment that day thanking this to be kind of strange one of the priests in the community went up to his room and knocked on the door there was no answer so the priest slowly opened the door and found the body of father Pell peacefully sitting in his chair with this morning prayer of the Divine Office opened on his lap to the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception now if that's not divine providence I don't know what is that God would call such a faithful apostle of mercy and such an important feast day in such a special year seems like an amazing sign and confirmation of God's promise of special care and protection for those who spread divine mercy so the moral the story is this be like father pal and spread this message and devotion spread the honor of divine mercy especially through your trust in Jesus and take my word for it and father pals Jesus wants to give you spiritual protection in these troubled times he wants to help you but we have to let them and the way that we help him help us is through our faith it's by praying Jesus I trust in you but when we give in to fear doubt discouragement and despair it's harder for Jesus to shield us and frankly when we give in to those things it just hurts Jesus in fact you might even say it makes him sad really let me show you something to illustrate what I mean and it's just over here do you notice anything strange about this image it's got water damage and where is the water damage coming from the eyes years ago this image was in the house of the family out in California and it started weeping of course it surprised the family and they contacted father Seraphin they told him about it and because he had seen things like this before he believed them seeing father seraphim's goodness the family decided to donate the image to the Marian's and ultimately it ended up here now the image isn't weeping anymore although father Micah always jokes that when he started working here as father Joseph it started weeping again and then when his three year term was done as Father Joseph it suddenly stopped weeping okay obviously father Mike was just kidding but what's no laughing matter is that we do hurt the heart of Jesus when we don't trust in him in fact he told Saint Faustina that it was our lack of trust that wounds him the most and it hurts his heart so much simply because He loves us and wants to help us well he can only work miracles of mercy in our own lives when we give him our faith when we give him our trust now I do realize that that statement may sound kind of odd I mean Jesus is all-powerful he's God so how could he not be able to help us well in the Gospels we find the answer think of all those times when Jesus said your faith has healed you and think of the times when Jesus was in his own hometown and he couldn't work any miracles because the people there did not believe and so it is with us if we give in the fear and do not trust in Jesus it's much harder for the Lord to shield us and protect us with his mercy during these difficult times now speaking of difficult times I want to share something that happened recently that really opened my eyes to what you the viewers are going through I'll tell you more about it if you follow me into our video department which is run by my friend Giuseppe who's the guy actually behind the camera say hi Giuseppe hello so here in this office Giuseppe puts together our videos that we post online now before the coronavirus hit we would just do a video from time to time but now that people are stuck in their homes we've gotten a lot of requests for more videos so Giuseppe has been pretty busy right Giuseppe oh yeah anyway one of the videos that we made was called sealed the doorposts and it became very popular there are a couple of versions out there and within a few days they totaled nearly half a million views so that's a lot so I'd like to play one of the videos for you now Giuseppe all I do is hit play correct correct I encourage you to do this [Music] I vote you to participate in a simple but incredibly powerful act of faith we urge you to post an image of Jesus the divine mercy on your front doors facing outward to express your trust in the Lord's promise of protection if you don't have this image please visit the divine mercy dot org slash divine mercy image to download it for free and to print it out and if you're unable to have it blessed by a priest the church actually allows you to invoke a blessing yourself yes the Catechism teaches that lay people on account of their baptismal priesthood may actually administer certain blessings so how can you invoke such a blessing upon an image like the Divine Mercy well here's how while making the sign of the Cross over the image say O Lord I seek your blessing upon this image Father Son and Holy Spirit's amen Wow in these times we need protection more than ever in fact later in the video on the longer version I read the words of st. Faustina's confessor who says Jesus actually promises to protect those families and homes in which the Divine Mercy image is found you know also - we talked about as seal the doorpost because the ancient Israelites actually put the blood of the sacrifice lamb over their doors and when the Angel of Death came by if you saw that blood he would pass over the house well how much more will that protection be offered to homes that have the true blood of the real sacrifice Lamb Jesus himself on their doors so we believe the time is now to put this image on your door and as I mentioned before this video became very popular I heard from people in America Europe and even Africa and so what it tells me is that more and more of you really want that spiritual protection and I want to tell you it's true but don't just take my word for it let's go back to my office where I want to introduce you to a friend of mine hey father Anthony thanks for coming please have a seat it's great to have you normally we don't ever see you on the pre-show we have to wait to the liturgy as the rector of the shrine or as you are M seeing the the beautiful liturgy every Divine Mercy Sunday you know father as I just said out in the hallway you know Jesus puts the emphasis on this faith he said and I remember from scriptures he said but for me to be able to act upon a soul the soul must have faith oh how pleasing to me is living faith wouldn't you say that's true yes faith is very important and this current pandemic provides a great opportunity for all of us as your video shows sealing the doorpost with this image is a powerful act of faith faith that the Lord keeps his promises that the Lord will never abandon us great thank you so much father Anthony you know I was just smiling here that you look good in that chair you you want the job thank you father Chris so there you have it from the shrine rector and remember from the video that you can get this image by going online downloading it and printing it out for free and also we have a beautiful 8 by 10 image that we will send to you for just simply a dollar or a very special opportunity to get a perfect size to hang on your doors is this 5 by 7 image that I will personally bless and send to you for free no charge for the image no shipping or handling just call us at the phone number below or contact us online and we'll make sure that you get this image to place on your door or inside your home or if you don't have a printer and can't wait for us to send you on you can go to our free app for Apple and Android which is simply called divine mercy and click on the part that says the image and then it's like you have a mobile prayer card that you can take with you wherever you go now if you really want something special come follow me downstairs now on our way down I'd like to point out that we're one of the few Catholic ministries in the country that actually does everything in-house we have a graphic arts team that makes work that go to our large printing presses we have an editorial team that does all the writing that goes to our websites and to our magazines we have a member relations team that actually helps meet all the spiritual needs of our members actually this is my favorite department the candy Department I'm working on that we down here we have an IT department that manages almost 30 websites and we actually have a prayer line as well that you can call and have your prayer intentions listed for us to personally pray for now unfortunately many of our employees in these departments are having to work from home right now as you probably are yourself so let's keep each other in prayer that this time will end soon but in the meantime we'll be able to grow closer in our relationship to God another thing is we ship religious products and books all over the world as you can see so don't forget to visit us at shop Mercy comm now we've come to what we affectionately call the bat cave this is where we started something called divine mercy art top-quality religious art at merciful prices now our goal was to print images of divine mercy a museum-quality canvas and offer it at very very low prices so every Catholic family could easily get a beautiful canvas image of divine mercy in their home because the prices are so low divine mercy art is now one of the largest Catholic manufacturers of canvas art in the country but it's not just the little price that's made it so popular there's something about this particular version of the image that's very special now as you can see on the wall behind me there are many different versions of the image of divine mercy and that's great every one of them is beautiful because each one depicts our Savior in his mercy but here at the National Shrine we've chosen to especially promote this the Vilnius version of the image and I want to tell you why this particular version is so special the main reason is because this is the original version the one that was painted under the direction of st. Faustina and one of the things that's amazing to me about it so she wasn't even a very merciful to the artist who was painting it I say that because she had him change it no less than 12 times but each time the changes were just in the face so for instance she'd say to the artist well the brown needs to be wider or the nose needs to be thinner or something to that effect well if you take the original image of divine mercy this image and compare it to the Shroud of Turin it's actually a perfect match the actual features of the face of Christ on the image perfectly match the image of the face of Christ on the Shroud of Turin this amazing connection can clearly be seen in this clip from the movie love and mercy and it's also available on DVD for the first time this similarity was noticed by Father serif in Mecca lenka who showed me the effect of comparing both images which was done at his request in the 1990s the results of my anthropological studies of the two faces from both images show a complete convergence with such characteristic facial points as the middle part of the eyebrows the base of the nose the cheekbones jaws the wings of the nose the beginning of the upper and lower lip and chin it's worth analyzing the same details by observing the images in three dimensions it is a face model created by Professor manyara in 2002 based on the measurements of the Shroud of Turin and the veil from of Yadav the veil of a Vienna is the object that covered the face of Jesus when the body was still hanging on the cross and this veil remained there on the face until the body was placed on the shroud then the veil was removed and the body was covered with the shroud traces of blood on the shroud and veil give us full information of how the face of Jesus look like if I put all three images on each other and it turned out that the eight points determining the most characteristic features of the face perfectly matched so I believe Faustina really saw the Lord and accurately described how he looked which is pretty special so given that the Vilnius image was painted under the direct supervision of Saint Faustina one could ask well why then isn't the Vilnius more popular here's why remember the image I showed you earlier the one of the weeping Jesus that's actually a version of the Vilnius image that we had promoted for years but frankly most people didn't like it why well because Jesus looked maybe a little too ghostly and frankly kind of scary so people opted for other versions like the ones you see behind me now the reason why Jesus looks so ghostly in that one image is because the original Vilnius image hung for years in a church in Lithuania above some votive candles which gave off a lot of soot as you can see here something similar to this well that's what darken the image making it very difficult to see Jesus and knowing this in the year 2000 our Marian congregation donated some funds to the Diocese of Vilnius to have this image professionally restored and the result was amazing the only problem was that when they took the official photo of the image the lighting was off can you imagine after all that work then the lighting was off then it came out dark again so as you can see here and that was the image that we actually promoted for years and is the reason why it was never really popular well then years later when father Mike was the director here he got a high quality digital image of the restored vilnius which is the one we now use for our prayer cards and canvas prints and it's great timing that we have this beautiful version now let me put it this way because of the corona virus pandemic many of you are stuck in your homes and you can't even get to mass or visit the Blessed Sacrament well you might say that the image of divine mercy is the next best thing having the Blessed Sacrament in your own home yes why because Jesus himself told st. Faustina these words quote I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep coming for Grace's to the fountain of my mercy that vessel is this image with the signature Jesus I trust in you you know what I love about that quote is how Jesus speaks of the image as a vessel a vessel that contains the grace of mercy God knows we need the consolation of his mercy right now more than ever and I know that many of you are in your home's feeling stressed or worried we'll give an image of divine mercy as we talked about in the video and keep coming for graces of peace and serenity of spirit many of you are stuck with your whole family and maybe there are tensions and even frustrations but remember God's hand is in this his providential care as we say well get this image and keep coming to Jesus for graces the graces of patience and forgiveness many of you are feeling depressed or discouraged well get an image of divine mercy and keep coming to Jesus for graces the grace of the joy of the gospel I really believe that putting this image of divine mercy in your home can be the beginning of a grace filled prayer corner or even a makeshift chapel in your own home so I recommend that if you have a candle and you light it in front of the image when you pray as you can see here and then that space in your home becomes sacred now without such a sacred space in our homes I'm afraid many will turn to the refrigerator for consolation or to the liquor cabinet or to the internet for those times and we choose other things to numb the pain and boredom know that Jesus is there in the image of divine mercy especially waiting for us waiting to give us the grace of His mercy and forgiveness and his peace and his joy if you'd like to get one of these images of divine mercy on canvas or on paper or to download simply visit the Divine Mercy org slash divine mercy image to download a free one or you can look at one on your phone from Divine Mercy app as we talked about best of all though just contact us at one eight hundred for Marion or go to the same website and we will ship you a beautiful free 5x7 color image totally for free now before I finish my segment I want to offer you yet one last way to receive a tremendous amount of grace and that is by becoming a member of the Association of Marion helpers there is no cost but what you do receive has a lot of grace as I said if you become a member you can receive the graces from all of our Miriam priests and brothers from our prayers our masses our rosaries our chaplets of divine mercy that you help pray for us we pray for you and it's like the beautiful example of the graces shared in the body of Christ so please consider going to the Divine Mercy org slash join and becoming a member or again calling that same 800 number 1-800 for Marion and god bless you and we want you to receive these Grace's now before you do that however I want to invite you to listen to the last segment of our special Divine Mercy Sunday program in which you won't want to miss in it father Koz and I are going to do a special interview with father Mike Gately and then we'll prepare ourselves with him to reconsecrate ourselves to God our merciful father during these troubled times I'll see you back at the studio welcome back to our makeshift studio for this very unique Divine Mercy Sunday program from the grounds of the National Shrine of divine mercy again I am father Kash Wallach the provincial superior of the Marian's in America and as I mentioned in the beginning we usually have tens of thousands of pilgrims here to celebrate with us as we cover the festivities through a live broadcast from our outdoor shrine but not this year because of the pandemic and social distancing it's just been myself for the Chris and now for the Mike and for this last segment of our program before Mass I am very happy to have father Mike with us to tell us about a source of great consolation during these difficult times but before we get to that for the Chris you actually plan to have father Mike appear on the show before the pandemic hit I did and some of our viewers might be tuning in because back in January I did an article which we had on the cover of our Marian helper magazine about a new book that father Mike has just published about God the Father called 33 days to greater glory and I invited everyone to read his book and join us in a consecration today on Divine Mercy Sunday well we had many people thousands of people actually accept the invitation and so before we do that consecration I thought it would make sense to bring father Mike on to interview him about the consecration to the father so those who didn't read the book would have a chance to join us there's a great idea let's get started for the Mike I know that we had many conversation during this this past year about your special love for God the Father would you want to share with us something about that yeah we've been talking about it for about a year but kind of that focus on the father started really like 20 years ago because I had bought a CD that had a dramatic presentation of the Gospel of John that I've been listening to for almost 20 years and one of the things about the Gospel of John that's that's really beautiful is of all the Gospels the Gospel of John has like the the main focus or or a major focus is on the father so just by listening to that CD over and over and I listened to it probably hundreds of times it just got me thinking a lot more about the father but over the last year it's become more pronounced but father Mike what was it specifically that was so striking for you and listening to the Gospel of John well it was seeing that like you know for Jesus it really is all about the father you know one of the things that Jesus says several times in the Gospel of John is follow me and we could ask the question we'll follow you where and yeah and it's following me to the Father you think of after the resurrection when Jesus was talking to Mary Magdalene he said do not cling on don't do not cling to me because I have not yet ascended to the Father because Jesus is pointing is sort of it's not it's in a certain sense it's not all about me it's about the father and so that was something that that's become very important for me to understand and in my relationship with Jesus is to realize that at the heart of the identity of Jesus is that he's the son and he's always thinking of the father and I've just been reflecting on that a lot more the last year and so what is that really each of the father so I mean obviously its father and son is the heart of the relationship but what really got me thinking about this a lot more deeply over the last year was actually about a year and a half ago after Mass one day at the time of communion just I had kind of an insight into something that I'd never really thought deeply about and it's the relationship of the father and the son is really defined by that word and the Creed that we say every Sunday which is begotten that the father begets the son so it's a father-son relationship but it's it's defined sort of as the father be getting the son you know now father plug your ears because I know you want me to get more sleep but other Mike and one of our two o'clock in the morning kitchen conversations over a bowl of cereal I remember asking you and talking to you about begetting because a lot of people don't understand that and I keep thinking of making verses beginning could you explain because you had a great insight that I'd like you to share with that regarding that yeah like when we whenever we make something whatever we make is always less than ourselves like so I wrote that book but the book is less than me you know one exception might be procreation you know we're we have children that you know are equal to two the parents but usually when you make something when we make a painting or a car or something like that it's always less than a human being to beget something is a word that defines the generation of the father the son by the father you know it's an eternal generation and it's be getting and what that basically means is that the Sun comes from the father but the Sun is equal to the father he's not less than the father and so when the father begets the son as the father baguettes the son the son is totally equal to the father so it's not like he makes the Sun and then the sons less than him he's totally equal yeah and that's a huge deal which do people really get that did people understand that they think the father son is subservient in that way but it's not he's equal yeah it's it's um you know it really the idea that the father baguettes the son I think it really helps us understand the goodness of the father and what I mean by that is that as the father begets the son if the father decided you know I'm gonna hold back something from my son you know because I want to stay number one then that would be a totally different situation but the father as he baguettes the son he gives himself to the son without holding anything back so that the son is totally equal to the Father and that's a sign of the father's generosity that's the sign of the father's humility you know we read in Philippians how Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at rather he emptied himself in a certain sense the father doesn't grasp at his own like primacy he he shares his divinity completely with the son so that the son is totally equal to the Father and the amazing thing is that the son who is God through the generosity of the father knows that everything he has including his divinity is a gift from the father and so the son whose God and is our God in Jesus Christ incarnate he knows that everything he has is from the father as he himself says in the Gospel of John I can do nothing of my own but only what I see the father doing and so it really for me it really reveals that at the heart of all reality is this father who is so humble that he gives himself without holding anything back so that his son is totally equal to himself you know the son knows the goodness of the father but we don't you know our experience is not the same obviously we're human beings were creatures yeah that's right and sometimes you know we can be tempted not to see the goodness of the Father you know we all have this wound of original sin where you know remember Adam and Eve in the garden they disobeyed God and then God came walking in the garden and they ran up to him jumped into his arms and said merciful Father forgive us and that's not what they did rather they went and hid and that's that's what we do a lot of times especially when our sins weigh heavily on us we have this as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says a distorted image of God where we tend not to see God in His goodness and so we avoid him and we hide from him and and that's a wound that really you know has to do with all of us we all have that wound where we have a tendency not to see his goodness I know that for myself my own examples you know I know the Father loves me but that doubt creeps in even as a priest and I hear it in the confessional especially I'm sure you guys do as well that kind of that doubt starts to creep in there and so that's what you're trying to tell us to be aware of yeah yeah and it's a it's a difficulty for many people for all of us mother Teresa says this is a difficulty for all of us kind of having a hard time not trusting in God's goodness you know just just last night before I went to bed I was I was sent an email by a member of our staff who had gotten a voicemail from somebody who was doing this consecration leading to Divine Mercy Sunday and the voicemail that they transcribed for me said you know I'm seven I'm a 77 year old woman I was brought up with an understanding of God as this just judge and fire and brimstone and she says I'm doing this preparation to consecrate myself to God the Father and and and the fact that God loves me is so wonderful it's it's hard to comprehend but I'm just starting to get this and and then her voice broke and she said it's wonderful and I just thank you and the staff person who sent this to me said you know this is what it's all about and I said this is what it's all about and really for Jesus that's what it's all about that that Jesus who knows the goodness of the Father and knows that so many of us all of us have this wound except for the son because he knows the father he just wants to make the father known one of my favorite passages in the Gospel of John is in the prologue where it says no one has ever seen God the only son who's in the bosom of the Father he has made him known that the eternal son he knows the goodness of the father he knows the tenderness of the father he knows the gentleness of the father and he sees and his heart breaks because of all of us who tend to run from the father and hide from the father and so the great passion the great desire of the Heart of Jesus is he just wants to make the father known in His goodness and and I that really defines the whole mission of Jesus is revealing the goodness and the mercy of the father God is good and how does that Jesus reveal how does it do it specifically oh you know I'm probably the most powerful way of all is on the cross you know because as the Gospel of John says no greater love as a man than if he give up his life for his friends and Jesus gave his life for us when we were still his enemies because of sin but sometimes that ultimate expression of love that Jesus gives for us on the cross can be scary for people because hey they see the blood and they see the pain and they don't want it and yeah we're averse to suffering I am on the web's you know we're all wimpy sometimes and so sometimes we don't get the message of the Cross of God's love that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that he died because He loves us and so what as I've been reflecting more in the father and the sons love for the father I've been looking at the cross and thinking about the connection between the father and the son like that you know especially that passage I mentioned earlier where Jesus says I can do nothing on my own I only do what I see the father doing that the father shows me everything that he is doing and so what we see on the cross is Jesus doing what the what he has seen the father do that the son sees the father give himself without holding anything back so that the son is totally equal to the father and the son who looks at the father and sees his goodness and sees his humility and sees his love on the cross Jesus is giving of himself in imitation of what the father's done for him because Jesus says in the Gospel of John you know love one another as I have loved you because Jesus saying I'm loving you as the father has loved me yes that I'm giving of myself without holding anything back so that you can be as one with the father me the Sun as is possible for a creature made in God's own image and so what Jesus does in the cross the expression of that love that Jesus saw the love of the father for the son the son is having that love for us by bringing him into his own sonship as we go to the Father as the children of the father and so seeing the cross as an expression of the son doing what he's only seen the father done for him and that Jesus is doing it for us can really help us you know peel back some of the veil of the mystery of love that God has for us that is so amazing you know there was a lot of people who grew up at Catholic schools in the 50s my dad was one of them he's big fan and he always says I was taught to fear God the Father I was taught to be afraid of God the Father and so when he learns you know and other people learn about this is such an open heart and to receive it but but Mike what I wanted to ask was you keep and rightfully so talking about the Gospel of John but what about there's other Gospels there that obviously refer back to the Father not as much maybe but what are your other passages and the other Gospels that you've like we're pointed to yeah as obviously I'm getting very partial to those passages that are Jesus especially revealing the father I think one of my favorites is actually several I think and I'll put it this way there's about four times in the Gospels where you can actually hear the voice of the father you know normally the father's not speaking he says everything through his word but in Jesus Christ but sometimes you hear the voice of the father and there's about four times the baptism and the other Gospels well the other godmother one of the times it's the baptism of Jesus and other time it's the Transfiguration there's a couple other times but there's one part where the father repeats himself and I think it's very significant of the few places that the father speaks there's one place where he repeats himself and what he says is this is my beloved son this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased and there's another place that changes it but what he repeats is this is my beloved son and I think that that is strategic that what the father wants us all to hear because the father says that to the son at his baptism at the Transfiguration we we are transfigure we were trans at our baptism and made into the sons and daughters of God at our baptism and the father therefore is always wanting to say to us because of the power of the baptism that we've received where we've been transformed into the children of God that the father is always saying to us you are my beloved that he says it to you he says it to father Cass he says it to me always and at all times he's saying you are my beloved you are my beloved and in the Gospel of John sometimes adapted sons yeah because that's who we are we're the children of God you know you know see what love the father has for you it says he's I think at first John that we are called the children of God and so we are we are the children of God and the father says you are my beloved you are my beloved now we're doesn't really say and whom I'm well pleased because because we sin and what is sin it's the rejection of our Father it's saying I don't want your love I don't believe in your love and it breaks his heart but even if we break the Father's heart he still loves us he's still saying you were my beloved and this was something so important for JA st. John whose gospel was written later that he would reflect on what was revealed in the other Gospels and he took I think that so deeply to heart that in the Gospel of John John isn't called John he's called the Beloved Disciple because he recognizes that his identity is being loved by the father and that is the identity of every Christian or it should be the identity of every Christian that we are loved by the father and we should always hear the father saying to us you are my beloved and what should well up in our hearts through the Holy Spirit should be the prayer Abba Father like that the father is loving us and us loving the father in the son I know we should always feel that way but sometimes it's not always easy to feel that way it can be hard to feel that way and I know there's another area in the Gospels that you've told me about before it's one of your favorites I know what I want you to share that with us as well yeah it's it's the parable that is I think the most beautiful of all the parables that Jesus teaches us and it's the parable of the prodigal son in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus tells us about the father you know they started the parable of the prodigal son but you could say it's the parable of the merciful father - because you have this son who's a son but he says to the father I want my inheritance just which means like basically father as far as I'm concerned you're dead and then he spends that inheritance on loose living he spends it on prostitutes he lives like a pig then he goes and lives with the pigs and then he comes to his senses because he's hungry he says well I only still go back and I could be a slave in my father's house and the father sees him from a distance and he sends the soldiers to go and slaughter that pig of the son and they eat them that night that's all of our versions because we send to think of the father's like oh no I've done this he doesn't love me anymore the father sees his son from a distance he runs out to him he embraces and puts a ring on his finger because the reality is nothing changes the fact that we are choked the children of God even our sins we are always God's children and any good parent knows that there is nothing their child can ever do to prevent them from loving their children in a way unconditional love it's totally unconditional and and even if the parents do reject their children we learn from Scripture in the Old Testament even if a mother rejects the child in her womb the father would say but I will never forget you and I will never reject you and we see that in the gospel we see that in the parable of the prodigal son where it's the father saying I always loved you you are always my child and that is the reality of our baptism the reality we're given in our baptism it's the reality of the Christian life we just forget it and it's so it's hard and that's why we have the word of God and why we have these parables to remind us of that bedrock reality of the Father's love and our identity as being the children of God and beloved disciples because the father does love us because he says you are my beloved you see that that love is constant it's it doesn't change you know I spoke before about God's providence God's providential care for us as a community and you know and for us we are invited to place our confidence in that love that love that the father has for us you know it is is this something that we have to from the depths of our heart embrace there's a truth but that's not always easy you know and it's and it's your right to say like the love and the like the father not only loves us he also cares for us one of the themes for Divine Mercy Sunday and at the National Shrine of divine mercy I know you guys were talking about this earlier in the program is Jesus I trust in you and like the image of divine mercy Jesus I trust in you but the heart of accepting the father's care for us not just as love but also his care is announced by the Sun but it's that providential care of the father so that when we say Jesus I trust in you we can also remember that we're also trusting in the father yes we're because Jesus trusted in the father yes Jesus loved the Father Jesus you know on the cross you know there's my God my God why have you forsaken me it seems like you just didn't trust him but he was actually quoting a psalm that was all about it's I'm 22 he was all about the trust in the father that even it was all dark for the son on the cross it seems seems like he was rejected but the psalm goes on but in you I have placed my trust and it's like and what Jesus teaches is that and when we say Jesus I trust and you were also saying father I trust in you because Jesus says in the Gospel of John I and the father are one and he also says whoever sees me sees the father also because the love of the Father comes to us through the son the care of the father comes to us through the son so when we say Jesus I trusted you were also we can also be saying father I trust in you and that trust is not misplaced because our Father is faithful he's faithful to his promises he's faithful to his love and he's faithful to his care he himself says in Matthew 6 I mean that beautiful passage we're in the part of the Sermon on the Mount where he says look at the birds of the air and you know and look at the flowers in the field you know I care for all of these yes and you are worth more than all of this and this is a time that we really need to remember that obviously in the time of isolation and Quarantine we need to remember this yeah absolutely absolutely well you know this news could be depressing because you know people are isolated they don't you know they're not supported by the church because the churches are closed and this is the consoling use this is the consoling truth that we have to embrace because it is God who loves us God is always there yeah and they you know and they are I mean that we are they are supported by the church it's just harder because people a lot of times can't go to Mass but we are supported by the church there's a lot of life streaming and things I know what the National Shrine they're doing these live streams but the other thing is even if we can't go to Mass and we can watch it we can make spiritual communion so we could participate in that but we the Liturgy of the the Liturgy of the Eucharist or the Liturgy of the mass has the Liturgy of the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the word and I think in this time when a lot of us are probably the fear level is very high in terms of economic uncertainty in terms of the the pandemic and I've been probably watching and reading more news than I should and my anxiety level starts to go up but I've been trying to go back to listening to the Gospel of John and reading the Word of God and I think it's good for all of us to be doing that at that time because God does support us the church does support us through the Word of God and and that's something that can be very powerful in this time and so one of the things I know you guys have offered a lot of free things you've offered some free to mine mercy images one of the things that Leonardo de Filippis who's the one who made that Gospel of John audio presentation I've been listening to all this time he's a wonderful Catholic actor and there's all these beautiful plays on different Saints I talked to him before this show and I said Leonardo because of this pandemic and you know there's a promotion in the book 33 days to greater glory where you can get it for free but I said can I just mention it on the show because people really need to hear the Word of God he said absolutely so you can get the Gospel of John for free if you go to st. Luke productions nope no dot and it's not spelled out just st Luke productions.com slash John I should probably up on the screen you can then download the Gospel of John audio version for free and it helps counteract the fear factor that comes in from a lot of bad news and and painful news else we're stuck in our homes and that fear grows let's listen the Word of God and become it'll help clear our minds from all this noise that this world has given us maybe a little less recently this is an opportunity to fill our hearts and minds with the gospel to John and your book gives us a chance to do that so again it's called 33 days to greater glory we gave it away before Lent but we didn't know there was gonna be obviously this pandemic and recognizing the great spiritual hunger as well as economic difficulties that so many people are going through right now we decided to give it to any of our viewers for any donation and if you are going to our website today you can please see that information today and tomorrow now unfortunately Father if we have to keep the doors open so we won't be able to keep doing that forever but today and tomorrow you can get this book for any donation for the mic speaking of this book why don't you tell us something about that consecration to the father because we're going to be making that prayer of preparation for that consecration together a little later so how is this consecration to the father different from the other ones well I did three main other consecrations before this wrote really to when it's 33 days to morning glory which is a consecration to Mary to Jesus through Mary I did a consecration to merciful love which is a consecration to Jesus the Divine Mercy and then this is the third in the sort of trilogy the consecration to the Father with 33 days to greater glory and this is really kind of a case of I think saving the best for last at least theologically speaking because Mary leads us to Jesus and Jesus leads us home to the Father and really all consecrations lead us to the ultimate consecration that we have and God the Father so you're calling it the greatest is that why or is there even more reasons why that's the great we considered the greatest consecration yeah it's it's the greatest in the sense of like that is what our consecration is like the word consecration means to be set apart our fundamental consecration is really our baptism the whole Christian life is consecration because our baptism sets us apart from the world and you know we have a beautiful world of creation but the world of sin that is dominated by Satan with the Prince of this world that is a world that the father in our baptism through the son by the power of the Holy Spirit were pulled out of the world were separated by the from the world by our baptism and were made the children of God so that Satan is no longer so to speak our Father God is now or far right but how could we ever think of Satan as our father because what you've been saying this whole show God is the father why why would we think of Satan as our father yeah well we shouldn't I mean no I mean I could but good well the idea is the the reality of our baptism the reality of grace the supernatural life that we receive is such that God is our Father our reality as we are the children of God and nothing ever changes that however we can forget that real with our choices we can forget that that we are the children of God we can forget that God is our Father and we can start acting like you know Satan is our Father and what I mean by acting like Satan is our father is Satan is a liar and he's the one who tells us that you have to earn God's love that the father as he said in Genesis to Adam Eve is it really true that he said you couldn't eat of any of the trees that's not what they said he's a liar and what he constantly wants to do is make the father out to be a mean person who wants to just ruin our fun and who doesn't love us and whose love is conditional and so what he's saying to us is the Father's love is not enough come into the world and the world will show you love I will give you Fame I will give you you I'll give you riches I'll give you pleasures and all these things because the Father's love is not enough that's the lies that Satan tells the father's love is enough we all desire love the promises of the world the promises of Satan are empty their vanity their show their their their shadow and they all pass away the only thing that lasts is the love of the Father for his son and all the children that are brought in by the power of the son suffering death and resurrection through the power of the Holy Spirit and that that is what makes us the children of God that's the fundamental reality and Satan who so jealous wants us to forget that reality he wants to steal it away from us and so what I so what we're called to do is really remember our consecrated life and we live a consecrated life of poverty chastity obedience but the Christian life is a consecrated life because the Christian life starts with baptism and faith and so what that baptism does is it pulls us out of the world it takes us away from Satan and his emptiness and his pumps and his works and it puts us and it roots us in the love of the Father which is where our joy and where our eternity and we're heaviness you know what you're saying is that the original sin is actually distrust the evil one does a dissonance to toss either don't trust him don't trust him yes yes that's exactly right and so the means don't trust but you know this distrust and this whole divine mercy actually is is going back to the very roots Jesus I trust in you I trust a father I trust God's love I trust his plan of salvation for me you know and and you know here at Easter but then I trust his word in his son who's told and who's proven his love proven the Father's love on the cross and I trust the word when the father says you are my beloved I trust the word that says no one can take you out of the father's hand as this is in the Gospel of John that I trust in the promises of Christ I trust in the promise of the father I believe in that love and that I believe in the Holy Spirit that's been given to us that allows us to cry out from the depths of our hearts of father and we believe in that and that that's why at Easter which is the culmination of the whole the Terkel calendar is that every Easter we renew our baptismal promises and which you're gonna do at the at the Divine Mercy Sunday liturgy with the asparagus moment when we all renew our baptismal promises at the Easter Vigil were asked right do you reject Satan I do his empty promises I do because what we need to do is we constantly need to remember who we are as Christians we're loved by the father that's enough Satan's the world the flesh and the devil are empty they don't mean anything and - but they have a pull on our hearts and they start pulling us away and so the father wants us to recommit ourselves to that consecration to him recommit ourselves to the grace we received in Baptism so we renew our baptismal promises at every Easter liturgy all those things are the false Coronas the real Corona which you know father you told me we were talking about the chapel of mercy used to be called the corona of Mercy so okay so father Mike you just explained how we can renew our consecration to the liturgy but please explain how we can also do that now through your book well the book really ties in with the liturgy also in the sense of not like the Easter liturgy where we renew our baptismal promises but I am I believe based on my reading of the documents of the Second Vatican Council that the mass through our full conscious and active participation in the man is really are how we renew our baptismal consecration every Sunday and the reason I say that is because there's a particular moment of the mass that for me is sort of most powerful of all use that to again that's it's sort of my my based on my readings of the second back council documents in st. Thomas but that it's you know there you can't really dissect the mass there's not like a most important moment mass you know there's the consecration is very powerful communion is really powerful but for me there's a particularly powerful moment that is the full expression of the priests of the priests action which is the offering of the sacrifice it's the moment when the priest at the altar takes the body blood soul and divinity of Jesus into his hands when we do that and and all the lay faithful who also share in the priesthood of Christ by virtue of their baptism in the common priesthood that the priest says and they join with him set themselves to the priests offering and Christ offering and the priest says through him and with him and in him O God Almighty father in the unity of the Holy Spirit all glory and honor is yours for ever and ever and then the laypeople say Amen and they should say Amen Soviets amen because I believe because that is the moment when the perfect sacrifice of Jesus made on the cross for us two thousand years ago is is represented not re sacrifice but represented and and offered by the preset the author and all of the faithful and it goes to the father and for me that's the fullness Trinitarian expression of our Christian life it's why the Second Vatican Council calls the Liturgy of the the mass this son the source and summit of the Christian life it's because in that moment we are going from the world we're pulling from the world we're saying no to Satan as we did in the penitential rate of the liturgy saying no to Satan and we're saying yes to the father yes I the father is my father and I choose to live as his child I shoes to live as his son which means to choose the path of love instead of selfishness to choose the path of service instead of self service and so the ideas we go through Christ with Christ in Christ as his body in the unity and power of the holy spirit to the glory of God the Father and that's like the most sublime moment of the mass in a certain sense for me and then at that moment after we also through him with him in him in the unity of the Holy Spirit and everybody says Amen and then what do we all say together our Father because God is our Father and that is the ultimate reality given to us by Jesus Christ there is suffering death and resurrection and and it's it's such a major blessing for us so to renew that consecration when I what I'm encouraging people to do through the book is to renew that consecration that we all have of being separated the world by belonging to the father through the sacrifice of Jesus and the power of the Spirit by by recommitting ourselves to the father in that moment by giving of ourselves to the father in that moment and so the prayer of preparation so the prayer in the book is really a prayer preparation like in the other books 33 days to morning glory 33 days to merciful if there's an actual prayer of consecration I'm saying make your prayer of consecration that moment of the liturgy the concluding doxology the through him with him in a moment make that the prayer so in that moment look up to the Father and give him your heart give him your life and recommit yourself as his child and listen to him say you are my beloved and so I would say that we're what we're gonna pray then is a prayer preparation for that's what I was just gonna say I apologize father we're running a little bit short on time here so you know many of our viewers have been preparing for this 33 days of consecration to the father so why don't we now invite them to join us as we pray as father Mike was just saying this prayer of preparation for consecration right now not just from Satan and all his Pomp's works and empty promises I renounced the way of the world with its selfishness and pride I reaffirmed the truth did you God are my father and that I am your dearly beloved child I believe in your love for me I declare that your love is enough and I commit to loving others as you have so mercifully loved me I offer this prayer father to the power of the Holy Spirit and they name as Christ your son my Savior amen very good thank you thank you all right so now you're ready to do the consecration at mass but before we start our transition to the liturgy father Mike do you have any other recommendations of how you can live out your consecration yeah I have I have one and that is during this time of the pandemic when a lot of people are stuck in their homes I recommend making a retreat at home and you can do that of course for reading the book but a lot of people just finished and so I recommend another retreat and that the background to that is that I work with this group of young men and women called the Marian missionaries of divine mercy who give a year or more to serve the poor and they also put on retreats all around the country and the way that they support themselves and their service of the poor is by those retreats now unfortunately because of the the pandemic most of the retreats were canceled for this year and so what we decided to do and this is the first time the missionaries have ever done it is all of those retreats we've made available online as a home retreat and so if people would want to do it there's five talks and you just go to Marian missionaries org Marian missionaries org and you can find out how you can make that five talk retreat and do a retreat at home during the time of warranty and social distancing you know I've heard in the supports then I've heard good feedback on those retreats and people will like them I think that maybe not just just making available I I'm inviting everyone to to to join and listen and to hear yeah just because once over it doesn't mean what we shouldn't continue or Easter really for that matter we can continue doing these retreats so again please visit Marian missionaries org to learn more information yes thank you thank you for the Mike for being here for this incredible interview I just want to thank you all for tuning in and watching our Divine Mercy Sunday special program I hope you enjoyed it I hope this was truly a consolation for you during this very difficult time and I hope and pray that you may enter into this deep communion of love of the Father which which especially this portion of our program spoke about

Channel: Divine Mercy

Views: 7,300

Keywords:

Id: og2KcSaxbko

Length: 88min 8sec (5288 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 21 2020