Explaining the Faith - Catholicism: The Fullness of the Truth

I've this morning at 11 o'clock Saturday morning here from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge Massachusetts and it's an honor to be with you as we continue my talk series from my DVD explaining the faith as I'm giving you each Saturday just a little talk kind of a preview of what's on the DVD and so we hope at the end when we put up the information on the DVD how to order it that you'll consider getting these talks and today we have a special talk because it's so right now become problematic with so many people leaving our Catholic faith and leaving what is the one true faith and so I want to explain very truthfully why the Catholic faith has the fullness of the truth and how many black eyes were getting in the media and in society today and I'm gonna talk about why we need to understand that this is the religion founded by Jesus Christ our Catholic faith and so stay with me as we talk about this very important topic we're going to talk about how you need to understand and defend things like the Saints Mary the Eucharist the mass Bible alone faith alone purgatory the Pope Saints relics all these good things all right now not is my purpose is not in any way to degrade any other religions no you will hear in my words nothing of that sort I'm not here to lower any other faith like this I'm here to elevate our faith to the proper place that it belongs we as Catholics are the most misunderstood religion like I said Bible only faith alone Pope Saints relics purgatory Mary the Eucharist this is what we're going to talk about today now on my as you can see brother mark put the first slide I'm father Chris ALR coming here from the Nash shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge Massachusetts and it's been exciting as they're telling us that where our churches are now going to finally be able to open up we're hoping for Pentecost and that's going to be very important but I want to start with this Fulton sheen as you can see on your screen a great Catholic bishop he was quoted as saying no more than a hundred people probably in the world hate what really is the Catholic Church but many hate what they think is the Catholic Church that quote is very important because what it is is people dislike the Catholic Church with a misunderstanding of what the Catholic Church actually is and we're gonna show you today and we're gonna answer that question is the Catholic Church needed for salvation and what about the church's phrase there's no salvation outside the Catholic Church and how about this can a non-catholic be saved yes but if a non Catholic can be saved how can the church teach there's no salvation outside the Catholic Church doesn't that seem contradictory stay with us as we will be answering that question alright I'm doing this talk because we are losing so many Catholics the numbers are astounding the new Pew study that came out says only 17% of Catholics think that our faith is the true faith oh my goodness only 17% of Catholics think our faith is the one true faith all the others are much higher the Jehovah Witnesses are like at the top and the Mormons Muslims are at the top and Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons they believe their faith is the one true faith and yet only 17% of Catholics do this is unacceptable it does matter what we are it does matter what our faith is our Catholic Church has made mistakes because remember she is human and divine in her human nature she will fail but in her divine nature she will totally give you the truth all right let's look at this the Catholic Church few people realize built Western civilization you've ever been to a university how about a hospital never been helped by a charity what about furthering your education think the Catholic Church every day the Catholic Church feeds houses clothes educates more people than any other organization in the world this is the Catholic faith this could all end if some in government want their own way and and take this status away of the charity of the Catholic Church because then the taxpayers will have to fund all of those costs so it really we have to be careful when we want to jump on to saying strip the Catholic Church of her tax exemption because then guess what the taxpayers are gonna have to pick up all of those bills so it's really something we need to pray about all right today there are almost 40,000 Christian denominations in the world today all believing something different or they would be the same religion on your slide you can see on the screen who started your church now god bless these people are good people there's there's elements of the truth and all of these religions they really are but you can't have more than one truth so if we can't have more than one truth which truth is the right one you know when I was younger I I lived in many different places in the United States I most recently before becoming a Marion father lived in North Carolina and all my neighbors god bless them they were wonderful people in fact the holiest young lady I ever knew in my life was my little 98 pound bat secretary and I'm gonna have my own business in North Carolina and all my neighbors were Baptist god bless him they were good good people but I always ask the question who started the Baptist religion and the answer is John Smith in 1609 well then I before that I lived in Utah and god bless him they were wonderful people we loved our time in Salt Lake City our neighbors were all Mormons God bless them there was no crime the neighbors were like family it was just a great place and great people but I have to ask you who started the Mormon religion Joseph Smith in 1830 then I lived in Michigan I grew up in Detroit and my neighbors were Episcopalian and same thing great people wonderful neighbors beautiful Souls but I ask you who started the Episcopalian religion some say Henry a that was actually the Anglican but in America is that Piscopo Union religion was started in 1789 by Samuel Seabury now god bless Samuel Seabury but he's not Jesus Christ as good of a man only the Catholic Church even claims that their religion was started in 33 AD no other religion can trace the roots back to 33 AD except our Catholic faith so who started the Catholic Church nobody is mentioned except Jesus Jesus himself nobody else even claims to have started the Catholic Church other than Jesus you know for 1500 years there was only the Catholic Church there were no other Christian religions for 1500 years so I I have to start by asking this question if there was only with the Catholic Church for 1500 years we have to ask ourselves to go to the Bible now one of the missions of Jesus Christ in the Bible was to start a church it says it his own words he Peter you are the rock upon which I will build my church all right which church okay we know Jesus founded a church he said Peter's the rock will be built upon now here's my question does anybody really believe that Jesus Christ was gonna come to earth and he did and start a church which he said he did but he was gonna do that start this church and then say I'm gonna start a church but I'm gonna get it wrong for 1,500 years and then Martin Luther's gonna come and get it right I don't think so I don't think so yeah we have our brokenness in the human nature of the church but you know what in her divine nature it's from God it's from God and the gates of Hell will not prevail all right our church fathers to them there was only one church and you know what to topics the church fathers talked about more than any other any other topics for 1500 years you guessed it Mary and the Eucharist two things uniquely Catholic well father my Protestant faith has communion no it's symbolic nobody teaches transubstantiation that our bread actually becomes the body and blood of Christ it's at the Catholic faith and that's John 6 verse 52 talking about what it is is uniquely Catholic Mary and the Eucharist the Church Fathers for centuries John Chrysostom st. Augustine st. Thomas Aquinas all of them for 1500 years talked about Mary and the Eucharist more than anything else and those are the only two things that are uniquely Catholic the sacraments very much important all right now on the next slide you can see this is what's happening in our world today all right you see these massive megachurches and they're drawing in millions and especially ex Catholics and you know I was flipping through the TV one night at a parish mission trying to find EWTN and I came across this probably the most well known pastor in the United or preacher in the United States is the biggest church in the United States and I'm listening to him speak and he's talking about we don't put God in a box and you knew he was talking about he was talking about us Catholics right even though the tabernacle is God's dwelling place on earth what do you think God made the Ark of the Covenant for right and the Holy of Holies and the tabernacle is the the dwelling place of God and he says and I'm dumbfounded as I'm watching it and he says if you want if you follow Jesus you'll get that new car if you follow Jesus you'll get that new house if you follow Jesus you'll get that promotion at work if you follow Jesus you'll get that beautiful new wife you know don't fall for this this is sweeping millions of Catholics away it's called the gospel of prosperity and it's dangerous it's utterly dangerous that is not the gospel of Christ the gospel of Christ is deny ourselves pick up our cross and follow me yeah that's why Catholicism is not popular but it's the truth it is purely the truth and that doesn't mean that we have to hate our crosses no what it means is those crosses our way to salvation just like Jesus on his way to Calvary yes the cross exists but it's not the last word the last word is the resurrection not the cross and so we have to realize that there is no Easter Sunday without Good Friday and these Gospels of prosperity they don't get it all right now Jesus true is the one mediator but Jesus's body is the church so when we go through the church we are going through Christ his very body as our mediator Saints are not mediators that's what we are attacked a lot of times as Catholics Saints are advocates they're intercessors it's different now the world's oldest continuous institution running today is the Catholic Church which has to mean it's divine despite all our brokenness in the church in our humaneness we still exist because the gates of hell won't prevail even napoleon who was speaking with a cardinal said i'm gonna destroy the Catholic Church and that Cardinal looked at Napoleon he said you think so and he's like yeah he says gee priests and bishops have been trying to do that for eighteen hundred years what makes you think you can destroy it so what's the moral to that the mold of that is in our sin our human nature we are stupid there's been bad priests and bad bishops but it doesn't take away the teaching of the truth and that's why we don't abandon the truth even though he had stupid priests and bishops I can't emphasize this enough all right the mistakes that we have made in the church mean that it is human but I'm not excusing them we're gonna talk about the church scandal at the end of this talk here briefly gonna say a few words on it but the Bible speaks of two kinds of tradition it says the human tradition is wrong and a lot of people point to the Catholic Church saying you're all about human tradition ah there's another tradition mentioned in the Bible called apostolic and this apostolic tradition means from the Apostles apostolic handed down to us in today's world this apostolic succession is incredible because it means right from Jesus he gave power to his first apostles his first priests and when those apostles we saw the other day with Saint Matthias when one dies and another needs to be replaced they would lay hands on that next priest and give him the power of the Holy Spirit of ordination do you know that every living Catholic priest alive today despite his brokenness when he was ordained a priest hands were laid on his head by a bishop and when that bishop was ordained a priest hands were laid on him by a bishop and when that bishop was ordained a priest hands were laid on him by a bishop all the way back so on and so forth all the way back to one of the Twelve Apostles and actually Jesus Christ that's unbelievable to know when Bishop Holley put his hands on my head and then some Bishop put hands on his head when he was ordained and there's some bishop put hands on his head when he was ordained that every living priest can be traced physically physically by touching that means Jesus touched a head and that person touched a head and that person touched a head going right down to me that is unbelievable so if you want a blessing by a priest have him lay his hands on your head asked for that bussy now he's not ordained you know but he can give you a blessing and you know that there's an unbroken line in your priest that has been unbroken from the time of Jesus all the way down to the priest this is unbelievable you know a lot of people say oh you know you're all about these other things it's only Bible it's Bible only we're gonna talk about that in a minute but the Jews they had the same three traditions that we base our faith on you know our Catholic faith has three legs to our stool right we have the Magisterium we have Scripture and we have oral tradition this is exactly exactly like the Jews do you know the Jews had a Magisterium we have a Magisterium it's called the College of bishops and Cardinals right the Jews had a Magisterium is called the teaching authority of Moses you know we have Scripture it's called the Old and New Testament the Jews had Scripture the Torah and the Ten Commandments we have tradition do you know the Jews also counted on tradition it came down with Moses from the mountain from Mount Sinai and is throughout the Old Testament so we have the same three legs as the Jewish stool why would somebody Christians come from the Jews say you Catholics you have three legs of stool you're only supposed to have Scripture no we need tradition and we need the authority excuse me the majesty of the authority of the Magisterium so let's look at this let's start with Bible only Sola scriptura you see the slide up on your pagers if there's a picture of the Bible now many non Catholics will tell us it's only about the Bible Sola scriptura well do you know that Sola scriptura is not in the Bible nowhere in the bible does it say that we are only to rely only on the Bible now a couple of things that we need to look at we are Bible based Scripture is needed is needed but it's not sufficient in other words we need the other legs the Magisterium a teaching authority and the tradition passed down from Jesus to the Apostles to us you see the book the Bible says in the last chapter of John that if all the books of the world were to put what Jesus said and did excuse me if you were to write down what Jesus said and did everything he said and did all the books of the world could not contain it well wait a minute here the Bible is only this thick so how could all the books of the world contain everything he said when the Bible is only this thick it's not all the books of the world does that mean that these other things Jesus said and did are not important of course not they come to us through tradition not just scripture both are critically important now Sola scriptura is not in the Bible but oral tradition is second Thessalonians 2:15 this is very important the I hold fast to the traditions I teach you both oral and written Paul says all right jesus never promised us a book but he promised us and authority and authority of the Catholic Church you know a lot of people say well father all you need is the Bible well yes we do need the Bible and by the way I have a question for you do we read the Bible as literally true answer the question all right do we read the Bible as literally true some people are gonna say yes some people are gonna say no the answer is yes now go home tonight and cut off your right hand because the Bible says if it causes you to sin cut it off wait a minute father what are you talking about okay the word literally in the original language doesn't mean how we use it we read the Bible is literally true with the word literally meaning the message the author is trying to convey is true so what is the message when Jesus said if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off the message is if there's something in your life causing you to sin get rid of it if it's a computer or an alcohol bottle or or drugs or whatever it could be even another person you got to get rid of that so that's what Jesus meant but we do not read the Bible as literal lists meaning we actually get a saw and slice off our hand no that's literalists we don't do that we read it as literally true meaning the messages if there's something in your life causing you to sin get rid of it that's just one example all right now as I said jesus never promised a book but he promised an authority the church John 20:23 says the apostles the church ministers have the authority to forgive sins I talked about this in my confession talk last week to two pastas Jesus said who sins you forgive are forgiven whose sins you retain are retained so what that means is heaven has to follow the priest and if you didn't hear my talk last week it's out there on Facebook and YouTube called a confession it was to talk about confession and in it I explained that Christ gave that authority to the Apostles to be able to forgive sins and so this Authority is the church these apostles founded the church and passed it on to the living day pre current day priests all right so this is very important what about first timothy 3:15 says the church is the pillar and bulwark of the truth it tells us what is to make up the Bible the church is that authority you know when I was in North Carolina I had a good friend named Edie was a good man and he was a fallen away Catholic he now became Baptist god bless him and he would come into my room or my office I should say and he would notice a lot of times I had my crucifix behind my chair and I remember one day he came in and he had the Bible with him and he said you know Chris can I speak with you because he's looking at my crucifix above my chair on the back wall and he says can I speak with you Chris and I said okay and he says Chris and he pulls out that Bible and he starts slapping the Bible II said Chris this is all you need you don't need all this other stuff all you need is the Bible that is all you need you crazy Catholics are hung up on this tradition and the Magisterium I said Edie so were the Jews just to let you know and he said but this is all you need Chris you don't need anything else but the Bible this is it and I said okay I'd do you accept the authority of that Bible he said yeah I said do you accept every word in it as true he said yeah I said do you believe the authority in the authority from which it came he said yeah I said congratulations ad you accept the authority of the Catholic Church he's like huh I said Edie you know where that Bible you're holding in your hand comes from you have the same twenty-seven books and new and testament that we do and in the old testament you there's a difference of seven books all right wisdom Sirach Tobit Maccabees those were in the original Bible but you hold that same Bible other than those few books that we do you know where that book came from it you know where that Bible came from that Bible came from the councils of Carthage and hippo in 393 and 397 ad from the Catholic Bishops they are the ones that determined which books were divinely inspired yes ultimately they came from God but there were all kinds of scriptures out there then there was the gospel of Peter and the Gospel of Thomas and the gospel of Mary there was all kinds of Gospels who determined the four Gospels that you read Edie who determined Matthew Mark Luke and John the Holy Spirit yes but who what human tools declared it the Holy Spirit yes but he used some human tools to do it those human tools were the Catholic Bishops at the councils of Carthage and hippo in 393 and 397 you see II D the mass predates the Bible you know why the Bible was written the Bible was written to be read at the mass this is what the Bible was for this is what the Bible was created this is what we have in our Catholic faith is the mass was started by Christ in 33 AD the first scription scriptures were not written four decades later decades later and they were read they were created and the Bible was canonized now the Scriptures existed before 393 and 397 but they were canonized into the volumes of the Testaments the Old Testament New Testament and in 393 and 397 ad people don't understand that so what determined the Canon of the Bible we have right now the tradition of the Catholic Church and I said to ad Edie you cannot accept that Bible and reject the authority of the Catholic Church from which it came that would be the same thing as read is accepting the Constitution of the United States but rejecting the founding fathers and sadly that's exactly what's happening today in our government we are rejecting the founding fathers this is craziness it's the same thing that happened you can't accept that Authority edie that authority of the Catholic Church because she gave us the Bible the Holy Spirit yes he inspired it but it was put together by the Catholic Bishops they are the ones that canonized it and said these are the inspired books now we need an interpreter so that everyone will be able to interpret the Bible the way God wants it to be if you don't have an interpreter you have 40 I just showed that slide right 40,000 different Christian religions in the world today well which one reads the Bible this way the other reads the Bible this way the other reads of Bible this way well which one's the truth one religion says the bible does not condemn abortion the other religion says the bible does condemn abortion which is the truth you got to have an authority this is why the Catholic Church the Magisterium is that authority to interpret that Bible for us you know the US Constitution has an interpreter the US Supreme Court when she's doing her job I can't just go out and say well I think the Constitution means this as a business owner I couldn't just mistreat an employee and say well you know what that's my constitutional right because that's how I read the Constitution I read the Constitution that I have a right to abuse my employee no I can't just interpret the Constitution my own way why because the pre Supreme Court says no the Constitution says this it's the same way with the Bible the the Constitution is explained and interpreted by the Supreme Court just like the Bible needs to be explained interpreted by a church that's why we have the Catholic Church you know nine out of ten early Christians could not read so how did they learn tradition this is what is making our three legs of our Catholic faith where did they learn their faith the Scriptures yes this is true but also the mass the scriptures were as I said were written or excuse me were put together in the Bible to be read at the mass the Bible this is very important the mass came before the Bible the scriptures even the mass came even before the first written scripture Jesus never wrote a word but he gave us the mass before he died in the upper room all right so let's finish up with Bible here you know I've told this story before but what the heck I'll tell it again I am I should be embarrassed to admit this but what the heck you know when I moved down to North Carolina to start my own business about 20 over 20 years ago when t years ago I was one of the first guys ever to try online dating and I said I should be embarrassed but what the heck you know I was in a I started my business and I just I worked seven days a week I was there every night till midnight and I never had any kind of social life and I remember one Saturday night I was listening to the radio and they were broadcasting from some club in Charlotte North Carolina and they said you know what if you're not down here tonight you're really lame kind of thing you know and I'm sitting there thinking yeah Here I am in the office on a Saturday night at 10 o'clock at night I am lame and I decided I was gonna try to get more socially active because I up until then didn't have a chance and so I actually went online and did the first online dating when I when I got online there was probably all the seven girls on the internet doing online dating and well anyway I started chatting with this one lady who seemed very nice professional and we we wrote each other and exchanged pictures and we agreed to meet and this was in Charlotte and she was a professional and nice lady and and I didn't want to make her uncomfortable so I didn't want to pick her up at her house asking her where she lives so we agreed to meet at a restaurant in Charlotte and as we're at the restaurant and we're what is the one thing they tell us never to bring up on a first date right religion and politics right so there I am and I'm eating and all of a sudden she pops the question what question you ask yeah so what religion are you and as I'm eating my spaghetti I choke up Catholic and she goes and she literally gasped she goes how how can you belong to religion that burned Bibles chained him to rocks and put him in the Latin so nobody could read him and you know what my reaction was we did I mean when you don't know your faith this is a problem and so she says yeah you burn Bibles you put him in a lot and so nobody could read them and you chain them to rocks so nobody could have him let's look at this did the church chain Bibles to rocks yes we did but it wasn't so nobody could read them it was so that everybody could read them you see back in the day that was there was no printing press and it took a monk three years to copy one Bible if you put that Bible out in the public square with no chain on it it would have been gone in an hour and then nobody could have it so the importance was China to the center of the rock in town so everybody could view it and have it some of you may remember the days of the phone booth y'all remember the days of the phone booth what was chained to the phone booth the yellow pages and it was chained that so nobody would walk out with them so everybody can have use of them y'all remember the pen at the bank right you have the pen at the bank is that chained so nobody could use the pen no it's changed so that the next person doesn't walk off with it even inadvertently so then let's talk about Latin yeah put the Bible into Latin but it wasn't so nobody could read it it was because at that time in history still the most language most spoken and read around the world was Latin this is why the church put into Latin increased the reach of the Bible twenty fold oh and then she said your church burned Bibles to the church burn Bibles yes it did but not the real Bible the church only burned her reticle Bibles what does the government supposed to do when it finds counterfeit money when the government finds counterfeit money it burns it all right these other Gospels are not inspired of the Holy Spirit the Gospel of Thomas the gospel of Mary the gospel of all these other things they were heretical not heretical necessarily do to Chronicle excuse me apocryphal these were not inspired to the Holy Spirit so the church did burn them she was doing her job to protect the real Bible it's like burning counterfeit money you got to protect the real money this isn't money but it's you see my point all right now then she said how could you belong to a religion that added books to the Bible remember I told you Maccabees and wisdom and Sirach in Tobit how could you belong to a religion that added books to the Bible you know what the answer is we didn't add books to the Bible Martin Luther took him out and then people will say well no father Luther took out those seven books cuz they were not in the original Hebrew he knew what he was doing this is got the churches all phony no go to the Dead Sea Scrolls today and you will see that in fact we do have those seven books in the original Hebrew all right let's keep going what about faith alone Sola fidei look up at your screen next slide faith alone Sola fidei right this one is important because when I move down to wal oxys to Walmart when I moved to North Carolina the very first night I lived in North Carolina I went into a Walmart and I had my Benedict Cross on me and that Benedict cross on it is a corpus meaning the body of Christ just like crucifix that you see in any Catholic Church and this woman stopped me in Walmart and she said you must be Catholic and I said yes how did you know you know because I'm wearing this corpus of Christ on my crucifix right and she says how can you belong to religion and just like the girl in the restaurant she said that isn't biblical and I said what do you mean we're not biblical now I had not come back fully to my Catholic faith yet and I didn't know it fully and she says you are not of the Bible you Catholics and I said why and she says Romans 3:28 and like a good Catholic I was what is Romans 3:28 say I didn't know I didn't know so yes I guess she had a point there Romans 3:28 she said you are saved by faith alone and not by works she said you Catholics don't believe that you don't believe in the Bible is that true do we Catholics not believe in that statement you are saved by faith alone and not by works is that against church teaching is that against the Catholic faith you bet it is that is against the Catholic faith well then I told you right there father you people are not Kat or you're not biblical you Catholics are not biblical here's here's the problem and this is why you need to know your Catholic faith because you are saved by faith alone and not by works Romans 3:28 that's not what the Bible says that's not Romans 3:28 you know what Romans 3:28 says you are saved by faith it does not have the word alone Martin Luther added it we believe we are saved by faith not alone Martin Luther added the word alone and it says not by works that's where she stopped but she want to know what Romans 2:28 really says not by works of the law we believe that so Romans 3:28 really says you are saved by faith and not by works of the law bingo ding-ding that is purely Catholic so if you really want to know what Romans 3:28 says what it says is purely Catholic we are saved by faith doesn't say the word alone and not by works of the law works of the law are gonna see this but works of love charity you betcha that's the way we show we are christ-like and people don't get this the word alone was added by Martin Luther and Corinthians 13 to st. Paul says faith without love is nothing and it cannot save so right there tells you Corinthians 13 to faith without love is nothing and it cannot save you know the only time faith alone appears in the Bible tell this to your non Catholic friends James 2:24 see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone for as the body apart from the Spirit is dead so faith apart from works is dead Wow alright let's keep going I'm the Pope we hear a lot now slide you can look up on your screen you can see the slide that says the papacy here right this is really confusing for people because people always say you stupid Catholics think you're Pope's infallible and I gave a homily a couple days ago where I talked about this and so if you saw it god bless you I'll just kind of summarize it here the the teaching of the church in other words do we believe the Pope is infallible yes but with conditions if the Pope said and I use this example the other day if the Pope said the University of Michigan is gonna win the NCAA football national championship this year is that true does that have to happen yes no just kidding just kidding no of course not the Pope can be wrong just like you or me the only time he is infallible is when he speaks ex cathedra from his chair declaring it as infallible or in union with his College of Bishops declaring it and failable in terms of faith and morals not social justice nathi if the Pope says that we shouldn't build a wall or you think we should build a wall the Pope says we shouldn't you can disagree we are not blind sheep here this is important you know Peter the first pope is mentioned 191 times in the Bible and John is only mentioned 48 all the other apostles combined are only mentioned 130 times yet Peters mentioned 191 times because after the Apostles died this is important that an authority was passed down that more authority is needed to guard against heresy once the Apostles died so it makes perfect sense that we got to continue this tradition apostolic tradition in the chair of Peter there has to be unity otherwise you're gonna have 40,000 different religions that's what happened in the Protestant Reformation we need to understand there has to be a unity every institution has to have a leader now one of the most fascinating facts about the papacy I ever heard and learned in seminary I said in the homily the other day I want to repeat right here if you ever questioned and you can mention this to your non Catholic brothers and sisters about the authority of the Pope listen to this around 80 ad the church at Corinth had issues and what apostle was still alive in 80 ad you got it John the Beloved Disciple but the church at Corinth which was much closer much closer to John and Patmos then I don't know if he's in Patmos at the time but anyways closer to John than Rome yet the church at Corinth who did they go to did they go to John the living apostle well every non Catholic in this world would say yes but if you're a good Catholic and you know your history you would say no you know who they went to who did the church at Corinth go to to help them believe it or not John with his blessing they went to Clement the first the 4th Pope even though John was still alive the Apostle who laid his head on the breast of Christ who is still alive yet the church at Corinth went to Clement the first in Rome for guidance over John with John's blessing John said I am NOT the head of the church Clement the first is could you imagine this tell this to your non Catholic friends again I'm not luring other religions I'm elevating our Catholic faith where it belongs this is so important now even though John was still alive and living much closer to the church at Corinth and Rome was the church at Corinth went to Clement the first pope with John's blessing he told him he's the head of the church here's an apostle saying that I'm an apostle but I'm not the head of the church the Pope is Wow have you ever heard that why aren't priests preaching this from the rooftops I don't get it all right do you know in the first 200 years all the Pope's except one were martyred I tell you the Romans sure knew who the head of the church was because they sought a mount and killed him that is who the head of the church was you know a doctrine proposed by a pope as his own opinion and not solemnly declared as doctrine infallible doctrine may be regarded as false you may disagree yes you can you know I said this one I want to give it before I said it that my homily the other day but I want to explain a lot of people will point to the fact that Peter is not the head the church because of what the Bible says and I need to teach you this for those who didn't hear my homily the other day they will point to the Bible and say go to the original Greek that's always a good thing right what language with the Bible's written it was the Bible written in Greek so non-catholics I'll say go to the Greek what does it say says Peter you are the rock that will build my church know it says Petra if it was Peter it would have been Petros because the masculine Peter for rock would have been Petros but instead the Greek has Petra which is feminine so it could not be talking about Peter could not what's the problem with that and how should you answer that that it's not talking about Peter when in fact we as Catholics believe it was talking about Peter no it isn't father because it would have said Petros in the Greek instead it said Petra which is feminine Peter was not feminine therefore it could not be Peter aha how do you know how do you how do you defend this you know what the answer is Jesus didn't speak Greek to his apostles never Jesus spoke Aramaic and in the Aramaic there's only one word for rock kept fun so Jesus would have said you are kept feh and there's no way to know if he was meaning masculine or feminine why because he meant Peter so he would have said in the Aramaic kappa he there was no two versions of that and Aramaic like the Greek so when you say oh the Greek it says Jesus says the feminine it's not talking about Peter Jesus didn't speak Greek and so we got to know our faith to defend it like this all right I finished with the Pope because he is in Scripture everywhere what about Matthew 16:18 Christ said that Peter was the rock upon which he would build the church what about Luke 22 32 Jesus gave Peter the mission to keep his faith and to strengthen his brothers as the leader when about Matthew 16:19 the keys were given to Peter to signify Authority the keys to heaven meaning he had authority to govern the house of God that is the church what about John 21 from 15 to 17 verses Jesus gave Peter the authority by instructing him to feed his sheep after Jesus was to die this means leader everyone back to Matthew 16:19 the power to bind and loose who sins you forgive are forgiven who sins you retain are retained conferred Peter in particular is seen his confirmation is seen as authority to absolve sins not because Peter the authority came from him the authority came from God came from Jesus but when you have ultimate authority you have the power to delegate that authority and Peter had the alt excuse me Jesus had the ultimate authority to forgive sins and he delegated that to the Apostles john 90169 excuse me Matthew 16:19 Matthew 18:18 John 20:23 well okay father but it died with the Apostles no they had the authority to delegate it to others just like they did Matthias and the next ones that replace those apostles as the next ordained clergy you know they had the authority to forgive sins and pronounce judgments on doctrine and to make decisions on church discipline this is all scriptural alright next slide look up on your screen Saints and icons and relics number this this here is a number of questions and confusions that come from this but look at that why do we have Saints is one of the most confusing things ever all right let me try to explain why we have Saints yes we go directly to God this is true but you know what if I wanted to get directly to the president of United States but I I didn't yet know him and I was trying to get to know him but yet he had a personal good friend that was also somebody I could call I would do that I would use them as an advocate this is all the Saints are for us there are examples you know who is the greatest NFL football player to ever live yes Barry Sanders that's right oh I know I'm gonna get comments no father Barry Sanders was the greatest yes he was you know why Barry Sanders was the greatest NFL player who ever lived because he did all he did and never had a good offensive line in front of him and never had a good quarterback and yet he would if he had an offensive line or a good quarterback he would run he'd still be running and yet Barry Sanders was more importantly a model of humility and character he didn't do all these crazy things off the field he was a humble man when he'd score a touchdown he'd flip the ball to the referee he wouldn't go into some crazy celebration drawing attention to himself he was the greatest football player who ever lived and Barry Sanders is an example so in the Detroit area where I'm from when parents wanted their boys to play football they wanted him to be like Barry Sanders because he was a great example it's the same with the Saints you want to be a great person you follow the Saints you want to model yourself after somebody model is yourself somebody if I have a priest so to model myself after John Vianney right if you're striving for purity you want to model yourself after Maria Goretti you can go down the list and so these show us these Saints show us how to do it you know if there weren't Saints before me that show that I can live a life of virtue I don't think I ever would believe that I could live a celibate chaste life in a way that I could crawl into my bed like I do every night all alone no I got to have that companionship I want to be married I can't live without that yes you can because the Saints help me the Saints give me that example and this is the beautiful gift God gives us in the saints now father you can't talk to saints they're dead well tell that to Jesus when he was transfigured on the mountain and he spoke to Moses and Elijah Moses in a you were long dead but Jesus was still talking to him they could speak now this is the same thing we can ask him for prayers now look at the next slide up on your screen this is the Ark of the Covenant and people say father God prohibits graven images well wait a minute what are you seeing on your screen right there that's a graven image see the angels there see the carvings on the top of the Ark of the Covenant specifically done in pure detail the way God instructed if he instructed them to carve graven images but the point is the the Israelites weren't to worship those images you see Exodus 20 verse 4 says God prohibits graven images for the purpose of worshipping them we don't worship the statue of Mary that's off to my right we don't we we venerate what it represents I don't worship a statue of Jesus i venerate who it represents her excuse me in the case of Jesus I worship what it represents not the image but Jesus himself the image just helps us to see it you know if you if you're all against graven images and take every picture off your desk if you say you Catholics you can't have graven images well then you need to throw away every picture on your desk because your picture of your family is a graven image just hopefully you're not worshipping it don't fall into that thing a child worship nowadays right the order of importance in your family is supposed to be God first your spouse second and your children third that is the order of importance that is to be in your life I have a good friend she works here and she said father the most important thing to me in my life are my children first my husband second and God third I said well that's beautiful but you got it completely backwards all right so Exodus 25 18 God commanded Moses to make a statue of the Angels and in number 2 in numbers 21 8 even a bronze Seraph to be able to carve it out and lift it up to the people so that they could look upon it and be healed he instructed them to carve it out wow this is unbelievable now what about the Protestants they have nativity scenes right little Jesus and in the manger and everything the statues of Joseph and Mary they have Protestants they have nativity scenes that's the same thing so I don't understand this confusion let's look at the next slide what about icons there's the icon of the Divine Mercy image see it on your screen that icon is a beautiful icon this is the literal way that Christ teaches us who he is from his heart comes the Rays of blood and water to heal us though why trade it cleanse us is sin and the red ray blood which means life to the Jews to cleanse us to protect us into to conquer death these icons are are important they're not I'm not worshiping the canvas or the frame or the paint we worship what it represents Christ himself this is very important all right what about relics you know God can act through secondary agents through relics or even people he acted through people the Apostles and even objects says in the Bible God acted through objects do you know this what are our Catholic idea of relics they're just simply objects that God works through the same as the Bible tells us okay go to the Bible a man came back to life when he touched the bones of Elisha this is 2nd Kings chapter 13 verse 20 a man touched the bones of Elisha and he came back to life that's a relic God performed cures through Peters shadow don't believe me acts 5 verse 15 and he did miracles through Paul's hankerchief that's the ultimate in an example of a relic Paul's hankerchief you don't believe me acts 19 verse 11 God performed miracles through Paul's handkerchief which would be a relic to us Catholics all right the relics don't perform the miracles themselves but it's through the intercession of that saint a friend of God already at his throne that can ask for help for us all right let's look at the next one purgatory this is a famous one purgatory is one that a lot of people say you Catholics purgatory the word purgatory is not in the Bible yeah you're right but the whole concept and neither is Trinity all Christians believe in the Trinity but is the word Trinity in the Bible no so what do we do look at purgatory 1st Corinthians 3 says that man can be saved only through fire you hear that 1st Corinthians 3 man can only be saved through fire now here's the interesting thing in hell no one can be saved and in heaven there is no fire so how could that statement in the Bible make any sense in heaven souls don't need any aid and in hell they cannot be saved therefore there has to be a middle state this is what is purgatory in fact second Maccabees 12 says that the soldiers made atonement for the dead so they might be delivered from their sin if you're making atonement for the dead if they're in heaven they don't need atonement if they're in Hell they can't be made atonement for so that this means there has to be a middle ground the Jews they prayed for their own dead they still do today early Christian tombs it's written all over ask for prayers of the dead this has been a Christian tradition since the days of Christ all right the Jews early Christians even st. Paul all prayed for the dead but it presumes that there's a state of needed purification all right most are not so good most people I know are not so good that they should go right to heaven without any kind of cleaning up yet most people are not so bad that they deserve eternal damnation either some yes but the point is it makes sense to have purgatory it's a mercy of God to clean us up it's kind of like the bride doesn't the bride before she meets her groom want to go to the separate room away separated from the groom and get cleaned up and put on makeup and do her hair and and and and all that yeah because the importance is she wants to be ready when she meets her groom so anyway there are a lot of passages in the Bible like paying the last penny and being released from prison all right let's go to the next slide the church and then a beautiful picture of a church I tell you are see the most beautiful churches in the world go to downtown Detroit believe it or not people downtown Detroit yes those churches rival like the sweetest heart of mary saint Jehoshaphat that one right there on your screen is as a beautiful church unfortunately it's it's closed now but anyway there's so many other beautiful ones still remaining but they rival Europe in my opinion anyway let's talk about this is the church needed for salvation this is where I want to wrap up I got just one more set of notes here is the church needed for salvation yes it is the church is always taught that there's no salvation outside of Jesus and Jesus's body is the church other religions can now wait a minute let me back up so if the is the church teaching there's no outs there's no salvation outside the Catholic Church is that what the church is teaching yes actually but it doesn't mean you have to be a member of the four walls registered member sitting in the pew every Sunday doesn't mean that that's not what it means this is where it gets a little tricky alright as I said there's no salvation without Jesus and Jesus's body is the church so therefore there is no salvation outside the church now other religions can be united with the Catholic Church I'll be it imperfectly like our Protestant brothers and sisters they still are United with us to scripture all right so this is important stuff so no salvation outside the church is true but as I said it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be a registered member the Catholic Church is found in your heart this is important so can a pygmy in the rainforest be saved yes because he's but he father he's never read the Bible or been to mass you're telling me that you need to count the church okay let's look at this that pygmy in the rainforest will be judged entirely different than you and me you see yes that pygmy in the rainforest never had a chance to know scripture or the mass and partly that's our fault okay if you want to make sure that you help spread the gospel to the world you have a couple choices you can either pack up and go out to the Ministry of missions to all corners of the world or you can support our ministry work here at the Marion fathers you want to do that you want to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world go to em I see prayers calm and find out how to become a member of the Association of Marion helpers and you can become the hands and feet of Jesus through our work through our prayers and our excuse me through your prayers and support we do that work on Christ and your united to us just like I said you can be United to the Catholic Church I'll be it not perfectly but you can be United you guys can be United to us through members of the association of Marion helpers because in the members of the Association of Marion helpers you receive all the graces of our prayers rosaries penances just like you were a member of the mayor Marion just like you were a Marion priest now I'm sorry I didn't make a slide for brother mark to show but again that's M IC for Marian's of the Immaculate Conception prayers calm well anyway back to the pigment can a pygmy in the rainforest be saved yes but father he didn't go to Mass he didn't receive sacraments he he didn't read the Bible okay that's not his fault all right it's invincible ignorance Agustin used to talk about so he will be judged entirely different he would be judged by the natural law that God put in his heart to be the best pygmy he can be now it's funny because somebody once wrote my superior and said father Chris said that only Catholics and pygmies in the rainforest can be saved no I'm not I'm saying that God's mercies extended to everybody but in different ways you see to us Catholics it's given in its fullness God's grace and mercy is given in its fullness to the Catholic Church it doesn't mean a non-catholic can't still be saved but it's a lot harder it's because they don't have the gift of the sacraments and the truth that we are given so don't leave your Catholic faith your Catholic faith is the way to get you to heaven yes a pigmy in the rain forest can be saved but he's judged entirely different than you and me he'll be judged how we live the natural law not only will we be judged how we live the natural law but will also be judged did we use the tools God gave us for salvation on our Judgment Day we will be told did you use the tools I gave you for salvation what are those tools confession Holy Communion the mass the Eucharist the gift of a mother these are all tools God gave us for salvation why would you not want to use it to whom much is given much more as expected this is throughout the Bible and I'm not trying to scare you I'm just saying you've been given the supersonic jet airliner when if you're a New York and you want to get to LA you have a couple ways you can do it all right one you could walk that's like non-christians Kanaan Christians get to heaven yes they can but it's a difficult journey because they are given none of the truth in the sacraments or anything I think it's not their fault but it's just a gift that has been given in the fullness through Christ if they don't know Christ but God puts on their hearts other ways they can still get from New York to LA by walking but it's dangerous you could be attacked by bears you could be run over by a bus but you couldn't do it with a lot of hard work and I tell you there are some non Catholics no non-christians that are working a heck of a lot harder than we are and in fact they might get to heaven before us because of how hard they work at it praying seven times a day okay this is a love of there now it does not mean it's the trueness of the faith they can get to heaven but it's gonna be a much harder road they can possibly make it but they have to be basically walking from New York to LA it's a hard journey then you could drive that's kind of like our Christian non Catholic brothers our Protestant mothers they're like driving New York to LA they've been given the car of Scripture so yeah they can get New York to LA but it's still a little bit of a long journey you're gonna have pitfalls along the way you can get flat tires you have a lot of trials and tribulations but you can you can make it it's just again a lot more work or you can get on a supersonic jet airliner and fly straight from New York to LA the surest quickest fastest way a supersonic jet airliner and that is the church why because they give you all the fuel and the vessel by which to get there that vessel you're sitting in is the church and its propelled by the fuel of the sacraments this is what the Catholic faith is so you can either walk you can either ride a car or you can get in a supersonic jet airliner and be projected straight to your destination through the power and the truth of the sacraments this is what we have in our Catholic Church we will not be judged in the same way as non Catholics we will be judged actually harder that's not to be scary what it means is to be is use those tools God gave you if you're building a house and and you'll you got us a hammer and a nail and I come over with a boatload of power tools you'd be crazy not to use those power tools to build that house that's what we're talking about here all right we were given the gift of the sacraments and these are our ways to heaven this is powerful all right well father you talked about all this truth in your Catholic faith I've heard some bad things about your Catholic Church let's look at the next slide who's this guy this guy is Galileo and you know what I I've heard so many times you got to read the story of Galileo to see what the real truth is all right Galileo in the whole story there is such a black eye Catholic faith undeservedly so all right first of all Galileo was never told by the Catholic Church he was wrong first of all it wasn't even Galileo if you remember the story Galileo basically said that the earth is not the center of the universe and the Earth revolves around the Sun well first of all the Catholic Church never told him he was wrong but it wasn't even his idea he took that idea from Copernicus a Catholic priest polish I think he was and Galileo was not told he was wrong the church simply told him to teach it as a hypothesis because he had no way to prove it yet we didn't have the science yet to prove the earth wasn't the center of the universe and rotated around the Sun so the church said teach it as a hypothesis rather than definitive truth and Galileo didn't listen he taught it as definitive truth yes he happened to be right but the church was simply trying to protect what appeared to be something that contradicted Scripture now we see later it doesn't contradict Scripture but it appeared to since it appeared to contradict Scripture the church was simply protecting the Bible why is this so bad and no he wasn't beaten and thrown into change by the Catholic Church there was some disciplinary actions but I'm disciplined if I'm obedient to my superiors - this is this is such a huge misconception let's look at the next slide the Crusades oh this one's a big one this is all father the Crusades were we even at a former president that talked about this and the rotten things our Christian did well I tell you what that former president failed to inform you of is why those Crusades were called in the first place the Crusades were put together to protect pilgrims that were being slaughtered and beheaded in Jerusalem that's why those those were put together now this is not fully the truth in terms of just saying the Crusades were all good no we did some stupid things the Christian soldiers that ransacked Constantinople on the Fourth Crusade was dumb dumb the Christians did some stupid things too but the purpose of the Crusades was to protect pilgrims and to stop the onslaught of Islam as it was the wars were going on and in yes both sides did bad things both sides so I don't mean to just target one religion or say one religion is good and one's religion bad no I'm just saying the intent of the Crusades was to protect pilgrims does that mean that they didn't do anything bad yes the Christian soldiers did they did do things that were stupid again I point to Constantinople sacking that city was dumb and so both sides did stupid things it wasn't just the side of the Christians that's what I'm trying to point out here it wasn't just the Christians that were bad in the Crusades both sides made mistakes okay both sides had good intentions and both sides made bad mistakes all right now what about the Inquisition the Inquisition all-father that's where the Catholic Church totally burned people at the stake and made all kinds of horrible things to the people who wouldn't become Catholic well there's two sides to this story and we need to need history because it was actually two evangelical preachers that really falsified the truth of the Inquisition first of all it was not the church that was predominantly putting people to death it was the States Spain France and Italy these were the places the carried Inquisition was carried out by the state in fact most people in the Inquisition wanted their cases heard by the Catholic Church because the Catholic Church was intervening or interceding for them for their further their safety because they were the state was carrying out the executions now again does that mean the church didn't make mistakes yes she did but the purpose of the Inquisition was carried out by the states of Spain mostly and and in Italy in France and so what we have in that is an understanding oh the church has this huge black eye from the Inquisition what we need to know the full truth the church was doing trying to help people and many people came to the church you wanted them to hear their cases in the Inquisition - trying to help them now again it doesn't mean they didn't make mistakes they did all right let's go with a few more to finish call no one your father that's what I hear all the time well too bad because the fourth commandment says father and even in Scripture what about the parable in Luke 16 chapter 16 verse 24 father Abraham it says write and Luke father Abraham but we met the Bible's is called no 1 your father well the Bible calls people father they call him father Abraham in Luke 16 what about st. Paul who calls religious leaders fathers in Acts of the Apostles 7 chapter 7 verse 2 and in chapter 22 verse 1 what about st. Paul telling the Corinthians I became your father to bed that wasn't in the Gospel of Luke because then we could say Luke I am your father alright just sorry a little levity there Paul tells the Corinthians I am your father so you see we have to understand spiritual father right this is important alright let's go on what about infant baptism oh i don't want i can't baptize him until he wait until he grows up to be 18 and then he can make the choice himself uh-uh that's not what the christians did and in fact when your child was born did you say i'm gonna give my child 18 years to determine if he wants to be in my family or not no that's craziness you don't change the family God put you in two and none of you here when your child was born said I'm gonna wait for him to be 18 and let him decide if he wants to be a member of our family the reason we baptize infants is because it's indeed it's immediately determining them to be members of gods family you know in the the Bible the Apostles baptize entire households including the children in the Old Testament a child became a part of the Old Covenant through circumcision on the eighth day baptism has now replaced circumcision so if the Bible did it on the eighth day of the child's birth why not us a day after the child's birth all right in Baptism we become citizens of God's kingdom adopted children of God this is required for heaven why would we want to deny even a child his his right to now be an adopted child of God the Bible says we must have the baptism well baptize the children jesus said let the children come to me all right we are all born with Adam's sin even children well especially children so we need baptism the children even need that wiped away and and this is important ok what about this one Jesus is the one mediator there's nobody else who's a mediator you call Mary a mediator you're wrong all right let's look at this yes Jesus is the one mediator but there are sub mediators co-workers with Christ in the garden Kol like a co mediator or co-redemptrix like Mary co-redemptrix Co or Combe in the Latin see um means with it doesn't mean instead of so when Mary is co-redemptrix it means she's with Jesus she participated by giving him his flesh and his body she worked with Jesus not instead of Jesus God share his unique role with us this is very important God as creator and now we procreate God created well then what about man and a woman coming together in marriage and creating a baby because God invites us to participate in his procreation that's why a husband and wife come together and they participate in procreation they form the child it's God's child but they participate in God's creative act it's the same way and mediation all right there's one Shepherd that's Jesus but the Bible calls Peter a shepherd you see this is important all right what about one saved always saved well be careful there that's not what the Bible says the Bible says we must persevere to the end all right what about you know only our leaders as I said before can trace their authority back to the Apostles that was the beauty I described an apostolic succession another point to be made here here's the bottom line everybody the church established I should say Christ established the church to teach govern and sanctify his name until the very end and to reject the authority of the church is to reject Christ and His gospel all right I'm only gonna cover one more here because we're running out of time and I want to touch just a few words on the church scandal and you see on your slide we are under the magnifying glass the church scan I mean we should be this there's no words that I can say that can justify or excuse any of you who have been a victim of clergy abuse it is unacceptable it's absolutely deplorable and I pray for those priests or clergy because their souls are in jeopardy first and foremost I pray for you if you are a victim of the scandal in any way again there is nothing I can say to justify it or to explain it or to rationalize it or to give any justification to it there is none but I would like to say with that being said there's been an attack in the media that has taken this horrible part of the truth and it's a reality that's nobody's denying that but exploding it into something to make it look even different as horrible as it is even look worse what do I mean by this all right as I said before the church is both human and divine in her humanist she can fail she can fall to scandal and her divine nature she will never fail but here's what I want to point out do you know that this is a published statistic you can look it up 85% of child abuse happens in the home 14% in schools sports and extracurricular activity 1% happens in religious institutions and of that the Catholic Church is at the lower half there are scandals and all denominations am i trying to say that this isn't a problem it's a gigantic problem one case is too many all I'm trying to say is if you think this is just a Catholic problem you're wrong it's a broken humanity problem do you know that in the general population four percent are pedophiles this is sad and these people need prayers amongst the priests it's 1% so in the general population you have four times the percentage of people who are pedophiles than you have amongst the priesthood it breaks my heart when I go through an airport and I'm shouted at pedophile when actually the pre statistically is only a fraction of pedophiles compared to the general population but not one single priest should fall into this not one and please if you are aware of it you must report them please report him to the authorities if you are aware of this it's unacceptable but again it's not just a Catholic problem as the media is portraying it the media portrays us I was stopped in the airport and I was told by a guy that this only happens amongst Catholic priests I should be ashamed to be a Catholic priest because this problem only happens among Catholic priests and it shows that the Catholic Church is not the true faith of Christ my answer was you know what you're right it should never happen but we don't leave Jesus because of Judas yes we have had some bad priests and bishops we've had some deplorable priests and bishops Judas was a deploy disciple but none of the other disciples left Jesus because of him please don't leave your Catholic faith because of the few bad priests and bishops that we've had and there have been some I'm not going to deny that and should they have been hidden and swept under the rug absolutely not if you're aware of it please report it you know most pedophiles are married men so it's not about celibacy many of the TV evangelists in the evangelical world have fallen it's not just a Catholic problem what this need means is all people need prayer my dad we are a military family my dad was talking about you know the military and he was furious when the scandal broke and he should have been and I asked my father I said dad I said did you leave the Marine Corps or did you leave the military when you found out about our bad generals you know MacArthur there's a bad general sent twelve hundred men needlessly to the death of pele Lu General Custer from my hometown of Monroe Michigan actually was a bad general never won any major battles except against Indian women and children and then he led his men into slaughter at Little Bighorn because his ego didn't allow him to wait for Reno or Benteen his fellow officers that was a bad general but dad did you leave the military did you quit the Marines because of those bad generals no you stood up and you stood for what was right I implore all of you don't tolerate this in our church stand up and do what's right don't run from your faith make it better expose the scum and let's clean it up if it's a priest or a bishop let's do that you see of the 12 apostles one betrayed Christ one denied him one refused to even believe in his resurrection you see Jesus didn't pick all winners either Jesus didn't pick an all-star team he picked broken men those same broken men of the apostles one who betrayed him one who denied him and one who refused to believe in the resurrection we're still people Jesus had picked they all abandoned him after the Garden of Gethsemane and they all abandoned him at the cross itself to one John man is weak don't leave Jesus because of Judas stand for what is right and try try to pray as much we can especially for the victims and even for the priests that's hard but they need your help all of them and I again pray that all of us can heal and move forward we need good priests pray for us pray for the priests the church needs it we the world needs the church and we need the church for salvation as broken as we are it's a beautiful act of God's mercy that even in this day and age full of a world and despair the church is the beacon of light please don't abandon ship you know this church is like Noah's Ark it's even shaped like an ark really and in this church we have the refuge stay aboard you can jump over and maybe try to swim to shore you might make it but you also might get eaten by a shark stay in the protection of the vessel and we have to clean up this vessel and right now God is doing that so that you'll know you'll be on the cleanest vessel on onboard you know the coronavirus they're talking about you can't get on the cruise ships until they make sure that they are sterilized stay on Noah's Ark this ship called the church because right now she's being sterilized she's being cleaned up she's being purified all this is being exposed praise be to God so that you can get back on your ship and ride that steady course to your destination which is heaven so this is where I want to leave you today I apologize because I did not get to the two biggest parts of the Catholic faith and they are going to be so big that I'm gonna make my to next week's talk their subject it is Mary and the Eucharist so as you see on your screen arey and the Eucharist are gonna be my next two topics the next two Saturdays at 11 o'clock they are so big there was no way that I could fit them into this talk today because they deserve their own special days so please join me next week as I tell you about the role of Mary and I promise you you will never ever ever look at Mary the same when we explained to you why Mary was given to us and what her rule is for us you're gonna be like how could I ever not have used this help God gave me she has helped she's not instead of God she is God's help to us as a mother God knew in the garden when when we fell that we're gonna be skittish creatures and he wanted to give us a mother to take care of us and that's exactly what Mary does so please join me next week same time 11 o'clock on Saturday as I talk about our Blessed Mother and then the following Saturday will be a talk about the Eucharist and Holy Communion and hopefully the churches will be back open by then and you can see the pure value and the necessity of Holy Communion and so before I give the final blessing I want you to look on the screen there is a DVD all these talks that I've been given to you are just bits and pieces from my DVD called explaining the faith and that brother Mark is gonna leave that on the screen for a while so you can write it down and I'm just gonna talk over it so on the screen you can see explaining the faith you want the basic talk I gave today it's on there you want the basic talk I gave last week a confession it's on there you want the basic talk I gave on explaining the mass and the walkthrough of the mass it's on there Mary I talked about Mary I'll mention her next week that's on that DVD you want to talk on the Eucharist that's on the DVD I want to know why God would allow suffering in this world why would he allow it that's on the DVD what does the church teach on things like suicide have you experienced tremendous loss of a loved one not just to suicide but any kind of means is there hope for their salvation and can you help them even years after if you weren't praying at the time yes you can that talk is on there so on that DVD called explaining the faith you can visit our website shop mercy dot org okay and it's right on the front page please order the DVD to share with your parish to share with those loved ones and your family it's great for small groups in the churches please get it now if you don't like a DVD or father I don't have a DVD player look at the bottom of your screen if you go to the divine mercy dot org slash explaining the faith you can actually livestream this so if you want the DVD because of our production costs and the boxing and the printing and the DVD itself it's 1495 or if you want to to get the live stream it is the Divine Mercy dot org slash explaining the faith and you can start watching it tonight so hopefully you'll get that now as we come back to me here at the Ambo I want to be able to give you a final blessing but I want to thank you again for staying with me and till next week we'll talk about our Blessed Mother so thank you for joining us and through the intercession of st. Faustina and through Mary and all the saints into the passion death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ may Almighty God bless you and all of yours the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit amen and god bless you and i forgot one last thing please join me this thursday on virgin most powerful radio and I'm sorry I didn't have a slide put up for this one but virgin most powerful radio you can go and hear the audio on the MPR org for Virgen most powerful radio so VMP are org or to the virgin most powerful radio app if you want to see us on video just go to youtube to the virgin most powerful radio channel and starting Thursday at 3 o'clock my radio show will be have guests will talk about the faith what about real-life stories and examples that will grow from these talks that I'm giving you here today so please join us again on Thursday of every week at 3 p.m. Eastern Time as I bring you the show called understanding divine mercy it's my new radio show that we're gonna bring the living faith and put it alive so please join us as we talk to with you starting this Thursday the 28th and may Almighty God bless you the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit amen thank you god bless you you

Channel: Divine Mercy

Views: 116,092

Rating: 4.8860364 out of 5

Keywords: fullness of truth, sacrament, confession, explaining the faith, alar, chris alar, father alar, fr. alar, divine mercy, explaning the faith, image of divine mercy, shrine of divine mercy, chaplet of divine mercy, Catholicism, divine mercy sunday, jesus christ, mary, catholic, catholic church, catechism, faustina, saints, marians, marian fathers, MIC, Marians of Immaculate Conception, calloway, gaitley, pray, prayer, religious, God, Mass, Liturgy, feast of mercy, holy communion, priest, suffering

Id: -h94Z-sE150

Length: 89min 35sec (5375 seconds)

Published: Sat May 23 2020