Father Spitzer’s Universe - 2017-11-01 - Spirit Of Truth Will Guide You: Following The Inspiration A

[Music] [Music] hello welcome once again to father Spitzer's universe where no man has gone before but we try every week to learn more I'm Doug Keck your host coming to you live from our EWTN studios in Irondale Alabama it's the heart of EWTN where it all began Mother Angelica back in 1981 in that little garage and $500 and later here we are how many years later dealing with two hundred and seventy five million households worldwide receiving EWTN and the truth of the gospel thanks to you and thanks to you we can do this show by sending us your email checking us out on Facebook so we get your questions sending us a tweet on Twitter with a question and also if you just want to learn more about father Spitzer and the majus Institute in his Center go to that website majus center.com of course today's topic it's part 3 of chapter 9 the Spirit of Truth will guide you that's what it is and of course the book is the light shines on in the darkness and speaking of books there's a new book out from EWTN is publishing we're very proud to now be publishing our own books and that's the contemplative rosary pictured on your screen with saint john paul ii and of course st. teresa of avila two greats Don Dan Burke and Connie Rossini there are actually the authors of these things so this particular book and it's Dan Burke and Connie Rossini the contemplative rosary is the title so let's move on to father Spitzer's universe but his DVD collections it's part of our universe here at EWTN a lot of people who just became familiar with father Spitzer's since the show launched in the last year or so may not be aware of that for many many years father Spitzer was central to our programming here at EWTN one of his series picture on the screen is Emmanuel the divinity of Jesus again available as is all of his wonderful books through our ewtn religious catalogue ewtn our see.com with that being said we once again turn our eyes to the west coast and to our studios out in Orange County California and there is father Spitzer on the campus of the Cathedral once again great to see you Father how was your week ready to be with you Doug oh it's great week and of course today being All Saints Day a wonderful day and a wonderful celebration right exactly and for those watching us live and of course going into this month as well we've got the All Souls and we really remember many of the souls throughout the month of November kind of tradition in many parishes too to actually remember those parishioners have passed in the last year so maybe you would lead us in prayer to start off the show absolutely in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen Heavenly Father we ask once again your inspiration the inspiration that shows us how your spirit guides us and helps us and protects us and leads us so that we might truly know how you are instructing us in this life to come to the salvation of the saints we asked - that we might be your instruments instruments that can help in the work of salvation like the saints we long to imitate we ask all of these things through Jesus Christ our Lord amen and Mary seat of wisdom and the Saints of the church pray for us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and all our family members who may be in purgatory especially those who don't have anyone praying for them and we're talking about the Holy Spirit of Truth will guide you we'll be talking more about that book and considering that chapter as we move ahead in the second part of the show there's the book hopefully you have it or you maybe can get it three W tens religious catalogue but let's get to some questions that came to us since last week dear father Spitzer here's an email modern Catholic theologians think few people will say no to God on their death most people don't go to church or think much about Christianity or God and are loving towards their family and friends I struggle with the idea of such people ending up in hell please comment thank you John I guess you get the idea that there's kind of this broader idea of that you know most people are doing okay yeah well I mean first of all there are a couple of different things you want to be aware of John the first is that you know God is not going to just send people to hell especially we know that if they come to some form of repentance on their deathbed you know God is going to even honor that exactly like Jesus says that the father of the prodigal son you know after all these things that the son did that were completely contrary to the father to the family to his country his election and to the law of God and to God himself and to the rules of ritual purity after all these violations that he simply takes him back when he says you know father I've sinned against you I no longer deserve to be called your son just treat me like one of the servants and and just at that juncture you know the father has already thrown his arms around him and accepted him so the first thing is yes I don't think God is up there going well you didn't do it exactly right I'm sorry you're gonna have to go to hell that's just almost a completely false caricature of God at least according to the way that Jesus portrays him not only in the parable of the prodigal son but in his name for God namely Abba you know which says that the father is like this patient parent right you know awaiting not only the return but also of the true repentance of his children in the same breath though the minute you say that and God does want to do this and and most people are not out there you know offending God with sufficient reflection and full consent of the will right they're not out there committing one mortal sin after the next as you put it there they're trying to do their best and so there's there's certainly a chance to get the salvation but they also in some sense that you know they have to want to submit their will surrender their in some sense to God and to his is you know guidance to us to purge the you know the narcissism the egocentricity from our souls so that we can actually love one another in the kingdom of heaven as he would have us do that and that is to say without ego so you know we're gonna have to surrender our will to the Lord at a certain point and and here's where kind of the rub comes in if you if you haven't surrendered yourself to the Lord you know at some point what are you gonna do at the end of the day when you're on your deathbed now if you do say okay lord I am so sorry I have not paid attention I I do shortener myself to you I want to to be in your graces as I die God is not going to refuse this God is not going to ignore this he is going to lead you into the kingdom but will you do it that is the question the person who has been away from the Lord a long long time can do the strangest things and I'm not saying here that you know a person couldn't just instantly turn on a dime you could without a doubt you could get scared and turn on a dime and that would be good enough for God it'd be an imperfect contrition but it'd be good enough for God to take you into purgatory and ultimately into the kingdom of heaven yes but that's the question will you do it and and of course if you've been away a long time you had no interest for a long time you were gonna do things your way for a long time you were gonna criticize the church and criticize you know you know the the Lord's teaching for a long time if that's the way you were living your life you've got to be really really careful because at the end of the day you might just Bach you know at the very thought of going back to God and believe me there will be another spirit present there who will want to reinforce all of your past decisions and that other spirit is a dark spirit and of course that dark spirit can be very influential on a will that has not been habituated to turning to the Lord so that the thing is is why take the chance you know if you know yourself if you know how powerful the darkness can be if you know how powerful this this the Spirit is they can get into our lives if we don't try to stay on the road to salvation why take the chance of at you know at the last you know moment of your wanting to come to the Lord you know my thought would be start now start getting that onto the road now don't take any chances yes when you get to the end of your life if you've been on the road if you've been trying to stay on the road and you just say just that prayer of the publican right is here I remember once I told a story you know a while back you know but the plane almost going down into the ocean you know I mean that prayer the publican is sufficient have mercy on me Lord for I am a sinful man you can say that act of contrition even out of fear and the Lord is going to bring you into the domain the accessibility to purgatory and salvation but frankly you know I would never take the chance hey I don't know what I would do and you know I think I would you know I would repent if I were in that state and secondly I would think that I could you know you know fend off the dark forces and at least be so scared of those dark forces but of course he's not gonna make you scared when you're dying he's gonna try and seduce you when you are dying into precisely the egocentricity and all of the other things that gave you solace during your life so beware he's a trickster he's not just a trickster he's a deceiver of the first order and of course who's to say that you would not actually look at that seduction and go you know I liked being domineering I like having it my own way I didn't want to surrender my will to any authority outside of myself quite frankly I liked all the lessons seductions that I went for what the heck you know I think I'll just go ahead and and you know do it and you just don't know right because I tell you he is a seducer you know now is the time to get on the path don't take the chance but yes of course if you on your deathbed you know are you know if you repent God is going to hear that just like the father of the prodigal what do we do today many times it seems like part of the problems people don't think there's anything wrong to be done so outside of a couple of you know social things with being nice to my neighbor or something else like that and whatever that means to an individual well you know I haven't done anything wrong so why do I need to repent yeah yeah I mean again you would you're you're dealing with that you you've got to do you know a couple of different things you know to help that person along again the problem is this extreme egocentricity and a crash course in the seven deadly sins is always of invaluable help I mean anyone who says I have no ego oh my gosh either they're living in the world of complete you know denial or they are living in some sense you know in a you know a completely unrealistic self assessment everybody is egocentric everybody has a domineering part to them everybody can submit to arrogance or envy you know you don't count yourself out for anything that's what I've learned about my life so the first thing you know I think that people really need to do is to get a hold of the multiple dimensions of egocentricity that lead all the way up to self idolatry and that means you want to basically be your own God and I God for others to know what's the best way of doing it the seven deadly sins and like I said I'm writing a brand new book it'll be out in about eight nine months when that book is there two chapters are devoted to those deadly sins because they're so important they so describe so perfectly how you know you kind of get talked into believing you know that that greed is good allah gordon gekko right you talked it into believing like Annika and you know you know okay you know a my love for you know you know you know gronski is is really authentic and so I'll tell you you know it's just since I'm so athletic about my love it's okay if I had ruined my son and and hurt him it's alright if I ruined my husband and humiliate him it's alright if i alienate all of my friends because my love is authentic I mean you hear all these rationalizations and so what I do in that book is I just go through classical works of literature mm-hmm from A Christmas Carol Annika and Yoona - you know David Copperfield - Macbeth - Othello - Hamlet and I do it because these great authors of literature have such a fantastic grasp on the seven deadly sins on the multiple dimensions of egocentricity that you know it's just like a great crash course and the one thing is of course I think anybody who reads good literature not you know the usual superficial stuff you know that that gets you know thrown on to the television screen which never tells you the truth about egocentricity never tells you the truth about lust and power and self idolatry and envy and greed and so forth but the good stuff Shakespeare Dickens you know Tolstoy Dostoevsky you start looking at the good stuff and boy there's no way you could ever say gee I've never seen died just don't have a sinful and have anything to do with I mean I'm talking about good literature I'm not talking about Catholic literature per se just good literature it comes out so beaut the destructive power of egocentricity and of course its opposite which is authentic love in Jesus Christ right and that's why on page 387 in the book we're going through right now you use the line from Dostoevsky x' Brothers Karamazov that God would not quote-unquote enslave man with a miracle a concept we've kind of talked about before you know we'll get to that in a second half of our show okay here's another question a person writes to us in last week we had a question than what the person was dealing with someone had dementia this person just talking about memory not quite the same but dear father I have short-term memory loss so when I make my confession I'm always worried about the sins I've forgotten I keep an actual list of my sins for the day but I'm so worried because there were a number of years when I didn't practice my faith how detailed do I have to get god bless both you and this is Marilyn and of course we may be talking about you know where does being attentive end and scrupulous atiba ginn yeah well Marilyn that's a really great great question just two quick things to remember first God will not hold you responsible for anything you can't remember you're not to blame if you can't remember it and frankly if you don't remember you don't remember the second thing to keep in mind is that well you know absolution is good for all your sins if you really tried you know to make a good confession right you don't have to Rican festival when you were younger etc etc remember that absolution is for all your sins and of course you can then proceed forward but if you feel the need and to re-confess or to sort of do a better confession of sins that were in the past that were covered not only by one absolution but sometimes by a hundred absolutions in the best and you still want to do a better rican fessional scrupulosity that is not healthy that is the evil spirit trying to get you to become you know almost Menino mechanical about you know forgiveness trying to treat God almost like a machine you know he'll respond to this but he won't he knows your heart Marilyn you know you know your kids hearts and and and of course he knows your heart a billion times told lovelier then you even know your own kids hearts so he knows what you can remember he knows what you were capable of way back when when you were making that confession and there's no need to Rican festival for all of your past sins so you're you're in really good shape and don't you worry one more day about it all that worry is from the devil right and our Lord tells us not to worry so another question you know straight ahead dear father Spitzer this is an email came to us what is the church's belief on predestination versus freewill and of course we're talking about in in the book as well about the idea of God allowing us that freewill so we can make the right choice on our own and is it a matter of dogma that's the question there are priests who believe in predestination and it bothers me that they are spreading false beliefs hmm I would appreciate well if you can clarify our thank you and thank you Father and of course sometimes there isn't the idea that I mean there's some discussion about some limited understanding of predestination that's different than the predestination of a Calvin right right yeah now when you know when Paul says that he predestined all of us for salvation right Paul is is talking in a universal sense what Calvin did was he individualized that predestination so you know it's one thing for us to talk about the universal salvific will of Jesus geez well Don the cross that everybody should be saved and he literally what Paul means by predestined there means he willed it to be so now does that mean no Calvin did two things he puts it on an individual level and then says that God's will is going to be determinative of what will happen now the minute you push into those two areas you are definitely in the heresy so if those priests are going around saying that God you know it's one thing to say that God knows a future conditions exactly what engine it's another thing that says that you by your actions cannot change because your future is already predestined your future to you in your mind and in the space-time in which you live is not already predestined the church does not believe that you can change on a dime you can just like we were talking about the previous question you can actually you know at the last minute even you can ask for forgiveness for your sins there's nothing about you know your future to you that you cannot change it is not written in steel or marble you are free to change to the last moment of your life now the point of course with Calvin is he went over the top and said it's of no consequence human freedom is completely useless because predestination is already occurred and he says well you know you can always you know try for safety's sake to you know be a prayerful person and so forth but your futures all returned your future to you is not determined and he never made the distinction between your future to God and your future to you and that was a really bad distinction so you're free until you die to make that decision about salvation and whatever god knows will not affect your freedom or your future to you so if priests are actually saying that you really should tell them that is a heresy but my suspicion is they might be saying something differently like they might be talking about predestination in the sense of st. Paul or you know Jesus is willing that all people people be saved and also that his will is not going and as you as you said also the fact that because God has all knowledge of space and time in one moment he does know ultimately what you're going to choose but it doesn't mean he he chose it for you or that he that you are not free to determine your future right until your death right you are free well then after your death you're also free but but you're you know until your death you you can choose absolutely whatever you wish and Kelvin he just didn't distinguish between your future to God and your future to you God protects your future so that you can make a free choice toward any objective you wish until you die and nothing right you know when you die it will not be because it was determined by God's will for having known it it will be because of what you did and chose with your freedom to you during your lifetime and that is a distinction Kelvin did not make but I doubt that your presearch talking Calvinism but if they are you probably have an obligation and tell them yeah that's an out-and-out Hurra see but okay very good another question as we come up on our break only a couple of minutes away let's see if we can squeeze us in another email for us father dear father Spitzer is there any cure for a narcissistic personality disorder can a person with such a disordered mental state truly follow in the path of the Holy Spirit and this is Jerry yeah Jerry there actually is a lot of cures for narcissistic personality disorder I mean it's a difficult road to hoe but let me just go give a couple of quick thoughts about this there is a book by a psychiatrist and psychologist a social psychologist at Stanford University called dr. alfred bandura and you may want to read his book called self-efficacy and in there he talks about several different techniques of how we can see the the narcissistic personality disorder is not just my own choice in my conscious mind it's also affecting at me in my subconscious mind it's an ingrained subconscious kind of a habit and that subconscious habit in its turn is is kind of controlling me particularly when I'm stressed or tired things of that nature and if I submit to it you know often enough it also controls me habitually so you know how do you change that subconscious dimension which has this lower self that has the ego as its primary focus how do you change that you know when it's been reinforced over you know quite a few years and the answer is you can do that by means of visualization you can do it by means of spontaneous prayers and grace you can also do it by a concerted effort sort of technique called affirmations and you can also do it by putting all of them together spiritually in a technique called the examine prayer which Saint Ignatius of Loyola speaks about but this is going to be I treat this extensively in my new book on on evil and I might just refer you to something on our website if you just go to an article called moral conversion on our website I give you a whole bunch of stuff and it's it's there's three landing pages and just go to the landing page that says virtue and freedom and then select the free article called moral conversion and if if that's too hard for you maybe maybe give our secretary a call and we can email you a copy of the article a moral conversion okay very good thank you so much father Spitzer we shall take this pause to take a break much more head with father Spitzer as we continue here in the universe quite crowded at the intersection a lot of questions still to come we'll get into the book stay with us [Music] and we continue our journey through father Spitzer's universe and I'm going to turn to the book the Spirit of Truth will guide you as the chapter in father's book that we've been working through as we rejoin father out on the west coast the light shines on in the darkness of course transforming suffering through faith but before we get there let's get one more question in from our loyal viewers dear father Spitzer father Walter Chizik wrote God's will was not hidden somewhere out there in the situations in which I found myself The Situation's themselves were his will for me please explain how this works even when we are lost and have turned away from him thanks and God bless this is Fred and of course father Walter Chyzyk a grant man who dealt it up against communism yes that's right well Fred there's you know God's will for for Walter Chizik who was well on the way to sainthood there in Russia and and you know especially in Siberia and you know when we look at it you know what-what Chizik was doing in that saintly demeanor right he was very much a son of Ignatius of Loyola and very very much a person with a great deal of spiritual freedom and so even in prison and in the worst possible circumstances in the gulag and in Siberia right he was able to be an example and a light for people and that of course you know that's God's will for him was to be that example in that light that heroic example you know and the reason it's God's will for him is because it was the highest self he could achieve it was you know his you know obviously course two selves it his road to salvation and it was obviously his instrumentation instrumentality you know in helping others to their salvation so for all these reasons that's what God willed for Walter Chizik and and you know and Walter Chyzyk because of his saintly life was following it but there's kind of an implication that you had in in your question that well what if you're in you know really following a sinful path is that also God's will for you and the answer is no if you're following a sinful path it is not God's will for you God wills your salvation God wills that you be off the path of sinfulness God wills that you know you get back on the path to salvation and God wills for sure that you kind of get that mind in that heart and that freedom of a Walter Chizik so you know any saint can talk the wave a Walter Chizik talks right that I you know this is God's will for me especially when you're living out the life of heroic sainthood but no problem but if you're kind of in the mode where a lot more of us are you have to be really careful about that expression because God's will for me is definitely being lived out when I'm very saintly however on the days I'm not so saintly he's this is not God's will for me and I know that and that's why I try to get back into the sainthood road and back onto the humble road and and so I can live again in God's will for me so great question but it works only you know when with the saintly Road right and in the book light shines on in darkness we're talking about the Spirit of Truth will guide you chapter and of course that's one of the great things is people discerning how do I know which way God is leading me and and you talk about here the probative force of each kind of evidence okay what is probative yeah oh you know a probative is just a legal term that means that you've built up enough evidence that you can now render a reason of and responsible judgment of truth so in other words the evidence is sufficient and and normally when you talk about you know appropriate force there's a lot of evidence and so if you take all the diverse kinds of evidence that are all pointing in the same direction you know to the existence of God or to the resurrection or something of that nature then you know we can say yes it's reasonable and responsible for me not only to believe in God but to believe in the resurrection so if I look at the evidence of Scripture I look at the evidence of you know the church itself in its tradition if I look at the scientific evidence of the Shroud of Turin if I look at the multiple scientific and medical studies of near-death experiences if I look at the multiple medical studies of terminal lucidity that we were just talking about last week where person is actually thinking with their souls instead of with their brains in the last week of their lives documented again and again if I take all that evidence and I put them together you know John Henry Newman calls that an informal judgement and in the law we would say that there's probative force in the totality of the evidence that gives you you know the sufficient ground to make a reasonable and responsible judgement yeah Jesus's resurrection is true and if his resurrection is true then ours is too right and and the same thing holds true with the you know sometimes when we're trying to discern and we're getting these little clues that are starting to sort of register in little things happen I hear something on EWTN I read something in a book somebody comes to me and says something out of the blue that synergizes with everything that I've just heard then I'm sitting there in prayer and I read this Psalm and some Psalms just blasts right out off the page at me that synergizes with everything else and then of course the the day Newmont is you know I'm I get an opportunity the next day that corresponds to all these clues I've been hearing over the last several days and I begin to think to myself there's a conspiracy of divine providence evidence going on here and I'm in the middle of it and the minute you sneak that judgment you're doing it on the basis yeah each little clue you could just cast it off but it's when all these clues are synergizing toward one particular objective you begin to think I wonder mm-hmm you know I think I can make a reasonable and responsible judgment here that maybe I'm being led maybe it's total coincidence but I've got about five distinct clues from five different things leading me in the same different direction and they're all just sort of synergistically pulling me and every time I think about it I have these feelings of urgency and and and a desire to move in that direction my thought would be that's the Holy Spirit leading you remember the Holy Spirit is never gonna push you though well unless you know your st. Paul and this is an emergency only note no no pushing just pulling or just leading or just yeah yeah pulling cajoling urging but never you know he's not gonna push you into something so he's always gonna leave you free and you have to remember that he's always gonna leave you sufficiently free so what does he have to do he's got to give you clues right so if he comes past you and Skye writes you know you know Joe do this you know and you go oh man that that's a miracle I better do that you know cuz that's God's will he's not going to do that to you so the minute what you got to do is you gotta as I say look for the clues and remember there's two kinds of clues you have to discern there's the exterior clues that I call the conspiracy of divine providence there's the interior clues these are the feelings of desire the feelings of consolation the feelings of energy and urgency you know kind of you know leading me you know but not pushing me but drawing me in in a particular direction and when you have a confluence of the exterior clues and the interior clues then you don't say I'm certain that this is God's will because it still could be the most fantastic coincidence in the world so the the second thing you have to do says st. Ignatius because once you've got the confluence of the interior exterior clues you have to take an action so he says ok go to where you're being drawn go to where the synergy of the clues is leading take that action and go through the door and when you go through the door just try to live that decision or that theology or that new you know opportunity that you're seizing right try to live that for at least six weeks right now I don't make a decision immediately then go to the third step and the third step is take a look at trust hope and love in your life see you got to start after you've taken this action or just evaluate am i trusting God more or am i fearing God's wrath more am i trusting him less mmm-hmm am i hoping in my salvation more or am i hoping in my salvation less am i do I find it easy to be charitable and to be loving or do I find it much more difficult am I more irritated and bitter and and impatient and unkind is that coming up within me so you got a test out the faith the hope and the love the trust the hoping the love and and if it's if you're doing well in all three categories my thought is just keep going with that action you are absolutely being led by the holy spirit and you're doing you know you're doing the Willing it's your free choice you're following the clues you're testing the spirits you're the guy you're free the Holy Spirit's leading you but you're responding very prudentially you're responding with great discernment and the Ignatius would say keep following that course however if you find that there's a decrease in trust in God a decrease in hope in your salvation or it's much more difficult to love right instead of love being patient I'm impatient love being kind I'm unkind love being merciful I'm unmerciful I mean I'm being merciful i'm unmerciful love being right now you know not growing angry I'm angry I love not being boats well I'm boastful then you there's a problem there's and then Ignatius says you have to modify the course of action that you've taken because if those trends are you know in the long term that means you there's some something wrong with the decision may not mean that the decision is totally wrong but it means that some part of it has to be modified or adjusted so that would be the the three-step process but remember those two sets of clues you know right I'm telling you when you're in that conspiracy of divine providence clues are coming they won't force you but they'll it will be wrong you'll see them they and it's the synergy it's that that's the clues all kind of stacking up and leading to a particular conclusion and then a new desire kind of being when you're in building life but you're drawn to something which is what we have to pay attention and be able to you know waiting on the Lord in the appropriate way to understand what's going on but not holding back from an action you indicated but you also say in the book here objective evidence can only support the likelihood that Jesus is the unconditional love of God with us and the likelihood that his revelation of his father's unconditional love is true and then you say on the next page rational deliberation can be so engaging that we can overdo it too therefore we must be on a look after the temptation to achieve unachievable perfect certitude yeah yeah and I think this is one of the huge problems of you know kids who are agnostics today you know for you know let's face facts you can find somebody who's gonna criticize the Shroud of Turin you can find somebody who's going to criticize near-death experience I don't know after a while how you can do this when 80% of blind people see during a near-death experience you don't think there's you have a soul independent of your body that survived your bodily death I don't get it you know but anyway there's you can find the reason somebody's going to say a reason on Google somebody you know you could continuously come up and some of these things that people come up with you know are just like you know like do you really think that this is a reasonable objection after a while you know but they're worried right because they they're looking for absolute certitude so any little teeny thing that you know kind of catches them off guard they get all you know and so you know John Henry Newman anticipated there's a you know a hundred years ago he says look look Jesus you're not gonna get perfect surgery don't try it if you try that you're gonna get in trouble instead go with the preponderance of evidence go with the Scriptures you know well you know there's something about that the truthfulness of the Scriptures where they're not actually trying to sell you anything listen to me when I was a kid that meant something to me because everybody was trying to sell me something and put the scriptures that gave me the truth they said hey this is gonna be a tough path there's gonna involve the cross and I'm going these guys are bad salesmen they're telling me all this stuff why would they do this if all they wanted to do was make a convert out of me and get clicked into me I thought you know they're telling me stuff for my own good they're telling me about the evil spirit for my own good they're telling me I could make a horrible choice and it's life for my own good they're not trying to make a convert they're trying to make a convert they would have come out with a gospel of prosperity but they didn't and of course they're so subdued about the miracles they're so subdued about the moral teaching of Christ in the one hand and always linking it back to the egocentricity and the Beatitudes on the other it's so incredible there's something so perfect about the way those scriptures are written when I was a kid you know I'm a very suspicious kid in college you know I have to say I just wouldn't be oh my gosh I really think these guys are telling me the truth if you combine that if you combine you know the evidence if you combine the near-death experience have it if you combine the wonderful studies that are being done on the trans mentality of the soul and self consciousness and girdles proof if that kind of stuff is is your kind of thing if you look at the new proofs for the existence of God if you look at empty rights you know new historical you know evidence you know for the resurrection and and you know especially you know in that great book the resurrection of the Son of God if you start looking at the proof of Jesus's miracles in John P Mark you know at the end of the day you put it all together and even though you know some you're gonna read something it's gonna throw some unexpected slant onto something and you might have some doubt you'll find just just be patient no panic because there's twenty other things but it's supporting the faith in the same way synergistically in the same direction but at the end of the day you're never going to get perfect certitude don't look for it because you have to make a choice of the heart and we're right back to the condition of human freedom once again God is not going to give you perfect certitude he's going to always make it so that there could always be some little and some little thing that you'll find and you're gonna have to at the end of the day say do I want to believe in the Lord and secondly do I want do I need the Lord in my life and do I want to follow his teachings about love and moral conversion do I want this that's a heart right that's a do I desire this right do I desire you know God do I need God do I want to follow God I'm gonna have to make that decision and then I'm telling you when you do make that decision don't worry because the minute you make that decision you're gonna get so much internal proof of God's existence you know it's gonna put the Shroud of Turin it's gonna put you know the near-death experiencers go to put the philosophical proofs it's gonna put the new physics evidence for God it's going to put it all to shame in a sense because the internal stuff is God's own communication with you you're gonna know I mean it's like you're in communication with God you know and and that's going to build up your certitude as well and so again it's it's at the end of the day it's gonna require a movement of the heart it's gonna just you know a decision a free decision on your part and then when you combine that free decision with the evidence don't worry the certitude will grow throughout your life until like the Saints you know God face-to-face mm-hmm let me ask you this question what does Archimedes have to do with our Holy Spirit well you know Archimedes has a you know a very interesting little part to play in telling us you know about the the serendipity of our subconscious minds and just recall for a moment our committees was you know really a mathematician philosopher you know who was known for his brilliance and and the king of Syracuse one day gives him the task you know he gives him a crown that's been given to him by you know another king of a foreign land and he says okay Archimedes this guy said this this crown was gold is it really gold and Archimedes goes no problem I'll just melt it down into a Pythagorean sphere we'll get the dimensions of that baby and I'll tell you in a second because I know how much gold weighs per cubic centimeter and I can find out the exact volume and he says no I'm Jeb melting the sphere wall melted into a Pythagorean cube no problem go take the diamond no no I want the crown hmm and he says well okay I got no solution yet for this so of course then he goes to the baths of Syracuse now the point of course is he's asking himself this question and when we relax you know the subconscious mind is analogous right it's got all kinds of analogies it's open to Clues right back to that word again back the clues of the conspiracy of divine providence and it's those clues right that we're open to in the subconscious it's looking for analogies and as you know and our committee sinks into the bathtub and the water uniformly goes up in the bathtub he recognizes that he can measure the uniform displacement of the water rising in the bathtub he can measure precisely and know the volume of the crown by the displacement of the water which he can now measure and that of course when he sees it he gets it in a subconscious mind first it's an analogy it's just a mere analogy but it's a solution to his problem he recognizes it goes down the streets of Athens naked screaming Eureka Eureka I have found it I have found it now we don't have to be eccentrics like Archimedes nevertheless you know right there you can see the power of the subconscious mind and does the Holy Spirit use us yes mm-hmm does the Holy Spirit absolutely use Clues and we're just sitting there you know collecting all these clues in our subconscious mind yes and don't do those clues all wind up kind of being you know marshaled into a kind of an intuition you know I think the Lord is leading me over here you don't say well that is probably a subconscious collection of a lot of clues that you've heard maybe from television programs from books from people from Wright insights that you've got yourselves and as I always say the 3:30 in the morning Bob Spitzer wake up call from God where all of a sudden you're sitting there and your bed I mean just really free the subconscious is just like totally available and then God just kind of comes in and goes consider this command Bam Bam Bam Bam Thanks that's exactly what I needed to do you know thank you Lord and of course at first you're kind of going grouchy you know don't wake me up now I'm sleeping just fine I don't want to think and then of course you know sooner or later you go all right Lord what are you telling me here and then he gives it to you so I mean all these things I'm telling you these happen all the time but your subconscious is assembling them so these intuitions you say oh I'm having an intuition I don't trust my intuition that's like saying I don't trust any of the clues that my entire subconscious mind has gotten from waking up at 3:30 in the morning from the books I've been reading from the TV I've been watching from the people I've been talking to or from my own interior feelings I'm just not gonna pay attention to any of the evidence that my subconscious mind because my subconscious mind accumulated it and I did not consciously know it that's called giving your subconscious creative subconscious a lobotomy which is well it's not a healthy practice intuition there's something to that right if you're intuiting that God's leading you somewhere believe me he might well be doing that and you know when you start looking at the evidence right just pull it apart a little bit you know why do I get this intuition was there anything happening where people saying it you know things to me and you'll see there's all kinds of little things well and of course it just do this presenter for sure because as you say with those promptings there's also promptings the potential of the prompting coming from the evil one is just said here which I thought was interesting too and I know we've talked about it on past shows and from past books that we've we've talked about but the idea where someone is it is told in a sense you need to do this faster you need to do more of this you need to get to the point as you described that maybe at the ultimate sense of becoming I'm the mouthpiece of God you know in this state spiritual ride and that's something people need to look out for as well right yeah absolutely and so you know again if you have an intuition and there's a real sense of peace accompanying the intuition that's a pretty good thing and plus if that intuition is leading you you know to toward some form of sanctity it's a very very good thing but the reason that st. Ignatius says at the end of the day test the trust hope and love at the end of the day is because the evil spirit sees he is already being defeated so right so the Holy Spirit's leading you into a place and you're basically following so you're gonna take a new path to life which is you know maybe gonna help a lot of people or you're taking a new path to life where you're going to get some interior purification and the evil one goes ah man he's under the spirit of under the power of the Holy Spirit I know what I'll do hmm I'm not gonna say don't do it mmm cuz he's already got the intuition to follow this decision follow this course of action or follow this insight so I know I'm just gonna push it every heresy is merely an exaggeration of the truth said Chesterton exactly every heresy is so the devil thing comes and says you know you've got a great idea about that interior purification you know you're so saintly right now I mean you're on such a great track you can defeat lust tomorrow you can do it I mean don't don't worry I mean and and by the way you could combine it up and defeat the power and the prejudice and the pride do I mean that's how good things are going for you I mean you're following the Holy Spirit and the next thing you know right you're into the mode of harder faster better more excuse me harder faster better more the miniature in that mode you're in the wrong mode right God is not interested in harder faster better more God is interested in making a saint in love right and he's got his timetable and his timetable can be much more patient than in any front and we can come up with and certainly that the devil will so for all intents and purposes when you hear those things going on you're probably moving down a bad course of action well if you're talking up I'm crazy about running out on the show where our timetable and I'm getting some gentle promptings from the control room that we have to wrap it up again for this week father Spitzer so if you say a blessing on our way out absolutely and me the blessing of Almighty God rest upon you and may the invocation and intercession of all of the Saints who we celebrate this day be upon you moving you towards sanctity moving you to deeper and deeper modes of love and the separation from ego that will ultimately be our salvation and our joy together may Almighty God bless you all father and Son and Holy Spirit amen amen god bless you we shall see you next week father Spitzer and we shall see all of you next week as we continue on in the next chapter next section of that particular book don't forget about the fact that we've got EWTN DVDs available with father Spitzer Emanuel the divinity of Jesus just one of many series he did for us EWTN RC calm and don't forget Mother Angelica we always prized her writings here Mother Angelica on prayer and living for the kingdom published proudly I could say by EWTN publishing also through religious catalogue and again as I said chapter tens next why the all loving God allows suffering a great question many people ask and we find out as we once again enter father Spitzer's universe join us again at the intersection of faith and reason where we meet each week at this time see you then [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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Length: 56min 16sec (3376 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 02 2017