Explaining the Faith - The Priesthood: What You Absolutely Need To Know

hi and welcome live from the national shrine of the divine mercy in stockbridge massachusetts i'm father chris aylar coming to you once again for what can believe it or not i think is our 27th consecutive saturday of these live explaining the faith talks and we are so happy you're with us now that my michigan college football is not doing too good i don't even miss anything this is a beautiful grace for me and as you saw on the slide today today we're going to tell you about something please don't flick it off thinking ah you know i know what a priest does he says mass whoa wait a minute if you don't understand fully what we're going to talk about today you will never completely love your faith and that is the meaning of the priesthood things we absolutely have to know and we got some we're going to talk about the scandal we're going to talk about how that could be allowed to happen we're going to talk about a lot of stuff here so stay with us uh this is all part of my divine mercy explaining the faith series as you can see on your screen please i've released the first 13 talks if you'd like to get this on dvd you can call 1-800-462-7426 or visit shopmercy.org or finally if you'd like to live stream it you also can on the divinemercy.org slash explaining the faith okay god bless again everybody now we're going to start with a prayer right from saint faustina today and it's going to be a prayer for priests now if you are angry and i'm i know there are many justifiable reasons that if you've been hurt by a priest that you are angry this is um very unsettling and something we're going to talk about but we need to pray for our priests okay and we're going to we're going to go through all the things of the rule and how you to understand your faith is through the priesthood let us begin with a prayer then it was given to us by saint faustina to pray for priests in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen saint faustina's prayer for priests o my jesus i beg you on behalf of the whole church grant it love and the light of your spirit and give power to the words of priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to you o lord lord give us holy priests you yourself maintain them in holiness o divine great high priest may the power of your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil's traps and snares which are continually being set for the souls of priests may the power of your mercy o lord shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priests for you can do all things amen and in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit man this is such a critically important topic i actually should have probably did this talk week one but i didn't have all my study my research and work done i spent you know weeks on each talk and overlapping and so we hope now we're bringing you something that you can learn from all right our next slide is the infamous st john vna and you can see his picture there on the left and what is that on the right that's actually his incorrupt heart that's actually the heart of john vna now why do i show that because his heart was what transformed ours in france you know him as the curie of ours all right during the french revolution i put them up there because that's the kind of priest we need today this is what we need with everything rocking the church the confusion the scandals the problems the unfaithfulness we need this we don't need weak a feminine priest but we need soldiers we need real men and this is what we need to pray for priests that can stand up and fight not just the evil one but secular society and the lies that are being told to our catholic faithful and the confusion you know in vietnam my father told me that you know the vietnamese snipers the north vietnamese snipers were so disciplined that they would sometimes sit for days hidden as they would watch entire groups of american soldiers walk by and they wouldn't fire a shot until they got one chance to shoot an officer and then when they shot the officer that is what wreaked havoc the priest is the officer in our ranks so we don't want to necessarily tear them all down yes we are broken there are many mistakes priests make but when when the scripture tells us mark 14 verse 25 strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter and so this is what's going on now the evil one he is after priests obviously more than ever more than anyone else this is why they need your help the snares and the traps that he sets he sets for all of us for every human but especially for the souls of priests i told that story once before that right before i was ordained i went to an old dominican priest for confession and i said in the confession that i was going to be ordained the next day and he said are you ready for this and naively i said i think so and he said just remember tomorrow night at this time your wanted poster will be in the post office of hell and i'm like gee thanks father but he was right this is what we have to pray it's not easy being a priest today i can tell you airport stories that are unbelievable just before kovid when i was flying all the time going around talking about divine mercy i was racing to a connector flight and this guy jumps up and blocks me and i'm carrying two full bags and my arms are full and i go to the left he goes to the left i go to my right he goes to my right and he wouldn't let me through and he he said where are you going and i says to chicago and i'm wondering what's going on and he says you mean you're not going to washington d.c to get your hands slapped with all you other pedophile priests in your sick abusive children i looked at him i said sir i've never nor will i ever ever abuse a child this is unacceptable i understand your pain but please don't think this is all priests it's not and that's what most people the media the will tell us the world hates the priesthood now as i mentioned some of it is justified we we have justified anger our lord had justified anger at the money changers we have justified anger at those priests that have abused there is no excuse unacceptable should never be tolerated there's no case ever it should have been concealed or they should have been left in ministry there is no question but the world because of those few bad apples now hates the priesthood but it hated the priesthood long before those scandals became public so if you say well the world father only hates the priesthood because of the scandals and they deserve it yeah but the world hated the priest way before a single scandal went public why the world hates it because look at the next slide jesus the high priest most hatred is because of what the priesthood represents look at that image there that's jesus as the high priest that is why most people hate the priesthood because what it represents is christ now let's go to our next slide the next slide this is jesus telling us at the last supper that the world hated both him and the father so they're going to hate you who's he talking to the first priests so jesus is making it clear the world hates me and the father and they're going to hate you too please let us not be one of those who hate those priests especially the priests who are trying with everything they got to do good and to to save souls so hopefully after this talk you you know i understand the pain i do but hopefully after this talk you'll at least understand what a priest a good priest is trying to do now i want to say just a few more words on the scandal and i'm not going to focus on this i promise i'm going to do a whole nother talk coming up on the pre-scandal but the exposure and the news media blowing this up really did need to happen what are you talking about father no the exposure it needed to happen because you can either clean up your own house or somebody else is going to do it for you and the church needed to clean up her own house and she wasn't doing it and therefore the exposure happened so in a way it's good expose the the the lies the cheating the deceptions and expose it so in a way it's good the scandal is like a cut if you cut yourself you notice that like a cut the wound has to be exposed to the air to heal and so this wound in the church should have been and needed to be exposed so that it could be purified remember the bride must be purified to resemble her betrothed and right now the bride the church who's the bride of christ is being crucified yes many of the reasons are its own fault but also because the world hates it as another christ both reasons we are in the crucifixion phase and it hurts it hurts we cannot expect to not go through the crucifixion christ did there can be no resurrection without a crucifixion without the pains of good friday so this is why next slide it breaks jesus heart when those he is called as his priest turn away from his love and this is what's happened in the scandal this crushes our lord those who have chosen the priesthood is received from god chosen by god not by the man i tell you one thing i certainly didn't call myself i didn't want to leave my home and my business and my fiance my parents tried everything to stop me from coming my mom cried for three days my dad said i'd never make it as a priest i was making tons of money had a great business i was living on a lake with a home a beach home and in or a house lake in a business and and a beautiful fiancee i didn't i didn't want to be called but i tell you thank goodness i wasn't the one who chose the calling because i never would have had the grace to persevere god gives the grace and so people will say well father then if god calls the priest and how do you explain these horrible priests that's a great question most of those who were involved in the scandal in fact you could almost say all of them were called father how could god call somebody like that didn't he call judas the problem is those who are called when they rejected the grace they're like judas they were still called judas was called he rejected the grace all of these priests father they shouldn't have been priests no he they were called they rejected the grace there is no excuse as i said it can't be hidden they need to be removed however the media out of hate for christianity has made this look like it's only a catholic problem some of the lies that have come out on on the media have been traumatic not only to the church itself but to individual priests who are innocent i know two of them myself do you know that only one percent out of 44 000 catholic priests are abusers now that's still too many one is too many point zero zero zero one percent is too many but the general population that is actually abusers is four percent so actually statistically the church a priest is way less statistically an abuser than the general public now there should be none i'm not saying that but here's a fact you may not know 85 of all sexual abuse happens in the family 85 percent now these people are married so it's not a celibacy issue 14 happens in public schools and extracurricular activities and only one percent that's still too many in religious institutions and of that one percent the catholic church is on the bottom now am i justifying this am i excusing it absolutely not until we have every single priest in this world living faithful to his vows and not abusing a single child can we ever stop but you know 95 this is proven you can look up these numbers 95 percent of cases are 30 to 50 years old the john jay report you can look that up stated that since 2008 there's only been on average of seven credible accusations per year that's seven too many but it certainly isn't like brother mark and i have to read on our comments quite often every night that every priest is a raping pedophile there's a big difference the majority are not pedophiles the vast majority this is not a pedophile problem almost every case is a post-puberty problem called a fibophilia which is actually homosexual does that excuse it no there should be no homosexual activity none but these are post-puberty they are teenagers young adults still wrong still unacceptable but the media will never tell you about that part because they've embraced the homosexual act and so this is what the church has to stand up and say we have a homosexual problem it's not a pedophilia problem the media has turned it actually statistically the church believe it or not is statistically one of the safest places for your children so that's all i want to say on that and if you have been a victim my goodness you are in my prayers and i am offering my mass today for you my mass is being offered for any victims of the church because it's that terrifying and unacceptable and so my heart goes out i pain with you especially if you or your children have been abused now we have to be careful though because criticizing all priests because of it also brings sin upon ourselves as i tell my dad who is a vietnam marine and he called me the other day to tell me it was happy birthday of the marine corps i remember telling him when the first scandal broke out in 2002 and my dad was furious pounding his fists [Music] and he's that's it i'm leaving the catholic church and i understood his anger but i asked him as a military man if he believed in the u.s military he said of course i said dad do you ever think they haven't had a bad general the military's had many bad generals macarthur horrible general custer from my own hometown horrible these are bad generals but dad you didn't leave the military because of those bad generals you believed in the mission it was stood for the truth justice and freedom you didn't leave the military because of any of those bad generals all right so you don't leave jesus because of judas because jesus doesn't leave us when we are judases so again i'm sorry i don't want to keep talking about this because this is not my intent today but i felt it had to be discussed we'll do a whole nother talk on this later but the church isn't just now becoming invalid father the church is just now reaching a point where it's invalid in the world it's unimportant in the world it's just reaching that point now that's not true there's always been some bad priests this goes right back to the bible not justifying it i'm just explaining this is broken humanity do you know adam had a priestly role in the garden he was supposed to take care of the garden just like the old testament priests were to take care of the temple he failed at that what about aaron the very first high priest the brother of moses and this grandson of levi from which the tribes of priests come he failed he led his people into the idol worship of the golden calf what about simon peter he failed twice first of all he was called satan by jesus and then he denied jesus three times judas he was a priest he failed he betrayed our lord the apostles all abandoned our lord in the garden the gethsemane and the jewish priests they all failed they failed to recognize jesus when he came and they are the ones that led to the crucifixion of our savior they failed only one of the apostles john stayed at the cross all the others ran away they failed so across the history of the church we have seen the priesthood full of great saints but also sinners bad sinners priests are human they have a range of struggles so please pray for them they are trying to do their best like christ the church is both human and divine so please don't forget this don't leave the church because in her divine nature she will always teach you the truth she's the way to heaven in her human nature she can fail because our human nature is broken so despite all these faults of the priests that i just read you he is still in personae christie and the person of christ and i want to show you a quick video i got three short videos for you today and i want to show you the first one that i thought was a great little thing i showed my catechism class you guys are basically now my catechism class for the last 28 weeks i want to start thinking of this and we're going to start taking live questions i want to figure out a way but you're like my catechism class i want to teach you guys the faith let's watch this quick little video clip that does that what is a catholic priest there are priests in most religions priests are seen as mediators between god and men they instruct people sanctify the people and offer sacrifices on behalf of them priests also existed in judaism and they did the same thing they instructed people sanctified them and offered sacrifices on their behalf now christianity comes from judaism that's why we have priests who wait a minute no in christianity something changes here there is only one priest namely jesus christ just like other priests christ instructed the people sanctified them and offered a sacrifice but he did all of this in such a perfect way that nothing can actually be added to it jesus is the perfect mediator between god and man and no wonder being true god and true man but since jesus is the perfect mediator who risen from the dead dies no more there's only one single high priest in the new covenant christ hmm but then who are all these men in black shirts and robes what are catholic priests it's like this we have already said that jesus offered the perfect sacrifice on the cross he gave up his life out of love for mankind in order that the sacrifice of the cross may remain present and continue to sanctify mankind jesus instituted the sacrament of the eucharist at the last supper which we call the sacrifice of the mass as was said before it is not a new sacrifice but rather the making present of the sacrifice of the cross the actual priest offering the sacrifice of the mass is indeed christ himself he is the sacrifice and the one who sacrifices he gives himself to the heavenly father so far so good but everything that happens at mass isn't just something purely spiritual but a sacrament that is a visible sign instituted by christ and if in the holy eucharist the sacrifice is represented through the species of bread and wine then the one who sacrifices should also be represented in some way and this is precisely what the sacramental priesthood does the ordained priest is there in order to represent christ to make christ present and to make him visible the ordained priest doesn't act in his own name rather through his ordination he participates in the one priesthood of christ consecrated into the one priesthood of christ he acts in persone christe as it is called in latin this makes the priest in the catholic understanding completely different from any priest in any other religion the catholic priest as a man doesn't offer for himself or for other people he doesn't act in his own name or on account of his own personal holiness no in celebration of the sacraments and especially in the celebration of the eucharist he makes christ present the moments in which he is most a priest are the moments he has least himself sounds mystical and it is okay isn't that an awesome clip that's the longest clip i ever have two much shorter little clips but i thought that did a great job of explaining the basics of the priesthood you know i believe we are seeing a renewal of the priesthood because we went through that crucifixion phase and i believe we're starting to get through that why the renewal of the priesthood is taking place through two ways divine mercy and mary this is how they're taking place let's look at our next slide this is the answer jesus and mary the divine mercy so we have these two spiritual weapons and you know what's interesting divine mercy and mary are uniquely the two areas of focus of the miriams of the immaculate conception every other men's religious order has some charisma and for us to be focused on bearing first of all the first community to bear the title the marians of the immaculate conception the immaculate conception the first time that title was used was our community 350 years ago and we are the ones who brought divine mercy to the world through saint faustina you can't get two more important spiritual weapons these define who the marian fathers are and as our marian helpers you who are watching and if you're not a mirror and helper at the end i'll show you how to be when there's no cost or anything like that you can help save the world a priest must have a devotion to mary but so should you you know the priest let me tell you jesus talked about the priest to saint faustina in diary number 15 21 he said tell my priests that hardened sinners will repent on hearing their words meaning the priests when they speak about my mercy about the compassion i have for them in my heart to priests who proclaim and extol my mercy that's us marian fathers i will give wondrous power i will anoint their words and touch the hearts of those to whom they will speak this is what father kaz and i are trying to do bring through these live streams mercy and all the other miriam priests out at the parishes in kenosha or chicago area please listen to their words of mercy we need these kinds of priests and i said i believe there is a renewal going underway this is what the kind of priest we need in the church focused on mary and divine mercy now i said it may not look like it but i truly believe we're seeing a renewal and we already are here in the marian fathers we hear about other communities that haven't had vocations for years diocese that have hardly any vocations we're bursting at the seam do you think that's coincidental we're getting so many vocations we're having to build new buildings to house them we're getting so many vocations and i believe it's because we are about merry and divine mercy now this clip i'm going to show you is less than a minute it's very short but this will give you an idea of what i'm talking about and if you're part of our our miriam helpers god bless you because you're the reason this is possible take a look at this less than a minute [Music] video the church now more than ever needs holy priests [Music] men who will sacrifice everything for the greater glory of god and the salvation of souls what attracts so many men to the marians is that we are orthodox marian eucharistic and apostles of divine mercy [Music] our men belong entirely to mary [Music] we are honored to bear her name three times in our official title the marian fathers of the immaculate conception of the most blessed virgin mary they want to be holy priests [Music] help them answer the lord's call please support our marian seminarians was it isn't that awesome and and did you see brother mark there on the last frame he was the one in the tie so he's the one that's making all these live streams happen so you know it's awesome because god loves his priest and he's always calling them to be better to repent and we're seeing this at the marian fathers god bless all of you for your prayers and support of them now the catechism talks about this 1548 it says that christ is the source of all priesthood father you keep talking about these men what about jesus we're getting there because he's the basis of all of it now the priests of the old testament were a figure of christ a foreshadowing of christ then we had christ the true high priest and now today in the new testament we have the priests who are in the person of christ in persona christi because christ had to ascend back to the father he wasn't going to leave the world alone he need to leave somebody in his place when you travel or go away don't you sometimes if you're the boss at work leave somebody in your place you always delegate every time i get an out of office reply email it says i'm out of the office call such and such person they're taking my place jesus did the same thing the people of god have always had priests to mediate between them and god well wait a minute father jesus is the only mediator yes this is true but because christ's body is the church we go through the church which is his body so when you go through his body you're going through christ as the one mediator the priest offers sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people it has been this way since ancient biblical times our non-catholic christian brothers have completely lost that understanding that a priest is needed because he makes atonement for the people's sins and he officiates the liturgy not just a prayer service which is what most non-catholic services have become just praise and worship and singing and praying that's beautiful we need it but there's not a formal act of worship of consecration of sacrifice of of of the meal and the sacrifice which is the mass all right at mass you offer along with the priests your sacrifice what's going on at the mass the priest is offering the ultimate sacrifice remember the mass is both a meal and a sacrifice that altar is a table a table for the meal the bread and the wine but it's also the sacrifice of christ with his body and blood now at mass you are to offer your sacrifice your love excuse me your life the offer the sacrifice of your lives to the father in union with christ who's offering his sacrifice to the father this is when the priest holds up the patent and the chalice and he says through him and with him and in him oh god almighty father that's the sacrifice that christ is making of himself to give back to the father in atonement for our sins and the sins of the whole world that's the prayer of the chaplet you too are to unite in that sacrifice and offer all yourself your joys your hopes your your praise your your sorrows your pains your sufferings your excitements you offer them up now all catholic priests operate in in persona christi capitis which means in the person of christ the head this is important because christ was a man and i don't want to get into this topic we'll talk about this some other time the priest is also in the person of christ who was a man that's why the church state that they don't have the authority to ordain anybody but men not because they're sexist in fact a cloistered nun can have a higher calling than a diocesan priest i've talked about this in the way of life but by the sacrifice the priest is the in persona christi capitis which means in the person of christ the head and christ was a man that's why the the man is the priest women you have a role in a spiritual motherhood that is different but critically important you know then it's it's it's not the rule for the men to be the spiritual mother or the mother to be the spiritual father those belong to the priests the spiritual fathers that's why we call them father and i'll talk about that in a minute why he says don't father don't call or don't call anybody father i get that question all the time we'll talk about that but anyway if any woman could have been a priest it would have been mary right you know um why not why wasn't mary a priest all right we're going to go to the bible we're going to talk about the old testament priesthood first all right let's look at our next slide did you know that there are three kinds of priests here's the old testament priest all right take a look there what's going on you have the pagans challenging and you have the high priest let's go through who the priests were in the old testament first was aaron the high priest he came from the tribe of levi levi was his grandpa and aaron's brother was moses so you hear the tribe of levi that means the priests levi was the grandpa aaron was his grandson moses was his brother and aaron became the first high priest so he had that kind of priest then the priest that came from aaron the line of aaron was another group of priests and then all the israelites believe it or not shared in the priesthood and so do you in the common priesthood of christ we'll talk about that now this tribe of levi or the priest as we have it are an important factor here because they're going to play into this i'm going to explain to you right now this it might get a little confusing but stay with me where did the priesthood come from all right jesus came from the line of david you might have heard this jesus comes from his father david the line of david but was david a priest no david was a king so jesus also is a king he comes from the line of david but wait a minute father who are the priests then as i said levi and and and then father why didn't jesus come from the tribe levi they were the priests okay yes it's true that in most of the old testament priests and kings were not the same you were either one or the other if you were a king you came from the lion david if you were a priest you came from the line of levi so so this is what we have to understand was very important now it was prophesized that the messiah was going to be a king so all the jews believed that the king or the messiah was going to be a king and not a priest this is why when jesus came to jerusalem right in the donkey they worshipped him or they reverenced him as a king but not yet as a priest it wasn't until the last supper that christ revealed himself as a priest but how could he do this when they normally the kings weren't the priests jesus professed himself as both a king from david and a priest now how do we know this the book of hebrews is the only place in the bible where jesus is called not just a king but a priest hebrews 7 17 the messiah or jesus was a priest not after the order of aaron and levi where the most priest came from but according to the order of melchizedek you may have heard that term let's look at our next slide who was melchizedek and what was his significance he's in genesis and hebrews very important he's even in the psalms psalm 110 is melchizedek was representative of the priestly line now notice this priestly line which a king of david's line would come now that means melchizedek was a king and a priest yes the order of melchizedek means the firstborn is both going to be a king and a priest well wait a minute father what are you talking about levi then and and and david and the kings and the in the priests being separate melchizedek came before any of them melchizedek was a priest during the age of patriarchs way before levi or david and he blessed abraham and so this means that he was greater than abraham and abraham's descendants levi and david he was appointed he was an appointed priest directly by god whereas the descendants were just by blood again he was chosen directly by god so was jesus so in the original form of the priesthood it was of the order of melchizedek and that is what hebrews tells us jesus comes from he comes not from the line of david in the line of the levite priests but actually from melchizedek melchizedek is critically important because he blessed abraham meaning he was a priest but it also tells us he was the king of salem this is why evil likes to attack salem you know salem's lot all this evil junk salem actually means peace and that's where jerusalem comes from so mechizedek was the king of salem which became jerusalem way ahead of any of these other guys he is a king and a priest of salem who blessed abraham and then it says he offered up sacrifice of bread and wine oh my goodness this is what christ is so christ predates all those old testament priests and kings because he comes from a special order that predates those kings and priests some believe like scott hahn that melchizedek may have been noah's first son named shem because it says in genesis that shem lived all the way past abraham he would have been hundreds of years old when abraham was 75 but it's possible so this priest of melchizedek is very important because it also only required one single sacrifice forever that's what jesus did so the levitical priesthood they make animal sacrifices over and over but yet in genesis 14 melchizedek offered one sacrifice of bread and wine like we do at the mass we don't do it over and over believe it or not we're doing that one sacrifice with christ one sacrifice on the cross at every mass we're at calvary we're there we're present at calvary so the bread in the wine is important in the heavenly sanctuary jesus offers his to his father the bread and the wine that now become his body and blood so our catholic catholic faith finds its roots in this tradition this is catechism 15 44. now let's take it to the new testament the new testament priesthood very important now in the new testament hebrew says that christ is the only high priest so father why are we getting involved with all these men as you watched in the video running around in black shirts and white collars christ is the only high priest this is where the protestants stop they say there is no more priesthood it it's jesus is the only high priest okay yes jesus is the high priest this is true but the bible itself tells us that from jesus there are other priests ministerial priests like me and the common priesthood like you remember i said in ancient israel they had aaron the high priest then they had the line of aaron that's like the ministerial priest and they had the royal priesthood of all the other israelites that's like the common priesthood we have the exact same thing today as the old testament instead of aaron the high priest it's jesus the high priest then from the line of priests come all the ordained priests from jesus and the apostles and then all of israel was the royal priesthood all of you catholics by virtue of your baptism are christians are in the common priesthood it makes perfect sense all right now i am part of the ministerial priesthood so i can offer sacrifice on that altar not because i deserve it or i i earned it of course not just because god ordained me for that purpose you're ordained in a way for other purposes in your state in life but you do share by virtue of your baptism in the three offices of christ priests prophet and king and what does a priest do a priest offers sacrifice i as a ministerial priest offer the bread and wine to become the body and blood well father i'm not a priest yes you are you share in the common priesthood just like all the israelites shared in the priesthood of aaron you share in the common priesthood of christ my goodness the connection is amazing and that means you can offer sacrifice well father i can't go up to the altar and say mass no that's a ministerial priest but look at our next slide you see the chaplet of divine mercy eternal father i offer you the body blood soul and divinity are only priests allowed to pray that prayer no you can too that is you offering sacrifice you can do this because by virtue of your baptism powerful stuff so the essence of the old testament covenant was that a priest offered sacrifice but usually of animals and animal blood to expiate for sin but now let's look at the unique connection here i want to show you something amazing if you're ready to turn this off hang with me for one more minute look at this next slide what is this this is the angel of death going from house to house and if there's no blood on the doorpost of the slain animal the lamb it will take the firstborn child if it finds the blood spread over the doorposts it will pass over the house that's where the word passover comes from now listen to john chrysostom saint john chrysostom the angel of death fled when he simply saw the sacrifice of animal blood on the doorposts of homes of believers this blood look at the picture this blood came from the sacrifice of old testament priests they sacrificed lambs now look at our next slide how much more will the devil flee when he sees the true blood from the high priest the real lamb this is jesus christ how much more will the devil flee when he sees the true blood from the true high priest not any lamb the lamb the lamb of god jesus christ it's not symbolic blood anymore it's his actual blood and what john chrysostom says is amazing he says how much more will the devil flee when he sees that true blood on the doorpost of your soul what's the doorpost of your soul not around the physical door your lips so when you receive holy communion and the precious blood is on your lips the doorpost to your soul is being protected from the angel of death this is incredible how could we not see the value of what we are given in the mass the doors of our soul are guarded by the blood just like the old testament blood was put on the doorpost your blood of the precious blood lord jesus christ protects my soul on the doorposts of my soul my lips so jesus is now this new priest this high priest once and for all but how do we know that that priesthood like non-catholics think ended with jesus they believe it with jesus it ended no it was handed down at the last supper how do we know that how do i know that it was handed down at the last supper i bet you this answer is going to surprise you do you know how it was handed down at the last supper well yes father he consecrated true do this in remembrance of me but there's another tie to the old testament that we know that christ handed on the priesthood and you know how we know that look at your next slide surprising the washing of feet this is exodus 40. christ washed their feet just like exodus 40 it was done at priestly ordinations of aaron and those of his sons so look at this picture in the last supper christ ordained them by washing their feet and delegated powers to these apostles the powers of the priesthood to these apostles now the priest has the same power as christ not because it comes from him but because christ delegated it to him he is in persona christi christ had to ascend to the father so he isn't going to leave us alone so how was he present to us by the eucharist okay but you don't have the eucharist without the priest we have to have the priest in the confessional yes it's jesus in there but i always ask my catechism class guys in the confessional is it the priest who forgives your sins and even my adults say no the answer is yes not because the priest did anything to deserve it but because christ gave him that power he delegated it to him christ forgave sins here on earth to show that he had ultimate authority and when you have ultimate authority you have the power to delegate it father how do you know christ gave him that power well all you have to do is open your bible matthew 16 19 matthew 18 18 john 20 23 whose sins you forgive are forgiven i'm sorry i get so passionate about this whose sins you retain are retained when you have ultimate authority you have the power to delegate it remember i just told you when i send an email and somebody's left work they say i've delegated my authority to sarah she is now taking over or to john he is now taking over when i would go somewhere on my business and i would leave i'd say brian while i'm gone you're in charge if there's somebody to hire you hire somebody to fire you fire if there's a bill to pay you pay it did he do anything to deserve that no i built the business i started it i founded it i delegated him that power that's what christ has done with the priest in confession the priest was given that power not from him through him if confession is not needed by a priest grant christ granting them this power would have been totally insignificant why would christ have done it if you don't need the priest to forgive you in the confessional it would have been wasting his time so this is why we look at our next slide i love this painting look at this the power doesn't come from the priest look at this it's god's power through the priest you see that happening but you need the priest because this is how christ set it up whose sins you forgive are forgiven you're in my place he's not going to say i'm putting you in my place but i'm going to let you do numbers 1 5 and 7 but on my list numbers two four and six you can't do no he's gonna give them the power to do everything he could do in a priestly ministry sense not to die for us not to redeem us that's his job as the high priest now jesus said the apostles and the who were then the priests had the authority and that's how he set it up but other people said okay father i'll grant you then the priesthood didn't stop with jesus he gave it to the apostles okay but then it stopped with them not not so fast how in the world then could we be forgiven jesus said to the first priests they had the authority apostles had the power from christ and the power they also were given was to delegate it believe it or not if you say well father the priest had died with the apostles no because he also gave them the power to delegate it just like he had the power to delegate it he held nothing back from them and he gave them the power to delegate it how do they do it priestly ordinations how do we know this turn to acts of the apostles who was matthias jesus didn't pick matthias as an apostle the other apostles did they exercise that authority christ gave them and every time they ordained somebody they laid hands on him so jesus laid hands on the apostles and then in turn those apostles laid hands on other men and then in turn those apostles laid hands on other men all the way down to every living priest today when i was ordained a priest bishop holly lays his hands on me i can be traced physically back to jesus christ that's mind-boggling forgiveness in that confessional because the priest has its authority is guaranteed when the priest says and i absolve you in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit there's no wondering if i'm absolved hoping i'm absolved you are guaranteed forgiveness or jesus is a liar and nobody is going to claim that all right now christ commanded the apostles and preach as you go saying quote the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal the sick cleanse the lepers cast out demons raise the dead you received without pay give without pay go that's what the priest does he was given this authority jesus gave him authority to do all this well father i've never seen a praise raised from buddy from the dead oh yeah go to one confessional you were raised from the dead if you were in a state of mortal sin you were dead and he says here praise raise from the dead cleanse cast out demons that's exorcists heal the sick we see that at healing masses raise the dead every confessional is a resurrection from the dead that's the priest you received now go give he chose them to offer sacrifice at the last supper how do this in memory of me he chose to make them disciples of all nations he said go and baptize in the name of the father son holy spirit that's why the priest baptizes the apostles had successors just as the apostles were successors of jesus as i said go to the bible matthias and others so the priest is like christ on all things except sin but father wait a minute i'm not going to call you father because the bible says call nobody your father i am amazed that this is the number one complaint i think i get as a priest it boggles my mind how many of these emails i get and comments it it it it shocks me but it's okay i want to explain it again to call no one your father jesus did not mean to call no one an or a a father it seems like a contradiction yes but he didn't mean to never say the word father or not to refer to someone as your earthly father my gosh what about the fourth commandment honor your father and your mother jesus means that there's only one creator one true abba father meaning creative father my goodness the fourth commandment tells us we have earthly fathers remember the rich man calling out father abraham come dip his finger in cool water this is the parable of luke 16 24. saint paul calls religious leaders fathers in acts 7 2 and acts 22 1. saint paul says to the corinthians i became your father that's like star wars right luke i became your father so did paul say that a priest is a spiritual father to many in the congregation this is why we call them father like christ though the priest doesn't have to marry to be a father all right because his bride is the church we cannot serve two wives there is no way one of the hardest things i thought about being a priest was not going to be able to be married i tell you it is impossible that i could be married the wisdom of the church is phenomenal there is no way i could do what i do and be married it would be so unfair to my wife right now my ministry every day is six a.m to midnight seven days a week and thank goodness i had people like brother mark helping me because i write every talk research it study it manage 70 people at the marion helper center do sick calls do all of everything that a priest needs to do you can't do that and have two wives our wife is the church this is why that movement to end celibacy is not fully informed all right now christ is the groom we know this the ma the bride us is the church it's a nuptial agreement you've heard me say this before you've heard me say when you come forward up this isle you're making your wedding march you are the bride and who's waiting for you and a catholic wedding your groom and later that night the two become one it's the same at mass when you come up this aisle you are the bride who's waiting for you the groom jesus and just like the conjugal act of the wedding that night christ the groom enters into you the bride that's how it's so important the bible begins with a wedding adam and eve and you know what ends with the wedding the wedding feast of the lamb the last passage or excuse me the last book of the bible revelation it's not about the antichrist it's not about the the rapture it's about the mass and this is where i want to finish today talking about the mass let's look at our next picture here is the beauty of the shrine when it's full here it is when we used to have people here keep praying that our church is open oh my but our lord says where two or three are gathered in my name i am there in your midst i know there are more than three people gathered in this web broadcast in this live stream so christ is in our midst the mass though is the best form so join us every day at 9 00 a.m you can join us for the mass the mass is communal worship it's not about entertainment the priest is not an entertainer i'm not gonna as i said before ride a unicycle and juggle at the last supper christ instituted the mass as an eternal sacrifice and a meal he's the lamb now notice this meal and sacrifice this is very important for the meal at the catholic church we use bread and wine and water just like christ did bread and wine and water were the elements christ used we in the catholic mass use that the priest uses that just like jesus now the sacrifice what about that the public worship through the offering of objects or animals has always been the essence of all religions from the beginning of time sacrifice and horror even bad sacrifices have been given like in aztec ceremonies and stuff like that but offering of something tangible has always been part of it there's always been a sacrifice ever since the beginning of human history the very nature though of a sacrifice requires a priest now if it's a true sacrifice that priest is to be ordained by god to offer that sacrifice so no priest no sacrifice it was always this way in the church there was a meal and a sacrifice it wasn't until the 1500s that the protestants began to reject the idea of a sacrificial mass and a meal and replace it with just focus on music and prayer that didn't happen for 1500 years yes jesus is the one sacrifice and the one sacrificing jesus is the one being sacrificed and he's the ones offering he's both think about this for a minute on the cross who was being sacrificed jesus okay and on the cross who was the one offering the sacrifice jesus he was both the one being offered and the one offering now here's what's fascinating today the one being offered is still jesus christ it always will be in the eucharist but the one offering is now the priest as it has always been and christ brought him together wow i wish i had much more time to go on this but i'm sorry i got a wrapper up here i'm going to finish with some aspects of the mass and what the priesthood and why he does what he does that might help you better understand the mass let's take a look at a couple of these all right let's look at our next slide the catholic priests alb what is this elb means white that's why divine mercy sunday used to be called albis meaning sunday in white you're purged of all your sins el means white you see a priest wear that garment it's white it also reminds the priest of his baptism that's why the baby christened wears white it's purity that's why the priest puts on the white now he'll wear a belt around that album we call a cincher what's the purpose of that it symbolizes the bible command to gird your loins so the priest is doing that let's look at our next slide this is a chasable and a stall all right chas chasable comes from the greco-roman times why the word means house what is that father it was a cape to protect them like a house protects you in storms the chasmal was like this cape which means house to protect those inside now the stall as we saw on the screen is was crisscrossed and it still is in the extraordinary form right but to represent the cross that christ died on and the roman soldiers whose belts were crossed for their provisions and to carry their swords very interesting now what about colors i just showed you green up there what are the colors the priest wears all right there's white or gold when does a priest wear white or gold this is anything to do with the resurrection white means purity as i told you and giving glory to god so when the priest wears white it is a feast in honor of our lord mary or the saints who were not martyred all right the next would be red well the red one means fire or blood why would a priest wear that those masses for the holy spirit that is important because the church was born of blood and water the gift of the holy spirit or for the saints that were martyrs that's the blood and the fire is the holy spirit now what about green we just showed you a green there the green means hope that is ordinary time in ordinary time we have hope then the priest also wears violet or a purple there's two different kinds of purple you have the advent kind and you have that at lent it means pennants both advent and lent are penitential seasons and yes the church still allows black what is black for morning funerals and even once in advent and once during lent rose not pink okay um this is allowed in one day in lent uh de gate uh uh lagate sunday latari sunday and those are in advent and lent okay so different colors now what about the meaning of these vestments here's what i want to finish they're symbols of christ's passion all right what is an amos an amis if you've seen a priest is the white cloth put around his collar if you ever notice a priest is supposed to cover his collar at every mass now sometimes the elb doesn't fit right or the collar comes down and or the uh elb comes down and you can see the collar but an amnes is like a white handkerchief that goes around it's like the blindfold that christ wore at his crucifixion the elb we talked about that was white meaning purity was the garment jesus wore while on trial and while he was being mocked and beaten they believed he had a white garment like an alba on what about i talked about the cincher the ropes what does that mean they meant or symbolized the ropes that tied jesus during his scourging what about the stall i mentioned the priest crisscrosses those in the old right it means the cross the chasm i talked about that was the seamless garment which the soldiers rolled dice you have the whole passion in that priest you have the whole sacrifice of christ in the mass you have the resurrection in confession you have everything given to us through the priest at the end of this mass what does the priest say go in peace glorifying the lord by your life or go and announce the gospel of the lord itae missaes the latin means go being sent this is part of your role as a marian helper go proclaim god's mercy and if you can't because you're homebound or you're sick you unite with us spiritually as marian fathers and you do it you are helping jesus to spread divine mercy to shape and form hearts through his priests and the men that are being called to the marian fathers god bless you all the priesthood is a special gift i only have one quick video and then a couple last words and we are done let's take a look at a very good video that gives you a real powerful it's only a couple minutes idea again of the priesthood saint john bienis and the priesthood is love of the heart of jesus meaning that jesus loved his world so does he must to be able to minister to his world to do so in a very effective and what we call efficacious way bring about that which you know jesus love really signifies that's really what the priesthood is it's living out the love of the heart of jesus the catholic priesthood is a life of great joy too many people will talk about the things that one must deny himself in order to become a priest but they are really not thinking of the hundreds and hundreds of things that are given to us as priests the priest brings christ to the people through those things known as sacraments signs those signs that point to god and those signs which enable the faithful to participate in the life of god the priesthood has a unique mystery and a unique mission about it in the priests first of all are able to enter into persons lives in very critical times in very close ways times of great happiness times of sadness and sickness the priesthood is important today because it acts as a reminder that god is truly present and in this world it brings to people uh that needed that that human interaction because he walked this earth i think he knew the value and the importance of hearing from fellow human people receiving care from fellow people the most awesome thing about the catholic priesthood is that we are really able to make christ present because the way christ himself designed the church priests are essential to the life of the church without the priests no sacraments without the sacraments there is no catholic church [Music] we followed christ's teachings for 2000 years we've taught the faith preached the gospel provided for the poor buried the dead and led the world to christ we faced persecution led in science and we've cared for those who others have forgotten through life through death and through eternity i am i am i am i am and always will be a catholic priest isn't that a powerful video of what a true priest does and the beauty in that is you through prayers and support are helping the church i'm telling you right now i quoted the statistic that most 95 of cases are 30 to 50 years old heaven forbid that anything else happens but i tell you the guys we got coming in phenomenal these guys are true men of god and you are helping them to go out and proclaim merry and divine mercy yes please support any way you can anything to do with the church but if you really think about the two most powerful spiritual weapons that's why i'm a marian father mary and divine mercy and god bless every one of you marian helpers that are helping us get this message we can't do this without you all the streaming brother mark's doing with the equipment came from your guys's beautiful support and prayers the men that we have coming to us come from your prayers so jesus sent his disciples out two by two that's us priests and brothers but did you know that he also appointed 70 others as well i bet you didn't know that and he appointed those 70 you are part of those 70 symbolic that are called out to go and proclaim the message of mercy even if it's just from your own room by being a mirian helper as jesus said quote this is luke 10 2 the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few pray therefore the lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest god bless all of you for doing that thank you to our marian helpers please pray for the priesthood and if you want to help us continue on this mission of bringing mary and divine mercy to the world please look at your last slide m-i-c-prayers.com it takes less than 10 seconds and there's no cost it doesn't cost anything if you just even if you can't if you can't support us even with a dime financially that's not what matters of course we need to keep lights on too and that's important but what's most important is you unite with us in prayer we pray for you you receive the graces of all the masses rosaries prayers and penances just like you were a member of our religious community just like you were a marian of the immaculate conception actually kind of makes me jealous because some people can have wives and families and children and still get the fruits that i get having sacrificed the wife and the children and the home and the business but that's okay that's where god's called me to be and i've never been happier than i am right now in my whole life i am tired and i get exhausted sometimes and even impatient but the mission god has me on is the mission of divine mercy and mary please join us in that mission visit mic prayers dot com and please join us in our daily mission of bringing the mass to the world nine o'clock our chaplet daily at three our rosary at five and again every saturday live here from the national shrine of the divine mercy so god bless all of you and i hope and pray for health and well-being for all of you and don't forget pray for your priests and may almighty god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit amen 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 marion 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 1-800-462-7426 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 hello everyone if you're like us in the state of massachusetts where our governor has extended the non-essential business closure you're going to be at home looking for things to do there is probably no better time ever before or after than right now than to get closer to god you see you cannot love what you do not know so we want to help you to love god a little bit more by knowing him instead of sitting at home on your couch watching reruns of miami vice like my cameraman giuseppe no i don't i think that we have an opportunity now more than ever to learn our faith that is why i have produced a new video dvd series that can be used as small groups and parishes or right at home on your own couch it is called explaining the faith these are my 13 favorite talks i've ever done that are regarding what we need to know about jesus mary confession communion why would a good and loving god allow suffering and especially a walk through of the entire mass from the start to the finish and everything that you need to know about it tell you what here's a quick clip in the church it's just not come to stand sit and kneel it's to engage in this most incredible mystery this is what it is the church what makes the catholic church the church of christ is the sacraments the sacraments are just symbols they do something their actual grace sacraments if you remember your definition from catechism are efficacious signs meaning efficacious they do something they're not just symbols they're efficacious signs of god's grace instituted by christ and entrusted to the church by which divine life is given to us we have it so that christ can enter into us and live in us now if we don't receive him worthily what happens we lose that grace so please consider now is the time to get closer to god and we're going to show you how as i said this dvd series has 13 talks that you'll be able to learn more and share your faith with everyone that you love to help get yourself and them to heaven so please visit shopmercy.org or call 1-800-462-742 to understand our faith better than ever before and to hear it explained in a way like never before thank you and god bless you you

Channel: Divine Mercy

Views: 55,045

Rating: 4.9347215 out of 5

Keywords: Divine Mercy, Mercy, Divine Mercy Official, Shrine of Divine Mercy, National Shrine of Divine Mercy, Shrine, Jesus, Christ, Marian, priest, catholic teaching, spiritual, spirituality, grace, pray, prays, praying, chris alar, alar, fr. Chris, faustina, fr. alar, scandal, priesthood, Mass, aaron, levi, levite, melchi, Melchizedek, abuse, priest abuse, seminary, seminarians, marian helpers, jesus, high priest, old testament, new testament, sacrifice, wedding of the lamb, confession, eucharist, holy communion

Id: Wbgz8GM2n3I

Length: 82min 12sec (4932 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 14 2020