"For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory!" - 1 - Fr Hayden

[Music] peace be with you dear brothers and sisters the lord following the divine mercy conference 2021 i still cherish the beautiful memories i had when i had the grace and the privilege to address your conference some years ago and also other moments where i had to come over to ireland to preach i still cherish a lot of my heart and my prayers the irish people the church in ireland even the irish nation even at the times the difficult times and changing times that you are going your own country this year's theme that we are going to reflect within the context also that what we're going through is for yours is the kingdom the power and the glory now and forever i would like to approach my inputs in this conference and through a threefold reality which is well known in the church an extreme which says this lex lex credenti lex vivend it means that the rule of prayer is the rule of faith which is the rule of life it means that there is a unity in our catholic life between what we pray what we believe and how we live so let's start with the first one what we are praying what we are saying for yours is the kingdom the power and the glory now and forever amen now this is the concluding part of the our father but if you go to your bibles you won't find it written there because in some earliest versions of the new testament this part is not present so in our english bibles we would find it sometimes in a footnote or you won't find it there at all but in the early church they had some manuscripts especially some writings which are still very also for the day one of the queen is called the other one is called the apostolic constitution where we find the prayer of the our father written there concluding with the very words that we're reflecting on for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory now and forever amen as catholics we pray this acclamation every time we celebrate the liturgy the eucharist where after the our father the priest prays a player of deliverance and then all of us acclaim for yours is the kingdom the power and the glory now and forever amen but you know that prayer is a beautiful echo of a prayer that david prayed in the old testament found in the first book of chronicles chapter 29 verses 10 to 13. let's read that prayer and if you have time go through it yourself and pray to yourself because it's beautiful it's what we call a doxology it's it's a prayer of praise towards the end of a prayer giving all the glory to god therefore david blessed the lord and the presence of all the assembly like we do when we pray this prayer and mass you know in the midst of the assembly and david said blessed are you o lord the god of israel our father forever and ever yours o lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in heavens and the earth is yours yours is the kingdom o lord and you are exalted as head above all both furnish this and honor come from you and you rule over all in your hand are power and might and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all and now we thank you our god and praise your glorious name so this kind of prayer for yours is the kingdom the power and the glory it's it's an affirmation on the faith in dialogue with god stating that he is in absolute control of everything that he is all in all all in all as paul would say in one of his letters so that is what we're praying we're praying to our father telling him father daddy we give you praise with thank you because everything you are everything you're in control of everything you feel everything everything is in your hands now that is the content of the prayer the laksa randy but what is the lex kardandi faith is this expressing because christian prayer expresses christian faith what we truly believe in now as i prayed for all of us for this conference now one of the things i felt very much my heart the lord emphasizing is that when we're praying this even in troubled times the troubled times we're living on our personal life troubled times we're living in the church troubled times we're living in the word the trouble that is coming through all this pandemic that the whole world is coming through of the covet 19. in all this what sense does it make what faith does it express when we're praying for yours as the kingdom the power and the glory that you're in absolute control lord now the very first thing we're claiming we're proclaiming is that jesus loves us is that the heavenly father loves us and this is a very great big affirmation of the faith when we go through difficult times but look at the story of lazarus in the new testament you know how do martha and mary identify lazarus he who is ill they don't identify him by his name when they go to jesus when they pray for him in john 11 3 martha and mary say lord he whom you love is this is definition of lazarus he whom you love ill is his condition he whom you love is his relationship with god in spite of his sickness you know and even in these times in spite of what we're going through we are the beloved of god he loves us we are his children he has died for us on the cross christ jesus he's resurrected for us and we have to believe this we have to affirm this we have to proclaim it to ourselves we have to continue to proclaim it in the church enter the word even though it could be a scandal for some claiming how can god love us when we're going through all this you know martha and mary could have been scandalized by the fact that they're asking jesus the one whom you love is ill and jesus doesn't turn up immediately do a miracle in fact john 11 5 emphasizes that jesus loved martha mary and lazarus the three of them just as much lazarus needed to be identified as the beloved one also martha and mary needed to be affirmed in god's life because they were praying they were interceding and jesus doesn't turn up so for lazarus it's as if he's leaving there to die and for martha mary says the prayers are not being heard so what does the gospel do in these difficult moments in the lives of this family god's love for them is being affirmed you know making an act of faith that i am loved by god the church is loved by god the word is loved by god my family is loved by god in the situation we're going through we are loved by god no we live by faith paul says and not by sight we live by what god has revealed not but whites not by what circumstances say in our lives and at this moment i invite you all to make this declaration of faith from the depths of your heart it's not just saying for yourself the power and the glory now and forever amen but let's translate this in god loves me even though i'm going what i'm going through in my life another affirmation and the content of the faith which is expressed in this prayer is that god will be glorified in and through the situations in the word the church in my life story even in difficult moments god will be glorified in them and through them this is a truth that is affirmed by scriptures john 11 4 jesus speaks about lazarus illness and that this illness does not lead to death it is for the glory of god so that the son of god may be glorified through it this illness does not lead to that but dancers dies so jesus is speaking on a different level that inn and true latter was that god will be glorified the son of god will be revealed jesus says this also about a blind man in john chapter nine verses one two three as he passed by he saw a blind man from birth and his disciples asked him rabbi who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind jesus answered it was not that this man sinned or his parents but that the works of god might be displayed in him you know this is what it means saying yours is the kingdom the power and the glory in difficult times that you can display lord your power your presence even in and through these difficult moments now even when the worst comes to the worst lord zarus dies god is still on the throne god is still in control god has not resigned he is still there he is still leading he is still churning with us he hasn't left us alone brothers and sisters you know the saints sorry the saints believed this even in their own difficult times saints lived no saint lived an ideal time in the order in the church but all of them believed all the better still they grew in the belief that like saint catherine of siena no she used to tell people who are scandalized and sometimes also rebelled against god by what happened to them listen to what catherine of siena used to tell them everything comes from love all is ordained for the salvation of men god does nothing without this goal in mind everything comes from love all is ordained for the salvation of man god does nothing without this goal in mind the problem with us when we don't agree with god is that we don't have the salvation of man and mind we don't have this as our goal sometimes we have our earthly realities as our goal and this could be also a temptation in the church sometimes no that we don't fix on eternal life but we just look on the realities here definitely we need to pull our socks and to work in this world and to bring god's kingdom in this world but you know it's always an eschatological tension we're oriented towards eternity and whatever god allows whatever god permits in our lives he has eternity in mind for you for the church and for the word for each and every one of us when we're saying yours is the kingdom the power and the glory we're believing all this you know it means that god is in absolute control evil doesn't have the final word listen to what the holy father seen john paul ii and never forget the beauty of john paul to his life his teachings whatever the lord did in and through him in our lives in his book and which is an interview memory and identity published sometime before he died he entered eternal life john paul ii says this the limit imposed upon evil of which man is both perpetrator and victim is ultimately divine mercy evil is not unlimited the last word the final word is the divine mercy of god because he is leading everything saint faustina also expresses this the faith in her diary in answering 4-3 she writes praise the lord my soul for everything and glorify his mercy for his goodness is without end everything will pass but his mercy is without limit or end and although evil will attain its measure in mercy there is no measure though evil will attain his measure in mercy there is no measure evil is limited god's mercy is unlimited that's what we're claiming saint augustine saint theologian bishop father of the church he says something which is very beautiful about all this he writes for almighty god because he is supremely good would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself hear it once again for almighty god because he is supremely good would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself beautiful what a strong affirmation of the omnipotence of god of the goodness of god in our lives even in the times of the pandemic of the times difficult times you might go through in the church and in the word you know sometimes we think that the omnipotence of god should always prevent bad things from happening in our personal lives in the lives of the church and in the world you know sometimes jesus does that in his omnipotence he prevents evil things from happening but sometimes his omnipotence is revealed not by preventing evil but by drawing good out of evil as it happened with himself on the cross the greatness the goodness and the effects of christ's crucifixion they outright know everything evil that jesus suffered god the father brought all the good good from the passion from the evil that jesus suffered and the greatest good is our salvation you know god told isaiah 55 my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are my ways your ways declares the lord you know sometimes you might not agree with god the way he does it his wisdom is very different from ours but in proclaiming that yours is the kingdom the power and the glory we should really allow god to be god even when we don't agree with him even when we don't understand it never put in doubt god's goodness and god's omnipotence because of our lack of understanding he is not limited by my knowledge by my wisdom he transcends its brothers and sisters and when we're praying this this is what we're truly believing now let me give you an example from the old testament from the history of israel how god can bring out a lot of good out of difficult periods which could belong in our lives you know that the people of god suffered what is known as the exile the babylonian exile which it was a long period a stretch period of years where they were despairs they didn't come together they couldn't go to to the temple they had no liturgy you know they missed the community they missed their traditions they missed the way of worship they missed everything because they were dispersed but it was a healing moment it was a moment of deep purification it was great pain great suffering but great purification preparing them for a new time of holiness in their life but why did the lord allow all that from what did he heal them and purify them he healed them and purified them from three major sins that the people of god had which can still characterize us and sometimes i wonder if the lord doesn't want to purify the church from these three sins also during this time of the pandemic that we're going through and these three sins were idolatry political alliance social injustice idolatry no idolatry it's not worshipping bowing in front of a crave image or stone the sun the moon the planet either it's in the bible it's deeper than that idolatry in the bible is what you create into your own image when you make yourself an idol why because we've been created in the image of god but then when we create other things in our own image then we make ourselves god and how do we do that now it could be your marriage you want your wife to become your own image you want your children to become your own needs you want them like you you could be a priest and you make your community an idol by making the community reflecting who you are and not who jesus is not who the trinity is we could make the church an idol how by creating a church to my liking by creating a church to my own ideas not to the ideas of god you know this is what the word does sometimes also some people in the world they want to create a challenge the way they want it they want to create institution of marriage the way they want it reflecting them and what god's plan you know and that's how we make the sometimes even the church or such beautiful things as marriage make them idols you know what you could make your ministry an idol by creating into your image not the way jesus wants it in you and through you but the way you want it it reflects you and not the lord that's where idolatry comes in and believe me you can find a lot of this idolatry even in the church and even in the world and we need to be purified from this you know political alliance what does that mean that they stopped trusting god and they started to trust the superpowers in their day and age mainly babylonian assyria when we stop trusting the lord and we find our strength and secular power and secular things when we trust others and we don't trust jesus in our lives no and the third sin was the sin of social injustice the neglect of the poor sometimes yes we can also have this globalized indifference in some aspects of christianity and then the word so who knows perhaps the lord wants to purify the church and the word from these three sins even in what we're going through we might not be looking it that way but god's wisdom it's not our wisdom so that was the content of what we pray so first we saw the prayer itself then the faith that is expressed in and through this prayer but what i would like to emphasize and insist most with you it's not the prayer itself it's not the content of the faith it expresses but it is how to live this deluxe what we believe in that prayer but now we come to the next vend how to live this in our daily lives you know which is the most beautiful part for me you know now and there is one way how to live this for yours is the kingdom the power and the glory now and forever and this is by living it in the power of the holy spirit saint seraphin of sarov used to emphasize know that the aim of christian life is the acquisition of the holy spirit christians live filled with the spirit of god even in troubled times we need to live them in the power of the holy spirit remember what paul says to timothy into timothy 1 7 for god gave us a spirit not of fear but of power when we are filled with the holy spirit we will not allow fear to control us even in difficult times in troubled times you know because fear paralyzes you the holy spirit mobilizes you now we have to see how we are reacting that we're living if we're truly praying for yours as the kingdom the power in the glory if we're truly believing whatever i said especially that when god allows evil he wants to draw good out of it then we shouldn't allow fear to paralyze us but allow the holy spirit to mobilize us to live these times in his power and in his strength and the first thing the holy spirit wants to mobilize is our eyes why the holy spirit wants us to fix our eyes on jesus in these times but to delve deeper a little bit into this i would like to to show a little bit how in a particular iran the church and the time of saint supreme when the word went through a plague one beautiful thing that he says that is an eye-opener for us now just for those who don't know about what is called saint cyprian's plague which was the epidemic taking place in his time he had nothing to do with it but it's called for him because it happens time it erupted in ethiopia around the easter of 250 then it reached rome the year after it spread to greece and then to syria and it remained there for roughly for about 20 years from 2508 to 270 a.d and the worst comes the worst in life apart from the epidemic they also there were three years of persecution in the church christians were being killed as masters they were dying because of the epidemic and at the same time they were being killed you know and this epidemic was much worse than what we're living nowadays you know the effects of it were devastating diarrhea vomiting fever deafness blindness paralysis of the legs and the feet swollen throats and blood filled the eyes while staining their mouths and about 5 000 people they were dying in this pandemic now cyprian saint cyprian of cartage was a bishop and he's one of the church fathers in the church he writes about the pandemic not just to write about it but to instruct how christians had to live the time of this plague and one thing that he emphasizes it is that christians were like the rest they lived the solidarity and suffering but there was one thing that make them distinct from the rest and it is this one thing that i want to come up to listen to old saint ciprian wrote in history it is on mortality many of us are dying in this mortality that is many of us are being freed from this world without any discrimination in the human race the just are dying with the unjust now troubles that the infirmity of these diseases carries off our people equally with pagans it troubles some that we have this mortality in common with others but what in this world do we do not have in common with others as long as this flesh in accordance with the law of our original birth still remains common to us as long as we are here in the world we are united with the human race in the equality of the flesh we are separated in spirits so listen to what's in supreme saying saying hi guys even though we are baptized even though we believe in god even though we are christians we although we are under the blood of christ even though we are filled with god in our lives we share this mortality with the rest the just i would adjust the believers die with the unbelievers the christians are with the pagans what distinguishes us from the rest is that we are separated in the spirit and this is what's beautiful this is what should be distinguishes us also at this moment christians can die in these difficult times like non-christians believers like non-believers but there is something that makes us different now once moses when he was speaking with god in exodus 33 16 he says something that really strikes my heart to show what makes us different as people of god and he says this for how shall it be known that i have found favor in your sight i and your people it is not in your going with us so that we are distinct i and your people from every other people on the face of the earth it is not you going with us that makes us distinct from any other people on earth so what makes us different is the presence of god in our lives that's why the author of the letter to the hebrews and we can say the holy spirit tells us that because he inspired the word of god fix your eyes on jesus keeping our eyes fixed on jesus brothers and sisters this is what distinguishes us first and foremost in troubled times that our hearts will remain fixed on the lord and not on the circumstances those who don't have faith those don't have god in the life they fixed on the circumstances first and foremost those who believe fix their eyes on jesus first and foremost let no body let nothing let no fear nothing fear tends to make us look and fix our eyes on circumstances and on our inabilities whereas the holy spirit helps us to fix our eyes on jesus and his ability and his love and his mercy towards us so don't allow anybody no circumstances no devil and evil spirit turn your eyes from the lord in difficult times that's how you live the proclamation and the prayer and the content of the faith for yours is the kingdom the power and the glory now and forever by remaining fixed on the lord your heart set apart your heart holy for jesus your eyes fixed on him brothers and sisters and especially this presence which is the real presence of christ in the eucharist john 6 55 says for my flesh is through food and my blood is through drink it's true john 6 55 jesus is really and truly presence in the eucharist you know my experience i had i was not a priest i was a young leader leading a charismatic prayer group once after an outreach we had in a church a young girl came over in the sacristry and asked me to prayed over her and an evil spirit started to manifest itself in her and she fell to the floor she was foaming swearing all sorts of bad and foul language coming out of her then i asked the parish priest to bring jesus and the eucharist from the tabernacle to the sacristy as we prayed over her and she didn't know nothing about this unless the preacher the priest was approaching the eucharist he was still in the church not even in the secrecy the devil started to scream from her saying these exact words they were maltese i would translate in english remove him whom you've got in your hands you know the devil didn't say it a host the devil said him a person a living person jesus once told saint faustina they treat him like a dead object well the davis doesn't treat jesus as that object in the eucharist he believed in his presence now and he reacts to him he doesn't treat jesus as that object but you know many times i go back to the experience and sometimes i wonder why the lord really allowed them to experience that it's as if he wants to keep remember that what the devil wants is that we remove christ he was saying those words to the priest remove him you've got in your hands he wants to remove the eucharist brothers and sisters from our own personal lives our faith in the eucharist so let's pay attention now in these times that sometimes we have to live through lockdowns etc and difficulties in celebrating the eucharist and attending not everywhere it depends the countries regulations etc but sometimes it seems it's fine to go to the supermarket but it's difficult to go to church whereas people are more responsible when they go to church then when they go to a supermarket because we christians would do things seriously when it comes to preserving the health of other people no but i will not enter in any controversy on that level but we should dialogue as much as possible not to be deprived of the celebration of the eucharist during the pandemic during these difficult moments we do it in dialogue in jealoutness but in persuasion also but when it is not possible i please invite you not to lose the desire not to lose the thirst for the eucharistic presence of jesus in our lives you know in psalm 42 verses 1 to 2 the psalmist prays as a deer yearns for flowing streams so i yearn to see the face of god i test for the living god when shall i see the face of god is when shall i see the face of god i learn i test to see this eucharistic face of god when when times will come back again no most probably the psalmist prayed this in the exile they couldn't see the face of god in the temple they couldn't worship in the temple and yet separated from the temple and the community they had to grow into this test could it be that is a time where some of us who are deprived from the eucharistic food we need to grow into this hunger into this terrorist before god moves mightily in a new way in the church first he creates hunger never forget that before god moves mightily in the church and in the world he first creates a hunger you know what jesus told once the apostles when they told him why your disciples they don't fast he doesn't when the bridegroom is with them they don't have but when he's taken away they will fast for us the bridegroom the eucharistic christ has been taken away we need this fast why we need to hunger we need to hunger that's a divine inspired hunger which is a preparation for something greater that the lord wants to do would you say an amen to that would you believe it don't look things as the word looks at them but what god would be doing in silence in the depths of our hearts may his hung this hunger for god grow ever and ever more but from also keeping our eyes fixed on the eucharistic presence of jesus we also need to fix our eyes in troubled times in the indwelling presence of christ just as much as in john 6 55 jesus says my flesh is true food my blood is to drink the next verse john 6 56 he says whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and i in him so from the eucharistic presence we need to go to the indwelling presence of jesus now there's a saint whom we love at whom you know that describes this very beautiful saint faustina number three bonnie's of her diary listen and enjoy hearing it and taste it and cherish it i often feel god's presence after holy communion in a special way and in a tangible way i know god is in my heart and the fact that i feel him in my heart does not interfere with my duties even when i am dealing with very important matters which require attention i do not lose the presence of god in my soul and i am closely united with him with him i go to work with him i go for recreation with him i suffer with him i rejoice i live in him and he in me i am never alone because he is my constant companion he is present to me every moment our intimacy is very close through a union of blood and of life our intimacy is where he is very close to a union of blood end of life now see faustina grew in her intimacy with the lord and from this eucharistic presence she discovered this indwelling presence of god in her life and whatever she lived throughout the day she lived it in his presence please brothers and sisters in the lord live in the presence of god let no pain let no suffering let nothing deprive your consciousness your awareness from the presence of god in ourselves in our hearts in our spirits you know we have to go from the eucharist to the trinity that dwells within us and even if sometimes we are deprived from the eucharistic food we could never be deprived from the trinity that lives within us and in these moments some of us perhaps need to discover as they long for the eucharistic food they need to discover even more the indwelling presence of the trinity so that we can always live in the presence of god those who don't believe won't live like that those who don't give glory to god those who don't believe that the power belongs to god that the kingdom belongs to god but where is this king in the power and glory luke 17 says the kingdom of god is within you this is the kingdom of god the presence of god is deep within us can you make this act of faith can you take a decision in this conference to fix your eyes on the indwelling presence of christ with the father and the holy spirit within you and not allow the waves of the storm to disturb you and who is this one who lives in you remember what john says in one of his letters he was in you is greater than he was outside of you in the word saint angelo falinio once she heard god thing god telling her i want to show you something of my power and listen what saint angela felinio a 13th century lay franciscan mystic wrote and immediately the eyes of my soul were opened and in a vision i beheld the fullness of god in which i beheld and comprehended the whole of creation that is what is on the side and what is beyond the sea the abbas the sea itself and everything else and in everything that i saw i could perceive nothing except the presence of the power of god and in a manner totally indescribable and my soul in an excess of wonder cried out the word is pregnant with god the word is pregnant with god you know this is the god who dwells in you is the god who dwells in the whole world let nothing no pain no suffering no pandemic no situations in the church and in the word in your personal life take away your eyes from this god who is present in the word the word is pregnant with him you know god fills the word as the orthodox they like to pray to the holy spirit he who he who fills the word they call taking run book of wisdom he fills the word no you need extra eyes to see that you need a mariah scan of the word to see it perhaps only those who have a clean heart can see god only those who are filled with the presence of the spirit in their hearts can see god in this way in the word that's why in difficult times we need our interior life to be stronger to remain fixed on jesus so that our eyes will remain fixed on him brothers and sisters we need this clean heart that we might see god well unbelievers won't tell you that sometimes even in the church some people could be more interested in doing other things than contemplating them being fixed fixing your eyes on the lord but this is what's the first thing if we proclaim yours is the kingdom yours is the power yours is the glory we need to fix our eyes on him and in practice what does that mean it means speaking to him living with him having a constant dialogue with him i know if you ever heard of brother lawrence of the resurrection some of his sayings and writings have been published into a very beautiful book called the practice of the presence of god and listen to what he says the holiest most ordinary and most necessary practice of the spiritual life is that of the presence of god it is to take the light in and become accustomed to his divine company speaking humbly and conversing lovingly with him all the time at every moment without root or measure especially in times of temptation suffering aridity weirdness even infidelity and sin living in the presence of god continuously especially in quote in times of temptation suffering aridity weariness even infidelity and sin you know it reminds me of what paul says nothing can separate us from the love of god nothing can separate us no pandemic no persecution no confusion in the church in the family in the world can separate us from the love of christ if we remain fixing our eyes completely on him if our hearts are completely in love with him if our hearts are devoted completely to him if we continue to love him with an undying love as paul says concluding to the letter of to ephesians no at this moment we need brothers and sisters this is what distinguishes us from the rest when we live in the spirit our eyes are fixed on the lord and we become recognizable recognizable in this weather you remember when peter and john were arrested after pentecost listen to what acts 4 13 says now when they saw the boldness of peter and john and perceived that they were an educated common man they were astonished and they recognized that they had been with jesus you know people with whom do they recognize us what gun do they associate us nowadays as christians with what institutions do they associate us we have to be associated with jesus and then even in the midst of difficult times it is like this that jesus will be glorified like this that jesus will be revealed to the word if we his disciples we are identified with him if our hearts cling to him if no matter what you will continue to fix your eyes on him that's the first way of the lex vivendi how we are called to live in travel times proclaiming for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory now and forever amen in my next teaching i will continue to share other aspects how to live in concrete ways in in this this prayer whereby we give glory to god in such a way that really it's not only we pray it not only we confess it but also we live it god bless you see you for the next talk you

Channel: Fr Hayden

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Length: 44min 37sec (2677 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 20 2021