Explaining the Faith - How to Bring Loved Ones Back to the Church

so well thank you everybody again for joining us here from the national shrine of the divine mercy in stockbridge massachusetts i'm father chris aylar and continuing to be very happy to be able to bring you these now the 21st consecutive saturday you know the coronavirus doesn't have much good i don't think in any way but one of the benefits is that i've been here at the shrine for the last 21 saturdays and i haven't been able to do that ever before and so we continue today with a topic that most everybody loves or hates but i think it's a lot of fun this is going to be a fun one i'm glad you're here with us and the title is evangelization how to bring your loved ones back to the church and everybody when we put our survey out asked it seemed this question and of all the responses we got i think this along with forgiveness was the number one commonly asked question father how do i get my loved ones to come back to god come back to the faith come back to church so we're going to show you how to do that and i'm not just going to tell you pray i'm going to give you practical steps actually what to do we're going to show you some things that i know can help now on the next slide you can see this is a continuation even though this talk is not on my first set of dvds we'll be making new ones right now you can see on your screen my dvd series called explaining the faith this started with the first 13 talks you can still get this on hard copy three dvds by calling 1-800-462-7426 or visiting shop mercy or even streaming it live at divinemercy.org explaining the faith okay so as i mentioned this topic scares you or you love it and there's not a lot of in between and that being how we bring our loved ones back you know just 10 years ago almost 80 percent of the u.s adults said that they were christians now that number's below 65 percent that's unbelievable what we are losing right now um it's been said you've heard this that catholics make up the largest denomination in the united states now there's more protestants than catholics in the united states but there's many many many protestant or evangelical or um you know other christian religions the single biggest religion in the us is catholic okay there are 70 million out of the 350 million catholics around a quarter or a little less of all americans are catholic well at least in name now do you know what the second largest group is what is the second largest group fallen away catholics if that was a denomination right it's not technically a denomination but that's how many there are and that's why you watching with me today is so important now you don't need to be scared about evangelizing it doesn't mean that i'm going to tell you you got to get on a soapbox and read scripture at the bus stop we're going to give you some practical ways way more than just praying even though that's the foundation of how to help you all right 6 out of 10 catholics reported that they don't go to church in any given week and at the same time atheists agnostics and nones you've heard that term not nun but n-o-n-e nothings have now risen to 26 of the u.s population so we're hurting here now the biggest decline in church attendance for us catholics was between the 50s and the 70s now many people and it shrunk by 20 during those decades all right and a lot of people will blame vatican ii others say poor catechesis others say a changing culture and radical you know rebuking of authority all this is probably true now today people are using other reasons to leave the church such as the scandal which is a whole other talk but remember you know regarding the scandal and i'll be talking about this in a later talk but the numbers are far different than what the media portrays and remember we don't leave jesus because of judas you know we've had a couple bad priests and a few bad bishops this is true nobody disputes that but so did jesus in his inner rank he had a bad apostle named judas and judas was a traitor we've had that but did any of his disciples say you know what because of judas i'm leaving you jesus um i can't believe you would have a guy like that in your ranks well a lot of people have left the catholic church because they've said the same thing i don't want to belong to a church it has a guy like that in the ranks and you have the right to say that we shouldn't have anybody like that in our ranks and and that's a whole other topic but remember we don't leave jesus because of judas we cling to him tighter so that we're protected other reasons like the coronavirus right now fear but remember fear is one of the devil's great tools along with pride and confusion and so these are the reasons people are leaving and i think god is now allowing us to make a choice he's making it very clear you know you might have been sitting on the fence with your faith for years well i go to church sometimes because mom and dad did well god's given you a chance now to get out or get aboard and so the question is going to be what's it going to be you know past political issues that never were at the forefront are now at the forefront as a voter you you have the definition of marriage the defense of life in the womb these are all things that people didn't have to confront decades ago and now they're at the forefront and another talk we're going to be doing is on voting and what are we as catholics obligated to do when we go to the voting booth that's coming up so stay with us all right pope benedict the 16th said he kind of forecasted this he said we will have a smaller church but a more faithful and i think those are powerful words but remember it's not just the adults who are leaving the church look at our next slide here this is this is kind of shocking we're losing our youth and i think everybody knows this but to this degree i think is shocking a pew research study said 50 percent of young americans who were raised catholic are no longer practicing and it also said that four out of five catholics who left the church did so before age 23 holy mackerel that's where we're bleeding so it's not just the middle-aged disgruntled person who thinks vatican ii ruined everything it's the young who doesn't even know about vatican ii that are leaving the church it's the old it's the young and it's all in between you know so we have to ask what's going on now many say that they didn't come back or they stayed away from the church because nobody asked them to come back and that a shame nobody asked them to come back that means we're not evangelizing and you know um i want to show you just a very quick two and a half minute clip it's only two and a half minutes but this was done by the uh bishops in texas by one of the diocese in texas and i think it's very powerful let's watch this just for two and a half minutes okay so how do we evangelize now that video showed some great quotes sorry they were a little fast but you can replay this video afterwards but how do we fix these issues those were some very powerful quotes so how do we do this how do we bring people to jesus how do we bring people back to church well the first thing we have to do is look at what is evangelization now on my next slide paul the sixth grave a great explanation so let's look at this slide paul the six said evangelizing means bringing the good news of jesus into every human situation and seeking to convert individuals and society that's the key by the divine power of the gospel itself wow okay so this is what paul vi even before john paul we heard about the new evangelization paul the six was talking about this now our next slide is going to be where i want to start catholic parishes now this is part of the problem okay all right in order to follow god's word we first have to have a living experience of jesus this is where i think most parishes have made mistakes and are messing up in one sense i'm i've been part of the problem myself they begin to catechize before they evangelize and that doesn't work what do i mean what's catechized what's evangelized okay this is powerful to evangelize is to know who jesus is and why you want to follow him so who jesus is and why i want to give my life to him comes through evangelization now how you do it the road map is how you catechize catechize is how you do that the road map to follow jesus so evangelizing is why we do it or who jesus is and why i want to follow him and to catechize is how i do it the problem is the parishes haven't recognized this and they assumed everybody in the pew is evangelized so they're like come to this bible study and start signing up for this program and they're catechizing but the people don't know jesus yet he doesn't affect their heart yet and so they haven't come to experience jesus yet so john paul brought us this new evangelization where he said you don't have to go to africa he says you can evangelize those in the pew next to you because they need it more than almost anybody right now we probably need it more than those in africa all right so thriving parishes do it that way they show the people why they want to give their lives to christ i mean great parishes like holy trinity in peachtree georgia st michael's in hudson florida my own parish saint mark's in huntersville north carolina these are beautiful examples and this is what the difference is let's look at our next slide this kind of summarizes it this is the steps okay evangelization is basically planning the seed catechesis is watering the seed and then sanctifying or making wholly then is to watch that plant grow it's the plant growing so this is powerful stuff and it it it summarized now in our next slide every day evangelism now i said before who jesus is and why you want to give your life to him so that's the question who is jesus and why do you want to give your life to him all right we can't love what we don't know so to start to love jesus we have to first know him we start with knowing who jesus is now we need who is jesus all right i'm going to summarize an entire four years of seminary for you by explaining who jesus is in the next three minutes so stay with me well first of all we need to see him as god i think everybody understands that because he is our savior now he was god before he was savior because he always existed as god with the father and the son and the holy spirit together but once mankind was created and fell and got broken then god in the form of the second person of the trinity came and became incarnate you know this he became our savior so he's god but he's also savior and he did that how because he saved us from eternal death you may not know this but why did jesus die on the cross because the penalty for sin is death and when you sin or i sin we deserve to die somebody has to die to pay that penalty paul said the wage for sin is death and jesus paid it that is why he savior the penalty for sin is death and he took our place when we deserve to die so that we could live that is a savior now why did he do this for us because he loves us that is who god is love and mercy itself now here's where it gets good the bible tells us no greater love hath a man than to lay down his life for his friends now when we see that that is very important because now jesus is calling us friends i no longer call you slaves but i call you friends so now not only is he god and he is savior and then he became man he's also our friend okay so we need to understand that when he became man he became our friend so as a man and our friend that means it's a two-way street you know i think all of us would say for a friendship to work it can't be one way um i've had friendships where i felt i was doing all the giving and none of the rece none of the receiving and i've had other friendships that were the opposite where i was doing all the receiving and none of the giving and so you got to have a two-way street now as our friend people don't realize this but this is why it's not just about going to jesus and saying give me give me give me help me help me help me you also have to console him and show mercy to him not just him to us this is what in prayer we need to be with him and the cross during his agony in the garden people don't even realize this this is what the consoling the heart of jesus was all about you know he told saint faustina that her prayers got him through the agony in the garden so jesus is our friend and as our friend we have to show him love and mercy too that's what consoling the heart of jesus is we need to console him be with him in eucharistic adoration saying i'm with you on the cross jesus please help me to help you because your pain and agony is really something real and we can console him father mike gave these books all about that this is what salvation history is all about is is christ being our redeemer and can and then us accepting that grace but now what do we do we marry our best friend isn't that great when you meet couples that say i was blessed enough to marry my best friend that's powerful stuff and so this again as i just said is what salvation history is i did a talk a few weeks ago about the bible and you heard me say that the bible begins with a wedding and ends with a wedding it's god the groom coming back to get his bride who ran away from him and says please come back to me trust me this unfaithful bride us is being chased down by the groom god who loves his bride even though she was unfaithful and has forgiven her for her infidelity and has said come back so our next slide who is jesus well this is answered and i think several different ways in our next slide who is jesus he is god he is man he is savior he is friend and he is spouse did you ever think that that all of that was jesus christ wow you know but like any man god has to woo his bride god is the groom he has to woo us the bride and most men will tell you this isn't easy i've met a lot of men who've married their wives and said man was that that was a challenge you know in the catechism we've talked about this but in the garden it said man lost his trust in god and let it die and so this is what sin consisted of a lack of trust that's why he gave us mary because his little scared skittish creatures afraid of god mary was one of us a creature that could bridge that gap now god wants to woo us back to him as his bride to love and trust him this is what the diary of saint faustina is all about this is what the whole bible is all about love and trust you know i have a video from a couple weeks ago about saint faustina love and trust on our youtube channel their divine mercy explaining the faith series that you can see that now here's the point god's new covenant of love comes in the flesh when jesus christ comes to us and then we trust him so who is jesus well think about this he's somebody we should trust who's afraid of a little baby nobody jesus came as a little baby he didn't even have teeth he couldn't bite as as as a little baby jesus you know he had no teeth he couldn't even bite who's afraid of a little baby who's afraid of a good man jesus was a good man to all he met healing them forgiving them feeding them who's afraid of love oh i am father i've been burned well not true love no greater love hath a man than to lay down his life for another and jesus did us those loves of ours that burned us weren't those loves that were that authentic that would lay down their life and so jesus did so who's afraid of that kind of love nobody that's true authentic love and who's afraid of divine mercy or the divine mercy image this is where jesus came to the apostles and didn't punish them but blessed them that's who jesus is now why does god go to all this trouble of chasing us down isn't he perfectly happy without us all right faustina said and i think this is a fascinating quote from the diary she said it seems to me as though jesus could not be happy without me did you hear that faustina says it's like jesus would not be happy without me nor could i without him although i understand that being god he is totally happy in himself and absolutely no need of any creature still his goodness compels him to give himself to the creature us and with a generosity which is beyond understanding i do not know how to live without god but i also feel that god absolutely self-sufficient though he is cannot be happy without me i had never heard that that was saint faustina all of this shows that jesus loves us as our best friend and as i said then we marry our best friend that's the ultimate wedding right the bridegroom and the bride will then be faithful to each other forever and live happily ever after aka heaven our goal god's plan for salvation history is to wed himself again to us as as israel like now as the church and to bring us back to him the problem is there's a lot of us and you might be saying i want to be one of those father so do i but the challenge is we've got to bring many of our loved ones with us as we can this is why i told you all about who jesus was because this can only happen if we bring as many of our loved ones as we can this happens because god forgives us as a merciful he will take them back our job is to show them that that god will forgive you god shows that he is merciful through his own son look at the next slide it's the image of the divine mercy so who is god goddess starts with god the father all of us came from god the father we were created from god the father but if you could somehow encapsulate the whole mercy of god the father and wrap it up enough in a visible form you have it right there on your screen jesus christ misery cordial voltus that's the name of francis's encyclical means face of the father's mercy if you could wrap up the mercy of god the father and show it visibly you have the son this is who god is and it is jesus as the face of the father's mercy you know in the old testament they wanted to know who god was and what he looked like now in the new testament god shows us what he looks like divine mercy he says whoever has seen me has seen the father so how do we know the father through the son and the face of that image on divine mercy is the face of the father's mercy now how do we know the son we know the son jesus tells us only one way by the holy spirit he says until i go to the father and send you the periclete the holy spirit you can't do anything you don't know me fully and so we know the holy spirit know jesus the son by the holy spirit when he's sent to us that's what confirmation is when you're confirmed you're sent the gift of the holy spirit so now you could fully know jesus who's fully the way to get back to the father now how do you know the holy spirit well i always say his spouse mother mary nobody knows him better than her spouse so you know what if you want to get back to god the father which is the goal of heaven go back the way we came from the father he revealed the son the son revealed to us through this holy spirit the holy spirit's revealed to us through mary you want to get back to where you came from god the father go back the same way start with mary say mary help lead me she shows you her spouse the holy spirit who reveals jesus the way the true and the light truth and the life and he will take you to god the father the only mediator the only one who can do that this is beautiful so jesus is the only way this is why we evangelize jesus christ our ultimate destiny hinges on him this is powerful all right so let's that was evangelization that is who jesus is and why you want to follow him okay remember i said a second ago the churches are not evangelizing well i just showed you why we evangelized i just told you who jesus is and why you want to follow him you want to follow him because he is god he is man he is savior he's your friend he's your spouse but then i went on to say well catechesis is how you follow him so now that we understand why we want to follow him which i just explained we don't want to know how we do that that's our next slide catechesis how to follow jesus now these are all many ways but it starts with the church and her sacraments the mass confession it starts there we have to if we're going to show somebody else how to be holy we got to be holy ourself next the catechism of the catholic church or excuse me i'm sorry the bible study the bible is the living word of god and so if we go to mass we have to know that that's that's that's the true word living word and so we go to the bible we study the bible now the third one is what explains the bible to us explains god to us it's the catechism oh father i'm not into a man-made book god gave us the church and the catechism is the way that we all understand it correctly if we didn't have a catechism we would all read the bible differently does the bible say murder is okay well of course not father well yeah but read how god commanded david to slaughter his enemies i mean you have to have an understanding of what god is intending to tell us and he does it through the catechism through the church all right what about works of mercy the spiritual and corporal works of mercy give food to the hungry drink to the thirsty clothe the naked visit the prisoners but also too on the spiritual very important counsel the doubtful you know console the sourful but what about admonish the sinner everybody's favorite then finally the big one pray fast and alms giving this was the traditional way in the bible to evangelize you pray for them if you're not with them directly you fast for them to offer up sacrifice and you give alms to them to help them so these are powerful all right now this leads me to the heart of the talk father okay you're giving me all the stuff i already know but tell me what to do all right i've looked far and wide through all of my seminary notes through all kinds of articles books magazines and i tell you i want to summarize the best one i have personally found by a guy named brandon voigt so i'm going to give him credit here because i literally want to teach you what he put out there because he spent thousands of hours he said interviewing people talking to people about why you left the church and what would get you to come back and he summarized it in seven steps to bring he says your child back but really i think it's anyone not just children let's look at our next slide the seven steps to bringing them back to the church i'm gonna leave this up in the corner and i want you to be able to follow with me because this is some great stuff all right brandon voigt said and he quoted the french writer antoine de saint xupery that said a goal without a plan is just a wish if your goal is to bring somebody back to god in the church it's just a wish and wishes don't often come true unless you have a plan what is that plan all right he said we're not here to push you or pull you we're here or prod you we're here to stand beside you now let's look at this i left off that previous slide with prayer fasting and almsgiving and i want to take that to start with this slide because the first step is to pray fast and sacrifice now here's what brandon says sacrifice or give alms nothing else matters without these three he says prayer is the bedrock now i've always told people people say what's the absolute minimum please try to get the absolute minimum of at least 15 minutes of prayer every day you could do that in the shower you can do that in the car you can do that on a break 15 minutes absolute minimum hopefully you'll get more but the saints tell us that's the minimum the bible says god loves tireless prayer remember the persistent widow who wouldn't leave the judge alone and finally he gave in and says you know what i'll give you what you want it's kind of like that with god if we keep pounding on his door knock knock knock he'll answer all right even as if it was the same prayer every single day even if it takes 20 years or more how much do you desire it and he says recruit a heavenly ally you know like a patron saint if you're trying to bring somebody back to the church man you know the best thing you could do is pray to the patron saint of who your loved one is all right today is the feast of cosmos and damian they are the patron saints of medical professionals all right you know a medical professional maybe it's a nurse involved in in in in doing some um unethical medical practices and you want to see her come back to the church pray to cosmos and damien today's feast the patron saints of medical professionals so cosmos and damien please get in the game here i'm begging you i intercede for my loved ones all right next equip yourself now what does that mean father you can't give what you don't have you have to know your faith that's why all of you watching this explaining the faith series is helping you to learn your faith you're equipping yourself so if you've been praying and now you equip yourself with knowledge of your faith you're on the right track the key of course is the bible and the catechism but hopefully i'm summarizing that for you if you can't read the whole bible or the whole catechism they're pretty daunting but you can also consult friends of mine i'm really good friends with scott hahn and steve ray these are just a couple examples of great guys that can teach you the faith better than i can these are great guys next the third one plant the seeds what is that all right for instance give seed gifts somebody's birthday get him a dvd or a cd about the faith you know we at the miriam fathers have tons of cds and dvds we've been marketing the movie love and mercy faustina love and mercy you can get that on our website you can get my explaining the faith dvd series books the marian helper magazine that we offer it's free become a marian helper we'll show you how to do that at the end of this video all right i came back personally through scott hahn's story of the lamb's supper all right or perhaps maybe a small pamphlet or a prayer card just leave on somebody's desk what you're doing is you're planting the seeds of faith and trust all right and so this is powerful and so anyway perhaps you know like you said put something on their desk if you plant then the seeds of faith and trust in the person's life so that he knows that your love is genuine and that your motivation is for him not your self-righteousness you'll get much farther all right this is powerful you gotta convey to those you love just that that you will love them no matter what now here's what's shocking that you'll love them no matter what even if they don't come back to the faith you have to convey that feeling of love to them or they're not going to trust you they're going to think that they are just a target for you just another notch in your aim the angelic evangelism belt you can't do that so do works of mercy for them all those things i showed in this previous slide are incorporated into these seven steps in the previous slide i talked about going to church you need to go to church to be holy yourself first you know bible study caddy because we're going to talk about works of mercy here's a step where the works of mercy can be seen do nice things for them you'll open the door love them you'll open the door so those first things i showed on the slide before this slide are incorporated in these seven steps let's look at the fourths of these seven steps open the conversation all right at some point you need to start talking about god and the church but don't dwell on it father what are you talking about i have to pound that in no it's not going to work ask if they would be open to discussing it rather than just starting the discussion this is what brandon voight says he says ask if they would be open to discussing it rather than just starting it when they're resisting say hey i want to listen to you not lecture to you this is powerful i want to know your thoughts on the matter he says listen listen first if we start just doing the talking it's like prayer with god when we go into prayer with god if we're doing all the talking we can't hear his voice we have to do some of the listening your goal is to find out why they don't go to church anymore why they left why they don't practice just listen let them tell you sometimes the answers aren't what you think then you end the conversation there you don't push them at that point the first step is to just have them tell you then walk away it sets in you have times that will be coming in the future at this point walk away and he says because if they tell you the reason they left you can actually go and do research on that like if it's the scandal if they say i left because of the scandal you can actually go and do research and find out the real truth which is enlightening and maybe there's some things they never knew maybe you can show actual studies that show things contrary to what they believed all right or even coronavirus i left because i'm afraid of getting sick well we can show if you do a little research that the churches are taking precautions powerful all right number five move the dialogue forward now after you've let it sit in a little bit when the time is right you come back and you speak with joy and being positive clear up any misconceptions for example that they had for instance if one of their answers was hey i was never spiritually fed as a catholic that's why i left it's likely they fully never understood the eucharist the true food you want to be fed that's the truest way to be fed and maybe you could put together a few ways i have a whole talk on the eucharist if you don't know what to say about the eucharist go to my explaining the faith series i do a whole talk a video on the eucharist or you know they weren't exposed to maybe the great saints maybe you read up what one of the saints say about our catholic faith gently propose those things to him and encourage him or her to to look into it all right number six invite and connect all right here's the key you invite you don't force if we force our adult children to go to mass with you it isn't going to work you have to invite them even if it's over and over pretty soon they may respond so you invite them don't force them and maybe start with a parish event maybe not even the mass i know this is going to surprise a lot of you ultimately the goal is the mass but if you start by forcing them to the mass it's not going to work so you start by inviting them and start with maybe a parish event all right so you don't want to fall into this this trap of making them feel like you're beating them over the head maybe you find something that matches their interest maybe a pierce event is a softball game i tell you what that's some of the funnest things i ever had when we marians would play the dominicans and some of my brothers i hadn't talked to or seen in a long long time but we played a softball game together we don't have to be reading scripture we can just be enjoying the moment and it's evangelizing because this is a church community your goal is to usher them into the life of the parish which will establish these bonds with other people and become faithful but remember don't move too fast only do this invitation you know as they're ready when they're kind of showing an openness to return otherwise we might push them away all right next finally seven close the loop any salesmen out there remember close the deal all right close the loop help them to actually now reconcile to the church here's what's interesting many say they don't know how to come back or that they didn't come back as nobody asked them so you can get involved maybe what they need is just a good confession again i have one of those talks on my explaining the faith series all about confession why you don't need to be afraid maybe they're fearful watch the confessions explaining this faith series talk and you'll see that there's nothing to fear it's not a judgment judgment comes at our death that's when we fear in a holy way the confessional is not judgment the confessional is forgiveness if they're afraid of confession that's what we want to show them god is there with open arms have them tell them the story of the prodigal son did the prodigal son judge his son coming back and he said you know what doc gone it you did this and you did that no he didn't he opened his arms and said oh my gosh he's in tears my son is returned this is what god does to us in the confessional so if it's the confession that is scaring them telling them that will help maybe it's rcia get with a priest a good priest will help guide you through to help them determine what needs to be done in the next steps it's not always in your control that's the first thing we got to remember this is not about our control the key though never give up jimmy v jimmy valvano never give up don't ever ever give up remember the persistent widow she kept on it god loves them even more than you do so he wants them to be saved even more than you do so you have to turn it over to god all right now of all those things that i just told you i like to call the big four let's look at our next slide the big four ways this is what i announced in my little promo video last thursday now if you want to know if i meet somebody on the street they say father real quick i only got 30 seconds tell me how to bring my loved one back to the church everything i said but if you want to summarize it into the big four have a mass said for them the saints tell us that one mass for somebody while they are alive is worth more than a hundred for them after they're dead pray the rosary and the chaplet for them these are the two most powerful prayers outside the mass you can make father why because the rosary is just like the first part of the mass the liturgy of the word it's meditation on scripture and the chaplet is just like the second part of the mass liturgy of the eucharist where the priest offers sacrifice well father i'm not a priest yes you are by virtue of your baptism you are priest prophet and a king and a priest offers sacrifice and you are exercising your common priesthood not your ministerial priesthood like myself but you are a common priest and you can offer sacrifice and the chaplet what does it say eternal father i offer you the body blood soul and divinity of your dearly beloved son jesus christ this is what happens at the mass this is what the priest does he offers the son back to the father eternal father i offer you the body blood soul and divinity of your dearly beloved son back to god the father this is what happens in the mass you have your mini mass you're a mini priest when you are praying the chaplet of divine mercy this is incredible and so this is why we want to pray the rosary and the chaplet daily next they have to see your joy nobody is going to come back to something that makes us miserable nobody wants anything to do with that we have to show joy and then finally offer the penances and the prayers and the excuse me the sufferings that they have caused you by being away from the church offer that suffering back up for the return to the church this is how beautiful god is only our god could allow something like this the very pain and suffering that they caused you by leaving the church and god you can offer that pain and suffering back to god in atonement for their sins so that they will come back to the church through god's grace and your offering that's incredible jesus said to saint faustina in 961 of the diary every conversion of a sinful soul demands sacrifice wow all right those are what i call the big four all right now here's what i want to go and there's other things though now remember why do i let me just touch on some of the things that i just kind of blew through like the sacraments communion and confession why are those so important i didn't really explain that but they help you to become holy and holiness is contagious when people are around holier people they are more holy when people are around evil people and i don't want to say evil because we're all ontologically good but people who are not at all practicing virtue they lack in virtue i'll never forget my mom i was hanging around the wrong group of kids in school and she's like really raised that attention to me and says i think you should hang around with this guy and this guy instead and also my whole life started to change because you you follow kind of that group that that's with you and so so when you become holy those around you will become more holy all right sanctity is contagious offer your holy communion for them how many times when you receive holy communion do you offer it for the salvation of those who've fallen away from the church you should remember faith is all about your relationship with god and the rest of the body of christ if you don't talk to god the angels and the saints you will not have that level of sanctity needed to help those who are trying to become holy you're the leader here or you wouldn't be watching this god has you watching this right now for a reason if god didn't have you and in mind to help bring others to him i promise you you would not be watching this right now and so this is how you do it you do works of mercy for love of jesus and of neighbor and that will change them it will convict them when they see your heart you know a habit of mercy allows powerful graces in the life of you and the ones you love next consecrate yourself consecrate yourself to mary tell her to take you to jesus make you into another jesus jesus was formed in mary's womb she formed jesus in the womb consecrate to her and say mary form me into another jesus so that i can bring people like christ back home that's what jesus did you saw it in the video the purpose jesus came was to bring people to god that was in the video i just showed from the bishops of texas so consecrate yourself there are special acts of devotion great ways to do this in this way you let go and you let mary hand you and you're in the needs of what you are your intentions are let her handle it including your loved ones coming back to the faith put it all in mary's hands when we think we do it all it ain't going to work but when we put into mary's hands and say mary you do it lead us to jesus with my loved ones it'll happen then consecrate your loved ones to marry jesus and joseph make a regular holy hour for them including what i just talked about the rosary and the chaplet you should obtain this is what our lady said about the rosary there's 15 promises given for those who pray the rosary daily you shall obtain all you ask of me by recitation of the rosary then jesus told saint faustina the diary through the chaplet of divine mercy so i keep going to the rosary and the chaplet through the chaplet you will obtain everything if what you ask is compatible with my will that's from the diary 1731. well father how do i know if this is compatible with his will i can promise you it is because god wills the salvation of everyone so if you're asking for someone to come back to god and be saved i guarantee you it is compatible with his will and so jesus is saying if it's compatible with my will through the chaplet i will answer this prayer now you may not see it answered in this lifetime you may not see it but it will be answered it may not be to the day your loved one dies and this is what's so powerful about the chaplet of divine mercy we can do that in the diary of saint faustina he says sometimes at the moment of death you don't think anything is is happening you don't think you think all is lost this is paragraph 1698 of the diary and paragraph 1698 of the diary jesus says when it looks like all hope is lost it is not so by a ray of powerful final grace i come to the soul and shower it with graces and at that moment the soul has the opportunity to accept me now how does that soul going to accept jesus christ if it's been its whole life turning its back on jesus it's going to be hard but at that moment here come your prayers like a squadron of dive bombers showered over your loved ones that may help them to say yes to jesus at that moment of their death from the 20 years of prayers you had prayed prior but don't think well they died and i never saw a conversion all hope is lost jesus is saying many conversions happen at the moment of death when you don't see it but i am behind it this is incredible now jesus goes on let's look at our next slide in the diary of saint faustina jesus said call upon my mercy on behalf of sinners i desire their salvation when you say this prayer with a contrite heart and with faith on behalf of some sinner i will give him the grace of conversion now what prayer is that let's go to our next slide this prayer jesus just said this prayer if you pray this prayer i will give them the grace of conversion again it may not be you seeing it in this lifetime it may not be to the moment of their judgment but what is this prayer this is the prayer o blood and water which gusts forth from the heart of jesus as a fount of mercy for us i trust in you that's why we pray that prayer before every divine mercy chaplet that's the prayer jesus said to convert souls at three o'clock everybody thinks jesus said pray the chaplet well in a way he did he said meditate on my passion walk the stations of the cross but what was the first thing jesus said to do at the three o'clock hour pray for the conversion of sinners and that is what you are doing bring my loved ones lord back to the church all right jesus said implore the mercy of that for mercy for them and immerse at the three o'clock hour immerse in my passion this is the great hour of mercy in this hour i refuse nothing of the soul that makes a request of me in virtue of my passion diary 13 20. he said this and along with praying for the conversion of sinners three o'clock powerful hour to do that next jesus basically he didn't say this in the diary but he said this to one of the mystics when the mystics once complained to jesus that jesus i keep talking i keep talking to this person over and over they're not listening i keep telling them about you i keep talking to them about you they're not responding and jesus said stop talking so much to them and start talking more to me you gotta love that stop talking so much to them and start talking more to me how i just said it by the rosary by the chaplet by the mass all right light a blessed candle before a holy image right of god or the saints as i said pick an advocate for them today again medical professional patron saint is cosmos and damien your daughter's a nurse fallen away pray to them for her all right now i'm going to give you three sacramentals i love this these are powerful sacramentals that we can show you that if you have a chance to get are very powerful let's show the first one the green scapular if you haven't heard about this this is powerful i'm going to read you about the green scapular so sorry if i'm reading too fast the green scapula was given by the blessed virgin mary through the apparitions of sister justin biscuiboro a daughter of charity in paris in the 1840s mary appeared to her and in her right hand she was holding her immaculate heart in flames and holding in her other hand a scapular what is the scapula the word means shoulder and that means a scapular is something that we usually wear over our shoulder right and it's usually the cloth of the habit of like the caramelites the brown scapular but this one is different the green scapular let's listen an interior voice revealed to sister justin that jesus desired to establish in the world an appreciation and love for his mother by means of devotion to her through her immaculate heart when invoked under this title all right mother of god and immaculate heart of mary and through this image on the green scapular our mother mary would obtain great favors from her divine son mary said that this scapular is not like the others i love that it is not based on a religious habit but is simply two holy images on a single piece of green cloth therefore no special formula is required to bless it or to enroll someone to wear it like when you wear the brown scapula you have to win rule you have to have a certain prayer by a priest done for you this one doesn't need that it suffices that it's just blessed by a priest and worn by the one who desires to benefit the most from our blessed mother's intercession now listen to this if that person doesn't wear it either they're unable or they refuse to and say the prayer with it then the scapular may be kept nearby for them so what people have done is slide it under the mattress of their loved ones or under the pillow somehow or hide it in their room i'm not saying to be you know um dishonest or or or um you know what do you call it uh clandestine and trying to get in there and be sneaky but you can just leave it somewhere if the person doesn't say the prayer then anyone can say the prayer for them you can the green scapular may be used anywhere for anyone and miraculous changes have been taking place you can visit greenscapular.com and you can get just an amazing little sacramento all right next one the miraculous metal let's look at this on our screen there's the front and the back with mary's image on the front and the m with the cross on the back now wear this miraculous metal you can give it to someone as a gift you don't even have to explain all the meaning if they just wear it and it's powerful extra powerful if you pray the prayer when in the presence of your loved one so even if they're wearing it or you're wearing it in the presence of your loved ones this originates from an apparition of mary to saint catherine laboure right a french nun in paris in 1830 what happened was saint catherine saw the image that is now replicated on that medal and mary said have a medal made with this model and those who wear it will receive great graces especially if they wear it around the neck this is why you can give it his jewelry we have them here in our gift shops wearing it to express one's devotion and consecration to mary and it disposes us and others to receive god's grace through her intercession so you can wear it also in in honor of the conversion of your loved one so pray the prayer faithfully daily o mary conceived without original sin pray for us who have recourse to thee all right next one the blessed medal of saint benedict get your loved one a saint benedict medal here's the front and back with saint benedict on the side and the latin cross on the other and ask them to carry it with them there's no special way prescribed for carrying or wearing the benedict medal you can put it in your pocket on a necklace in the car but there is a formula that the priest has to use to bless it it's an exorcism prayer now the purpose is to call down god's blessing upon your home and your loved ones the medal is an exorcism prayer against satan and a prayer for strength in time of temptation and a prayer of firm rejection of evil a prayer of petition that may with christian courage so that you can walk in god's ways with the gospel as our guide that's what saint benedict said so the gospel tells us how to do that we persevere in prayer and so this medal can help all right next slide this is a good example of the saints and the bible this is also a great place to go now remember the bible tells us that jesus listened to the prayers of moms and do not despair moms and dads remember jesus raised a girl from the dead a little girl and her family was shocked to luke 8. he exercised another little girl matthew 15. he healed the boy of epilepsy in matthew 7. all these when the parents were there and another life-threatening illness in john 4. he healed the centurion slave who said that the slave was like family to me luke 7. and at the faith of his friends jesus healed the paralytic who the four guys lowered through the roof if you've heard my talks you know that's my favorite gospel passage after john 6 in the eucharistic discourse and of course the resurrection but man that four men in the paralytic mark nine fabulous why because jesus didn't look at the paralytic and say your faith healed you he looked at the four men who interceded for the paralytic and said your faith has healed this guy so there's many miracles now there's many miracles of conversion in the scriptures people who were bad people were not faithful that were persecuting christians like for instance saint stephen when he was praying for those who were stoning him his prayers helped convert saul and to become paul that's acts 7. what about saint monica people forget she prayed more years for her husband to be converted than she did her son augustine both were wayward verse both were not following the church and they both converted and she became a saint saint teresa zeus she prayed for a non-repentant condemned criminal and he asked for a crucifix before he was killed then mary goretti probably the most famous a young girl that was assaulted by a farm hand and wanted to physically assault her and she said no no it's a mortal sin don't do this and she refused to let him do it so he stabbed her multiple times she didn't die right away but as she was in the hospital she asked god to forgive him and said i want him to be in heaven with me well this caused his conversion because he later became a franciscan brother believe it or not and it affected her mom her mom saw her forgiveness and she forgave the killer and ended up attending the the beatification or the canonization of her own daughter with the man who killed her that is how your holiness and prayer can affect the conversion of others our lady of guadalupe i'm going to do a whole talk on our later guadalupe she's the evangelizer of the americas all right what's the next way that you can get people to come back well one of my favorite is the next slide apologetics know why your faith the catholic church is the one true church all right now i can't go into talks i also have another talk on this on our explaining the faith series called catholicism why the catholic church has the fullness of the truth i'm not trying to lower any other religion i'm trying to elevate ours to the place it belongs now no other religions can claim they were started by jesus only the catholic church jesus we know came to earth to start what he called his church now when he did and jesus did start a church does anybody here really believe that jesus would say i'm going to come to earth and i'm going to start a church but i'm going to get it wrong for 1500 years until martin luther gets it right that doesn't make any sense no right now there are over 30 000 other christian denominations but there's only one catholic church that has been around and there was only the catholic church for 1500 years people say well father i'm not into man-made religion i'm not into organized religion i always say this too bad because jesus organized religion he established the college of bishops he gave them the authority to forgive sin don't believe me matthew 18 18 matthew 16 19 john 20 23. and they passed that authority on to the next priests jesus set up the cheer of the papacy and put peter upon it he established the hierarchy of the church and established the magisterium to define for us what is right from wrong and to give us the guaranteed grace in the sacraments the sacraments are what make the catholic church different from any other they're not symbols they are actual grace when you receive a sacrament you are getting actual grace not symbols nobody else no other church in the world believes that us in the orthodox and the orthodox split from rome but this is it jesus organized religion and so we need the church to show us that you know people say well father i don't like this because your church worships mary and worships idols really no it doesn't remember fulton sheen said millions of people hate what they think is the catholic church but very few hate what actually is the catholic church all right next next slide a very powerful way to evangelize is tell your own story this is incredibly powerful if you have a story of how you came back to god tell it people are motivated by that i'm surprised how much people want to hear personal witness and testimonies and they do teachings of the church for me my one example was the week i was ordained a priest i went up to northern canada way up north and went to an indian village where very hardly any any people are go they didn't have a mass at that reservation for four years and i went i did corpus christi procession and as i was processing around the indian village there was an angry young native american or first nations person and he tried to block me and get me out of the way and he swearing and yelling obscenities at the eucharist in the monstrances i had a hundred women and indian women and children behind me and he went to grab the eucharist to to throw it down and to desecrate it because he was swearing these horrible vile words and as i'm holding on the eucharist praying lord you know i've only been a priest for four days am i going to be a martyr if i am please give me the grace because he came at me he had a no it just looked like a demeanor that he wanted to harm me and he reached up for the monstrance which i believe to grab it and to slam it down and to desecrate it and when he did it actually his hand flew off and he in and he looked at it and he cried out that it burned his hand yet i felt nothing you see when you hear that and all the women and children behind me fell to their knees they didn't know what happened they just they believed they had a simple faith this is powerful stuff if you have a story that you can share or like i've smelled roses father when i was at the depths of my despair the room filled with roses tell those stories those motivate people all right next next slide if the conversion of people is god's will why do we need to pray and fast prayer and fasting all right let's start with prayer god knows what you need before you ask him that is very important well then why ask father because he awaits your petition with the dignity of your freedom he gives all of you and me free will and he wants to hear us freely petition him not just to say well god you know i'm just a pawn you know and control everything you just take care of it no you have free will he wants you to be involved in it now next sometimes god waits for us to pray before giving us what we pray for because what we most need is prayer itself and with it comes patience and conformity of our will to his prayer does all that so many times god wants us to pray and pray and pray pray without ceasing next god waits with his answer sometimes withholding it in order to make us pray as i just said more to become more engaged and united with him it is to elicit our love remember the gospels tell us to persevere in prayer as i said the women the woman and the judge she persevered in prayer now what about fasting all right i have a whole section on fasting but because i'm running out of time i'm going to have to skip this but basically you can pray to fast for to be united with those who physically don't have food because when you fast you're almost uniting with them but also spiritually because it strengthens the will all right it strengthens your will and there are many people who we are controlled by the body over the spirit and we have to have the will that the spirit controls the body and when we fast our spirit then takes charge over the will paul says the will is powerful we have to control this the body the spirit has to control the body the body rages against the spirit and so when we fast we can be able to do that all right so this is very very important i'm going to skip the section on fasting i'm sorry so let's go now to the summary let's go to our summary of all this stuff i've told you today and all of that is powerful prayer and fasting and the mass all of this but here's what it boils down to i think it's important that you begin in any discussion not by talking but by listening remember it is always better to understand before we even make an attempt to be understood remember the saint francis prayer lord help me to be understood not to understand but to be understood excuse me to understand not to be understood i just had that backwards so basically the prayer says help me understand my brother and not worry so much about them buying into my beliefs and and them understanding me let me understand them that's a starting point first try to understand the reason why they left the church if there is a reason walk away and research it this is powerful then you could have some answers for them i use the example of the scandal some of those numbers are totally different than what you hear in the media if no reason is given they just say i don't know start a gentle process of evangelizing pray that their hearts will be opened not to convert them right away but so that they'll listen lord please open their hearts that they'll listen to your word through me and that won't hope happen unless you listen first meet them where they're at if you just jump in and start lecturing it's not going to work they need to know moral truth yes but they don't need to be reminded every minute of every day they'll take that as nagging and judging even though you're not you're trying to help them it's a work of mercy to admonish the sinner i preach that but how we do it is important we can't reduce people and our prayer to just their sins we have to recognize that they were treated or created ontologically good and you treat them when you speak with them with that in mind we praise them for what is good about them first that's how people have always corrected me i think most effectively they say you know father chris you know um this was really good i liked when you did this and this and that but hey did you realize that you kind of you kind of maybe missed the boat on this i'm much more receptive than if they come in and i hear rumors in the background and two guys talking at the table that i mess this up i get defensive it's one of my big faults so i know from my own experience that a better way to approach people like me all right so praise them when they do good and they'll better receive a gentle message of conversion all right last page and we can do best and best do prayer through first removing the planks in our own eye in confession then pointing out the planks in our brother's eye we are ultimately required to call and admonish the sinner and call them back to god but we first need to clean up our house get the planks out of our own eye and we can really do that especially in confession then you are ready to evangelize and catechize in a whole new way this is why john paul 2 let's look at our next slide and pope benedict those are the two greatest men of the church they called for a new evangelization now what is that father evangelization pope benedict said is not the work of a specialist but rather the entire people of god under the guidance of the pastor every member of the faithful and with the church community must feel responsible for proclaiming and witnessing to the gospel not just over seas but with the person right next to you in the pew john paul said that's the new evangelization now what's the key to the new evangelization this might be a little surprising confession ah father there you go again how is sacramental confession a path for the new evangelization this is where i want to end because the new evangelization the pope's told us draws its lifeblood from the holiness of the children of the church and there is a close connection between holiness and confession why because you're forgiven of the transgressions and the sins you did but you're also given grace in the confession to do better when you leave the confessional whether or not you accept that grace is up to you but you should you are sanctified in the confessional that means made holier maybe not completely holy but holier every time you come out of the confessional you are a tad bit holier at least or if you're open to the grace a lot holier that holiness then can inspire others to change and come back to christ in the church through you not because of you it's because of god but he can use you as an instrument only those who have let themselves be profoundly renewed by grace in the confessional are able to effectively acclaim the gospel if you're not effectively proclaiming the gospel ask yourself why that might be you all remember the greatest commandments right jesus said love your god with all your heart mind soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself those are the greatest of the commandments but do you know there's something jesus gives us that's called the great command the great command comes from matthew 28 verse 19 go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit and teaching them to observe all that i have commanded you wow that's quite a command each one of us by virtue of our baptism is commanded to evangelize now that doesn't mean i'm telling you you gotta stand on a soapbox and read scripture at the bus stop that terrifies some people but you can do it more gently you can leave little prayer cards on seats at the airport or on the bus nobody even has to know it was you you can say prayers one of the things i've always done is i've always said individual prayers for the people on the plane with me they don't even know i'm looking at well i'm not staring at him but i might be praying for the person next to me and don't even have to say a word then if you engage in a conversation you can let it work in itself all right this is not optional we are required to bring people to christ and you could do it through prayer fasting almsgiving mass offering up your sufferings praying the rosary in the chat but all those things i listed for you now does that mean we all have to go door to door no for those who are called to go door to door like some of the evangelicals god bless you god will give you the grace to do that through the prayers and sacraments some are called to hand out prayer cards or pamphlets as i just said some are called to be speakers some are called to you know be counselors there are many ways for you to evangelize but don't say hey i'm waiting for my priest to tell me what to do consider me the priest telling you what to do you know you don't want to say oh he's probably waiting he's busy i don't want to bother him no he's probably waiting for you to do what he told you to do at mass we are sent at the end of every mass with a dismissal do you ever listen go and announce the gospel of the lord that's what you are told thanks be to god go in peace glorifying the lord by your life this is what we are told to do at the end of mass we've been told what to do we've been shown how to do it read scripture say your prayers listen to the teaching of the church through the catechism through the bible practice mercy in your lives go to confession receive the eucharist by your own words and deeds now just do it the old nike slogan right so i gave you a seven step procedure it doesn't have to be always just praying it can be engaging them listening to them helping them answering their questions to wrap it up the goal is to let jesus shine through you that you are a living walking gospel we don't have to be the perfect saint or scholars to evangelize we simply need to know and love jesus and be prepared to share that love with other people i'm reading what the pope's told us this is powerful stuff at the same time we are to present jesus as clearly and as accurately as we can so you must learn your faith again this explaining the faith series is a good way to do it it's like a catechetical program you already have jesus in your heart you've been evangelized or you wouldn't be watching today you already know who jesus is and you already know why you want to follow him he's the way to heaven but are you catechized if you aren't watch this dvd series go on you don't even have to watch this one read the catechism read the bible if you can or find other series out there there's many good ones but you start by understanding your faith you cannot love what you don't know once you know your faith more you can love your faith more once you love it more your loved ones are going to see that and that's so critical when they see that joy and love of your faith you know when you plant the seeds and and and you pray and you taught you may not see any results but i tell you what will show a result if the best of your ability you let your loved ones see the joy and love you have in your faith without pushing them at all by how joyful you are when you come back from mass how loving you are to them and your neighbor because you want to be christ-like and they see christ through you and they see that joy i can promise you there will come a day it may not be till even after you've passed away but they will be sitting around a dinner table and they'll say you know what was it that made mom so joyful what was it that made her so happy she seemed to just i'm miserable you know maybe it had something to do with that faith of hers she didn't cram it down my throat she invited me but i never listened you know i want some of that i want some of that joy she had maybe i'll start going back to my faith so you know what you may not see the effects of your evangelizing for 20 years till after you're dead st faustina said padre pio said my mission really isn't going to begin to after my death but it had to do with what they did on this earth plant those gentle seeds and they will come back because of your joy the lives of the saints are based on this so we need to know our faith and then when they see the love you have of your faith because you can't love what you don't know know your faith learn it now then you can love it even more once you love it even more that joy will show forth and your loved ones will eventually see it if not today not tomorrow next year maybe in a decade all right last couple slides i love this one jesus said in the diary 1397 the prayer most pleasing to me is prayer for the conversion of sinners know my daughter that this prayer is always heard and answered god bless you all this is such a beautiful topic i hope that i've made sense i hope if you need to we're going to keep this posted watch it again and please subscribe to our youtube channel if you are on facebook right now god bless you but if you're on youtube um we on our divine mercy channel there's just a simple button hit subscribe below this video and subscribe there's no cost we're not going to you know send you a bill it's it's just a way for you to share in our ministry and get these these these videos father mike gately father don calloway myself subscribe to our youtube video and finally i want to show the last slide a lot of what i talked about here today is in the book i did with brother jason lewis and i know don't be scared by the title it's called after suicide there's still hope for them or you but it's talking about this whole book is not just about suicide it's about suffering any kind of loss any kind of suffering everything we talked about here today was suffering about you know our loved ones falling away and i want to show you this book we're offering a special right now but all these topics i cover in this book prayer and the power of the mass and in in in conversion of sinners like my grandmother it's not just about suicide well anyway if you go to marion.org hope with a little h or call 800 460 we'll give you this book for any donation any donation if you want to do it online i think it asks for a minimum of a dollar but we know people will help us with this ministry so if you can't afford it call that 800 number i'll send it to you no charge for the book i just want to get this message out there and so much of what i talked about today is in that book so god bless you i hope that you'll do that and take advantage of it remember evangelization is not proselytizing evangelization is going out to others and listening to them proselytizing is talking at them evangelization is proclaiming jesus in your love for him and letting them see that allowing people to encounter christ proselytizing is this proud convinced that i have all the answers and you're stupid for not being catholic and i apologize you know sometimes i never mean to come across that way but i love my faith so much i can't believe that others don't love it and i have a fault with that i have to i have to do that better so even i i i see that in myself so i want to evangelize not proselytize evangelization trusts in the holy spirit as the true evangelist not ourselves he's the one who confronts proselytizing believes it's up to us and we force our arguments on other people and we force them to come that's not the answer the answer is love god with all your heart mind soul and strength love your neighbor as yourself and then trusting them to the hands of mary that they'll be taken to jesus christ and you will play a part in that by going out and making disciples of all nations and may you and i bless them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen and god bless you why be a marian helper because we mary and father celebrate a mass for you and all our members each and every day you can share in all the prayers good works and merits of all the miriam priests and brothers around the world and now you can share the graces just as if you were a marian priest or brother every all souls day we see a mass for all the deceased members of the association of marian helpers again there's no way that after we die we can help ourselves but we have to rely on the prayers of those here on earth and we members of the marian fathers will be praying for you as a deceased member of our association you can share in the graces of the perpetual novena to the divine mercy remember jesus told saint faustina that the chaplet of divine mercy is one of the most powerful prayers we can make and every day here at the shrine of divine mercy we pray it and you can share in those graces so if you have any questions or you want to learn more how to be a marian helper please visit micprayers.com or call 1-800-462 and let me personally pray for you and your loved ones thank you and may almighty god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit amen you

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Keywords: explaining the faith, evangelize, evangelization, catechize, catechism, church, God, Catholic, pray, fast, leaving the church, returning to church, return to church, rosary, chaplet, mass, prayer, evangelism

Id: VwutZlNj0XQ

Length: 88min 5sec (5285 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 26 2020