Fr. Michael Gaitley, MIC Discerning the Spirit: Now is the Time for Mercy

you you I am really excited about our keynote speaker tonight if you've never heard of father Michael Gately tonight you will I he's a holy man of God a priest obviously but he recently a few years ago wrote a devotional consoling the Heart of Jesus and then he wrote thirty three days to morning glory consecration to Mary which interestingly enough at a time in my life where I was really struggling and a part of my faith and having a lot of questions about the Blessed Virgin Mary I happened to pawn this book and in faith opened it up and prayed it for 33 days and it changed my life and so I'm honored tonight to welcome father Michael Gately let thank you there we go after all that sing I feel like we don't need to pray but let's let's pray anyway in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen Saint Joseph the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen all right with the show of hands can I see how many people is this your first time here for this conference holy Toledo okay Wow all right me too this is my first time any of the stupid conferences so this is very exciting for me especially because I was a student here so yeah yeah I remember I graduated right this is probably the same stage I'm not going to tell you how long ago but is a incredible joy to be here singing the praise to the Lord remembering all the blessings I'm sure a lot of us feel the same way you know it's a great way to begin this conference of if we've had problems at the home or problems on our minds we do some praise and worship of the Lord and it's arms it seems to melt away doesn't it so what I'd like to do is you know in that spirit I want to give I'm going to tell a story which I apologize if any of you have heard this story already if you have it's a Friday it's a First Friday and you can offer it up for everybody else here but I can't not tell these stories because so many of them took place right here so if you've heard him already like I said offered up but I hope I hope it will be a blessing for you at least that the Holy Spirit will have something for us in it now before I begin giving a testimony and telling those stories I'd like to first introduce the theme of the talk by reading a quote from Pope Francis that he gave last year to the priests of the Diocese of Rome and it's probably my favorite quote that I've ever heard from any Pope even as this one in any Pope it's a remarkable remarkable statement and words that we could listen to with a spirit of faith and I think you'll understand when I read the first lines of why I think it's so fitting for this conference to the priests of the Diocese of Rome at the beginning of last year Pope Francis said listen to the voice of the Spirit listen to the voice of the Spirit that speaks to the whole church in this our time which is in fact the time of Mercy I am certain of this we have been living in the time of Mercy for 30 or more years up to now it is the time of Mercy in the whole church it was instituted by st. John Paul the second he had the intuition that this was the time of Mercy we think of the beatification and canonization of Sister Faustina Kowalska and then he introduced the feast of divine mercy Sunday he moved slowly slowly and went ahead with this and then he goes on to give a quote from the homily of canonization for Saint Faustina in the year 2000 that talks about how now is the time of Mercy and then he goes on it is clear that now is the time of Mercy it was explicit in the year 2000 but it was something that had been maturing in John Paul's heart for some time he had this intuition in his prayer today we forget everything so easily also the Magisterium of the church it is inevitable in part but we cannot forget the great contents the great intuitions and the consignment left to the people of God and that of the Divine Mercy is one of these it is a consignment that John Paul gave us but which comes from on high it is up to us as ministers of the church to keep alive this message now what's the message that it's the task of these ministers of the church that he's preaching to at the beginning is actually the beginning of Lent what's the message that they're to keep alive actually as you may have the time yeah there you go you got it what time is it but there we go good you guys are good did you hear this talk before most people think of the time and I say no right but it is the time of mercy and Pope Francis all those this doesn't apply to you guys today we forget everything so hastily right we forget this great intuition the great consignments that God has given to us in our day and that is the proclamation that now is the time of Mercy what is the Spirit saying at the beginning of his of his address he says listen to the voice of the Spirit and when we listen to the voice of the Spirit for today what is he saying what time is it now is the time of Mercy that is incredible incredible news incredibly good news that should fill us with tremendous hope but what does that mean that now is the time of Mercy I think the key to understanding what the time of Mercy means is what we read Romans five verse 20 or said worse where sin abounded grace abounded all the more in other words in a time of great evil God wants to give even greater Grace's and part of the intuition of John Paul the second was that while there's many blessings in our modern world evil has a reach in our day unlike any other time in the history of the church that now is a time of unprecedented evil but that shouldn't depress us because we're sin abounded grace abounded all the more and in a time of unprecedented evil God wants to give unprecedented grace and that's why now is the time of mercy another reason now is the time of mercy is because last century John Paul called it the century of Tears was the bloodiest century in human history now that doesn't seem very hopeful does it except when we remember the famous words of Tertullian I studied here but I can't pronounce his name the early church father who said the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church we got the program statue of Our Lady of Fatima in the back the last apparition of Fatima that was revealed in the year 2000 or an apparition or a word from Fatima that was revealed like late it gives a vision of a pope right and he's shot and he dies this net but there's also these angels remember what the angels are doing they have they have those I should know this because I'm a priest but those things that they use to sprinkle people right a spare gems or something that's what it is okay you you can announce it after worship I can't pronounce it okay but they've got those sprinkly things and but what are they sprinkling water no blood they're taking the blood of the martyrs and they're sprinkling on us this is the time of Mercy that the blood of the martyrs of the last century is the seed of this time of mercy in the church this time of great and extraordinary grace the blood of your watching the on the news and we hear about Isis we hear of all the terrorism and the Christians being beheaded and all these things that makes us want to turn the channel so that we don't despair so that we get angry but there's actually hoping that because the blood of the martyrs is a seat of the church the blood of the martyrs is the seed of this time of Mercy which is really exploding right now what is the spirit saying to the church now is the time of Mercy right now this is something that John Paul the great received as an intuition in his prayer and Pope Francis is taking it up so much that what's going to begin on December 8th this year the Jubilee year of Mercy I mean he cousin and stop talking about mercy why because the Holy Spirit is saying it over and over again when the Pope's are saying something over and over and over again we know this is not just the voice of the Pope this is the voice of the Holy Spirit now is the time of Mercy and that's great news in a certain sense I would say even the Saints who've gone before us in heaven they look at us with a holy envy why because they look and they say man I wish I lived in that time because it's easier than ever before to become a saint God is giving so many graces so many blessings and this time of mercy but that could sound a bit too good to be true that can sound like slick talk and a PR move on the part of the church to keep us from getting depressed right say is that really true it is true and what I want to do is give a testimony to show that now really is the time of Mercy it's not too good to be true it is true all right so without any further ado I'm going to give testimony showing how I discovered this really is a time of grace and mercy extraordinary grace and mercy and how I discovered it in some of the ways we can tap into these Grace's okay so you with me all right so I guess there was some ado but now no without any further ado the testimony begins in Southern California where I'm from I grew up in Orange County California to a family where we were Catholic a name but pagan and practice who could I mean by that is nobody practiced the faith except me when I was in high school I started riding my bike to mass I think my junior or senior year in high school no reason I did this because I wanted to be a professional beach volleyball player which makes perfect sense right well the idea with that was that I actually I played on this elite club team in Hyden Beach California two of the guys on my club team actually went on to win the gold medal in Beijing it was you know these elite volleyball players the only problem was I was the shortest guy in the team and I wanted to be pro a lot of them went on to play professional but in order to be Pro Beach I knew I had to be at least six feet tall I was five foot ten and a half I'm still 510 and a half so I didn't get the miracle but I thought I'll go to Mass and that way I could get the miracle that was that was the only reason I went to Mass and it was to play beach pro beach volleyball to live a very hedonistic sinful beach lifestyle so is all backwards well somebody in my family eventually that she had a real conversion that was my mom and what happened was there's this amazing parish in LA County in fact the area that had the worst gang violence of anywhere in LA and in this little parish my mom discovered a diamond in the rough where these priests there were just on fire a friend of my mom's invited to go the parish she went she listened the priest she caught the fire she came home she's begged my brother and I to go with her we said mom we're not going out there we're gonna get shot but she's like this come and a miracle happened we went to Mass with her and sure enough the fire in these priests really was really got my brother and I as well we started going again but I remember that first day that I heard one of the priests speak I went to speak to him after Mass I said father that was great homily and ever we were chit-chatting he said hey have you been confirmed you know I was about 18 years old senior in high school I said no I dropped out a confirmation father was too boring he said I'll tell you what you meet with me every other week I'll give you books to read and you confirm with the rest of the students in the spring it's okay so I was reading these books that he would give me and they were about you know lives of the faint saints theology all these things really set a fire in my heart I said this is awesome our faith is true our faith is beautiful I want more of this and the free saw this this fire growing on my heart and he he popped the question he said hey father Michael or not father Michael then that's what he was thinking though because he said he said Michael you ever think that maybe you like this theology stuff I said yeah this is awesome did he ever think God might be calling you to be a priest and I said no father I'm going to get married and I'm a raise a bunch of priests and nuns on top of it right so not quite knowing what to do with that logic you went to his plan B and his plan B I was a senior in high school he said where you going to college I said I'm going to UCLA I'm gonna play volleyball he said want you should go to Steubenville I said stupid ville I'm not going to still go I'm going to UCLA and he said well you should think about it and I think he gave up well because I was getting confirmed I had a confirmation sponsor his name was Ed I said hey listen his father thinks I should go to a stupid Ville he said no that's a good school in fact I'm going to say a novena to st. Therese at least you that you go there I said edy well why don't you just pray that I do God's will he said well it's God's will that you go there and that's what I'm going to pray so I was like okay well in the meantime while he was praying this novena to st. Trezevant ECU I just happened to get a tape back then there were tapes not CDs and it was a tape about the powerful intercession of Saint Teresa bleats you and how she said after her death she would send down a shower of roses and there's all these stories about people would get different color roses to help make different decisions in their life I thought was the weirdest thing in the world but it also seemed kind of cool so I said I'm gonna try this out so I said okay st. Torres you know my friends praying this novena if God wants me to go to UCLA now in a red rose if he wants me to go to Steubenville then I want a yellow rose because yellow rose they're less common right and I said if I don't get any rose I'm going to Steubenville I mean I'm going to UCLA right so I stacked the deck right it was perfect except the last laugh was on me because I got a whole slew of yellow roses I don't have to tell ya I think thank st. Torres thanks a lot all right so you're clapping now I can't get into the details of it but I wasn't ready to clap at the time I was actually kind of ticked because I wanted to stay in California and I wasn't happy about having to go too stupid but I thought man if she sends roses and I don't keep my end of the bargain she's going to send lightning bolts and I'm going to get destroyed so I'm going to go to Stewartville but I was not happy about it I was angry about it but I went I kept my end of the bargain I got on campus and soon after I arrived on the campus my attitude began to change but the main reason for that is as I was walking around the campus I soon discovered that there was a three-to-one girl-to-guy ratio I don't know if it's still like that but back then it was awesome and so on that part of it I was a happy camper and I also realized it was a pretty cool thing to be from Southern California and say you know hi my name is Mikey don't worry from Southern California Southern California and ice would get all big do you know any movie stars well you know and so it was was a really great semester of that first semester at least the beginning of it but there was something else where I started getting very depressed that first semester the reason I was getting depressed goes back to the parish priests at my home parish those parish priests memory said they would really run fire and what the main theme of all their homilies was basically that the meaning of life is to be a saint you know it's like the Second Vatican Council the universal call to holiness but they would make it concrete and real by talking about like a saint even if it wasn't the Saints feast day they would be coming up with some story of a saint that was just like awesome and so I was sitting there you know as an 18 year old I was like okay I'm good in volleyball I'm gonna surfing I'm going to school I'll apply myself I'll become a saint why not that's the meaning of life right because they were always saying you know it's like a French poet at the twilight of life there's only one tragedy not to have been a saint and I'm like okay sweet let's become Saints why not the only problem is when I got here to Steubenville and I saw these students walking around praying the rosary for fun going around doing all these penances like eating glass and then smile I said man these are the kids they're going to become Saints I am NOT you know I grew up in Southern California my conversion was rather late I had a lot to go I was looking at these students they're so open and and mic happy and joyful and I was so cynical and and jaded and brooding and you know and and I was just like I can't be like these kids like what planet did they come from and I started getting like more and more depressed because I thought I was going to miss the boat on the most important thing which is to become a saint and I was just like had a holy jealousy of them I was like dang they're so awesome and I'm just like a mess well that first semester one of my friends came up to me and he shoved this book in my faith he said Gately you got to read this thing and he kept shoving at my face I was like man have time to read anything he was persistent I grabbed the book I said I took it back to my dorm room I threw all the books down that book fell on its face and on the back there was a line that really caught my attention the book was called true devotion to Mary by Saint Louie de Montfort and I said that according to st. Louie van for a total consecration to Jesus through Mary is the quickest easiest surest and most perfect way to become a saint but quickest easiest I was like yes so I said man this is what I need so I took that book I read it like in a day and a half and it recommended doing a 33 day preparation for Marian consecration I did the 33 days it was all these prayers I was a hard for me but I got through it December 8th my freshman year i consecrate myself totally Jesus through Mary and everything changed it was awesome I stopped chasing all the girls around campus I slept a lot of the social scene and I started thinking about a vocation and so I went into what I call Monk mode which means basically I would just study all the time go to the chapel all the time and in praying and I could do that because after the consecration I felt this closeness of the Blessed Mother that made me be like okay she's the most beautiful woman of all I can I can do this priesthood thing maybe if this is what God wants all right well that same semester there was this other guy he had just come to Steubenville his name is Mario you just come out of the Special Forces of the US Marines that was his first semester he had just done the consecration I said you love Mary he's like yeah is I said you want Mira I'm like yeah I was like okay let's be roommates he's like yeah okay so we when we we became roommates the following semester we started what we call Mary's Marines and that meant the alarm clock would go off we jump out of bed hit the alarm clock through an image of blood in front of an image of blood Our Lady of Guadalupe we'd renew our consecration every more every morning but most of all we help each other to avoid all the landmines on campus all the beautiful holy girls right because Morial felt like he was called to be a priest too and we were just like okay we just got through three and a half more years we can do this right we'd encourage each other and help each other we listen to a lot of Bob Marley music especially especially the song no woman no cry we were like yeah we could do this and so everything was going great that for that second semester Mary's Marines monk mode it was great the only fit problem is that we started hearing all this chatter from a lot of the guys on campus about this new foreign exchange student who just arrived that semester and her name was blonde sorry for those you guys heard this story right so we're here in blonde is a Blanc Blanc Blanc much like you know this beautiful girl we're like whatever I don't need no blonde I got the Blessed Mother I'm in Mary's Marines I'm gonna be a priest whatever so one day I went to the cafeteria right here on campus and I bumped into Bush and I forgot all about monk mode I walked right up to her and I said hi blush my name is Michael Gately and I'm from Southern California so of course she was very impressed with that and we got to talking but after a couple of minutes she had this beautiful blue eyes this beautiful French accent she was gorgeous girl like just radiant holiness and I was like man Mike she's too far out of your league forget about it so I said goodbye to blah blah right and and that was that so one awesome thing about that first that second semester was I landed a job on the best place in the whole campus the best job on campus guess where it was right here at the Finnegan Fieldhouse the athletic facility and the cool thing about the job was I would start really early in the morning before any of the other students would come in because they be like praying all night or something and I would be like up there in the front desk signing people in but nobody would come in real early in the morning like 6:00 a.m. so I'm reading and studying and praying and getting paid to live in monk mode was awesome well one of the first people to come in that morning was blonde one morning was blush and I so I'm signing her and she's like oh did you have breakfast yet I said no I'll get breakfast later she's like oh okay she goes in and does her workout next week same time same place oh did you have breakfast yeah I said I'll get some breakfast later she pulls out a brown bag and she says I made you breakfast I said well exactly just like that and I said I said oh oh and if she likes me I'm like nah she's just one of those nice Steubenville girls having mercy on people she doing the works of mercy feeding the hungry and whatnot so next week same time same place same conversation yo GI breakfast yet no and she pulls out the brown bag and I'm like she's just being nice well a week or two later I rented a blush on campus she said Michael can I meet with you I said sure we go and sit down right in the pub area here I used to call the pub maybe not they don't sell beer don't worry but maybe they do now okay that's good all right but we sat down and there they called the pub when you sit down there and she's like I go I just want to tell you I can't I can't eat I can't sleep and I can't concentrate my classes because I'm in love with you and I was like yes I was like okay blush let's take it slow right like what is it about these French women and so we did Steubenville version of dating so we walked around the campus we'd go to the port junk Allah and pray the rosary I think we'd walk around we held hands once I was getting pretty serious and so that was the that was the dating with Blanche thing and here and everything was going great except the Lord was still tugging on my heart what about that priesthood thing and my roommate Morial I mean it was great he was just like all right if you don't have to be a priest I don't so he's running around campus whoa so one day blush and a bunch of her friends came up to my roommate Morial and I she says oh Michael we want to invite you guys we're going to go to Spring Break to Florida would you guys like to come with us and we're like yes but then Morrill reminded me we had just been invited to go on to come and see visit to visit a religious community in Boston so we're like okay let's see sunny Florida with a bunch of beautiful girls or a freezing-cold Boston with a bunch of priests hmm but we said okay wait we were Mary's Marines still we got to give Mary a chance and so we did what Mother Teresa calls a flying novena you guys know that's where you pray nine-member Ari's in a row right you know that prayer remember almost gracious Virgin Mary that never wasn't known so he prayed nine of those in a row and we said okay Mary if you want us to go to freezing-cold Boston with these priests instead of nice Florida for they have this break that which we deserve then have them have the guy tell us when we asked them how much is going to cost for everything have them tell us is going to cost between 60 65 bucks otherwise we're going to Florida so we called up the guy's name was Danny today and how much it cost for more line to go on this trip he said say gas food everything I say 60 63 bucks so Boylan and I went to Boston right and while I was there on that retreat the Lord really confirmed the vocation he made it very clear was very beautiful retreat I said okay all right I'll be a priest I got back to campus blush and her friends came back she was even more beautiful before I'll suntan and happy and everything I said blowing so we got to go talk we sat down in the International lounge which is in the JC and that we sat down and I said Blanche it will never never never never never never never work out between us because Jesus wants me to be a priest and I think she said I said but I'm going to say a novena I was very pious I said I'm going to say a novena that all the love you have for me will go to Jesus she's like okay whatever and that was that was that actually no that wasn't that because the next day she sent me a letter and it said dear Michael I think you made the right decision if Jesus wants you to be a priest I'll be the happiest woman on earth but the path you chose is not going to be easy so I'll be praying for you bye-bye blush so that was nice huh well the thing is she was right at the time I had a vision the priest is this long lonely miserable life I felt like I'd won the anti lottery like why do I have to be I don't have to be a priest all my friends you know this net and but I distracted myself because there was finals and papers coming up that semester then I went back home to Southern California for the summer I worked out and worked and did all that and you know was at the beach all summer so distracted myself but when I came back on campus you know I was all buffed out Sun Tan every I got all this attention from the girls again don't look like I look now but back then and I was like what was I thinking about this priesthood thing this is crazy look at these beautiful holy girls and so I was going back and forth of the vocation I went to Christ the King chapel just over there nobody else was in there and I was praying I was really struggling and a friend of this crew said well crucifix like this son I'm you know cross I was praying and I remember very clearly a great peace came over and I didn't hear with my ears but in my heart I felt like the Lord said Michael you can get married a very gentle words you can get married and you'll be very happy and if you choose that path I won't love you any less but I want you to be a priest will you quench my thirst for souls I remember when I heard those words in my heart so what came rushing my mind was all the blessings and gifts I'd received my friends my family be able to be here at Steubenville that the friends I was making here the the things I was learning I said Lord if I say no who would say yes fine I'll do it but I wasn't happy about it right but thankfully thankfully the next semester I was going to do student Hills Austria program we're like a hundred of the students of the main campus go into Austria I thought okay well that'll take my mind off this priestly stuff so I got to stew and then that would have been the best semester and it was a great semester except that one of the hundred students that went with me that semester was blush Oh as she started dating one of my best friends while we were there - oh poor me right so it was really tough and one day I remember I went to the chapel and I was praying very intensely I was very depressed I was very angry at the Lord like why are you making me become a priest why do I have to have this the priesthood by the way priestess is an awesome life his life of sacrifice right but it's a joyful beautiful wouldn't change it for anything but at the time I didn't understand that and I just looked at it was just going to be this forever lonely forever just miserable and I was thinking to myself like I'm too weak for this and I'm going to my mind and I was like why are you doing this to me and what came to my mind again was some words in Sacred Scripture my grace is enough for you right my grace is enough for you guys are going like yeah but at the time being the knucklehead from Southern California I was eyes like Lord it's not enough for me you said that the st. Paul but for me I feel like I need buckets of grace I need oceans of grace I need all this grace otherwise I don't think I could do this and I felt like the Lord said okay I was okay and so then I was like waiting for all these great Grace's to come and I think they came in the form of a pamphlet that somebody gave me that semester on the Divine Mercy message and devotion you guys have heard of the message of mine Mercy st. fusty and all that stuff right now st. Faustina was a mystic which kind of freaks people out sometimes probably not for this group right but because Jesus speaking to people probably won't worry you guys but a lot of people freaked out was a mustiness it was mystic but the idea is what is the message of divine mercy is that Jesus spoke to this nun reiterating some the heart of Sacred Scripture the heart of the Gospels which is mercy as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says the good news is God's mercy for sinners it's the heart of the gospel is that Jesus didn't come for the righteous he came for sinners like you and I that that Jesus is that God's love is like water that finds the lowest place the weakest place that mercy is another form of love when it encounters poverty weakness brokenness and sin that that is divine mercy that is the heart of the gospel that God doesn't love us because we're so good or funny or talented or wealthy or powerful or all the things that attract us to other people in the world that God loves us because we need his love God doesn't love us because we're so good but because he's so good and the more weak broken and sinful we are this is the scandal of the gospel the more weak broken and sinful we are the more his merciful love goes out to us this was the inside of Faustina this was the inside of torez of lys you as it says in the diary of st. Faustina Jesus said to her the greater the sinner the greater his right to my mercy and we need to hear that because we all have original sin an original sin we got the same problem Adam and Eve that out in the garden after they disobeyed God and then they heard him walking in the garden what do they do they jumped up into his arms and said merciful Father forgive us because we've sinned and they received his tender embrace of merciful love right Amen or oh my no it wasn't that they hid what do we do when our sins weigh heavily on us we hide or what do we do when we've done this or this we keep a distance she's going to love me so much I'm not going to praise them as much as I should here because I did this this and this maybe when we were singing things are coming your mind well it might be in a hypocrite because I did this this this I got this person I was impatient here no he wants you even more than his mercy is like water that finds the lowest place that's the heart of the gospel that's something that's so hard to get into our head sometimes that's why Jesus inspired st. Faustina to renew this message but also because we need it in this day more than any other in this time of mercy now again I was reading this as a you know I was really struggling with scrupulous 'ti at the time I was really depressed in my vocation but this was like oh my gosh this is awesome I can believe this I can handle this that God really loves me because I'm not as good as all these other students he loves them even more actually this is awesome but it seems too good to be true who's this Faustina anyway I mean she's just a blessed she wasn't even a saint at the time like who is this and so I decided I'm going to test this stuff out and I knew exactly I was going to test it out because in that pamphlet it said the second Sunday of Easter is Divine Mercy Sunday and Jesus said whatever you ask for on that day I will give to you he's like ah pour buckets and I mean I'm paraphrasing here but buckets and buckets of Graces on the whole world whatever you ask for I'm like okay let's see I'm going to test this out and so when Divine Mercy Sunday rolled around that semester I knew exactly what I was going to pray about and what I was going to pray for my target for the test is my dad because my dad had just been diagnosed with a very serious form of cancer he had virtually had no faith and he was in despair so all day long in Divine Mercy Sunday I was praying in the chaplet of divine mercy over and over and over again a prayer that Jesus taught Faustina all day long for my dad at the end of the day I called home to my mom I said hey mom how's it going she's like good good Michael you'll never guess what happened I said what she said your father went to confession I said what I said I got to see this to believe it so at the end of the semester I flew back home to California and sure enough for the first time since I was a little kid the whole family went to Mass together my mom my dad my sister my brother and I'm like oh this is awesome the only thing is right before Mass started my dad stands up goes the other side of the church and sits down and then mass begins that's kind of weird so after Mass I said hey Dad can I talk to you for a minute he's like sure I said dad it's great that you came to Mass with mom Joe and Heather and I but why didn't you sit with us what's up with that and he said alright Mike don't tell your mother this I said ok you see that picture over there I said yeah you see those rays I said yeah they're doing something to me yeah Lennie's like he said don't tell your mother as I won't tell her but he it was he was pointing to the image of divine mercy well so after that we all sat in the same side of the church every day well you know my dad would come up to me like he started have all these experiences of divine mercy one day you know a couple weeks later he's like Mike Mike I got to talk to you for a second here okay what's up dad my dad you know just real quick just some backer my dad's very salt of the earth truck to truck drivers sailor he's lots of colorful language not in church and I'm not gonna repeat it so don't worry but it's very interesting character so he drives a cement truck get starts really early in the morning he's like Mike Mike look I pulled him the job was the first one the job I got in my truck I stood those clouds they open up they're right in front my truck I got on the truck I still nose raised I tell you they're doing something to me I'm like wow that's great dad like oh my gosh i shouldn'ta prayed so hard mine has become a religious fanatic and I didn't tell him I prayed about all this Divine Mercy stuff but I mean it was just like more than I was like slow down Lord so I go back to Steubenville just wondering what's going on with my dad in the meantime my dad is still getting the treatment for the cancer nothing's really working he's got his surgeries and all these chemicals and all this so one day they're going to the doctor my mom and my dad my mom's our last name is Gately my dad likes to call my mom kate says i gay gay she's like yes Michael the cancer is not coming back she's like Oh Michael how do you know that he's I just know so they go in to the doctor and the doctor does only know all of his love things that he checks him up and he's like Mr Gatley the cancer is gone and yeah amen to that and I hadn't returned over 15 or 20 years or something but then amen to that too and then but pray for him because it did come back like three months ago but they are doing surgery and so we'll see so pray for my dad but the idea was my mom was like how did you Michael how did you know this eat and so he let the cat out of the bag he said when he was sitting in front of that image of divine mercy in church he said when I sit in front of that image I could feel the Rays warming the area of the cancer and I knew that I was healed this is a guy with like no faith and then he had faith but so my mom though when she heard that she was kind of ticked that because you know she's like because he'd been a real knucklehead growing up and she you know was really dedicated to rosary she's like that's not fair all these years I've been praying the rosary and I've been doing all this jesus never appeared to me but then I said I said mom are you upset that your husband was cured from cancer and came back to Jesus and she said she said well I know why he got all those Grace's I said why she said because and he'd you know get up really early in the morning she said every morning that'll look like two or three in the morning he said that alarm clock would go off every morning he'd hit that alarm clock he'd sit at the edge of the bed and the first words out of his mouth every morning were mercy so she said he's been praying that all these years but my dad I mean after that he just still in love with divine mercy so much so he wanted to get a tattoo of divine mercy I said dad will tattoo it on your heart right he's like no I'm gonna get tattoo so I was like I called home one day I said hey Dad how's it going he said I got pretty good pretty good I said what he been up to is that I started working out I said why are you working out he said because I'm preparing the canvas for my new tat so so yeah he's he's quite a character and divine mercy really loves that guy but the reason I tell that story was not just to tell jokes and things like that but because there's a very valuable important lesson there remember I was in that Chapel and I said Lord I feel like I need super grace and then I felt like it was coming in the form of this message of divine mercy but I wanted to test it out is it really too good to be true when I tested it out like I'm like okay and I prayed for my dad it was interesting because divine mercy even though I prayed for my dad it didn't go to the holy rollers in the family didn't go to my mom didn't go to my sister didn't go to me it went to the one who was the lost sheep in the family and that was like that it's true this teaching about God's love is true and I really was like okay I believe in God's love for me not because of what I've done or this but because of because I need his love and he knows that and the more weak broken and sinful we are and the more we recognize that as saint torres of lys you would say the more we're ready for the deepest outpourings of merciful love this is why saint Reza this you described her way little way is totally new not some new gospel but a totally new radical emphasis on trusting in the mercy of God to sanctify us because what is holiness but the love of God poured in our hearts and the more weak broken and sinful we are and the more we recognize that like like you know the publican in the in the church at Lourdes did Jesus you know have mercy on me the more mercy he can pour in there this is why st. - residence you said the Almighty has done great things for me and the greatest of which is to show me my wretchedness my weakness now is that something when we see our brokenness and our weakness that we get depressed about no not if we know His divine mercy not if we realize that it's our weakness brokenness and sin that attracts his love that he Stoops down and picks us up isn't that like isn't that what we do if there is like all these puppies in this room and they were jumping around with me like aw you know like in height you know elementary school there'd be a lot of oh right and the puppies would be all over but there if there was one that was you know getting bit by the other ones and things like that our hearts would go to that one with limping and sick and everything we'd want to take that one and pick it up that's how Jesus is that's the heart of the Good Shepherd will even leave behind the 99 to go in search of the one lost sheep that's the gospel that's the heart of the gospel that's the good news that Jesus loves us we know that up here but in this time of Mercy Jesus wants us to know it in here he wants us to experience that He loves us and the things that we think are obstacles for his love they're not look here's the idea this way I would describe it all this took place through that image of divine mercy right with my dad the image of divine mercy it's not one of those magic pictures that like you know you move it in an angle and it switches those rays aren't like a faucet that turns on and off like oh here you go you get mercy because you're good none for you and now okay first one for you it's not like that the Rays are always there there's a reason for that there's a reason he asked Faustina to paint that image because his love never changes his love for us never changes we may change we may turn our backs on that love but that love is always there for us when we're ready to turn away from sin even if we're having a hard time with it as soon as we're striving we turn to his love and try and give up sin in our lives that mercy is always there for us just as it's depicted in the image of divine mercy that's the good news that's the heart of the gospel that's the joy of the gospel as Pope Francis says what is the joy of the gospel it's the encounter with the mercy of Jesus father Nathan was saying in the beginning one of the themes of Pope Francis is saying over and over again about the gaze of the merciful gaze of Jesus how Jesus looks at us with love do you know about Pope Francis's conversion when he was like 17 he went to confession he came out of confession what was his experience Jesus looking at him with love do we let Jesus look at us with love it doesn't matter he looks at you like that anyway but do we know it do we believe it look at the image of divine mercy that is how he looks at each and every one of us and as Mother Teresa says sometimes the devil will use the hurts of life and sometimes our own mistakes to make us think that isn't impossible for Jesus to love us but she says it's so sad because it's just the opposite of what Jesus is really saying not only that he loves you but that he thirsts for you that he misses you when you don't come close Jesus is the one who always accepts you even when you don't accept yourself sometimes he is the one who always accepts you that's Mother Teresa and she says is a danger for all of us to doubt that love at times it's a danger for all of us but in this time of great mercy Jesus wants to remind us okay I'm running out of time so I want to finish up the story so that would have been enough for me that's where I got the message I'm like okay I believe that God loves for me I mean it's been a long process and it will be long process for all of us to get that truth in deeper and deeper and deeper into our hearts and let the joy flow out that comes the joy of the gospel from knowing that we're loved by Jesus and that we live under that gaze of love that merciful gaze of love and I was all-in I was like okay Jesus you did this for my dad and it doesn't always work that way right I mean people have you free will but in my case he pulled all the stops part of it so I could give a testimony of this but he always hears our prayers maybe not in the way that we expect but he always hears them and in his time but without what he did for my dad I said okay I'm all-in I'm going to I'm going in the seminary I'm not going to look back and I'm going to proclaim God's merciful love but the idea is this time of mercy the graces that are being offered are so great it's like more than we can ask for or imagine God gives more than what we asked for he wants to give more than we asked for and so the story continues I went back to Steubenville for my senior year a my senior year I got a phone call it was blonde blonde she graduated a year before me so I'm talking to her she's calling from her house in Paris I said hey belongs how's it going to go you know catching up a bit she says well I just I got to get going now but I just want to tell you next week I'm going to be entering the convent and I'm going to be giving my life and prayer for you to be a holy priest said everyday I'll be praying and sacrificing for all priests but specifically for you so give your all Mike and I said blush I'm going to work hard and I did I went into the seminary she went into the convent she became a sister Bernadette I went in the seminary became brother Michael and while I was there I worked my tail off a little bit too much because all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and the other seminarians or didn't like it so much because I was pretty intense and I was thinking about leaving the seminary one day one day I got a phone call from the founder out of the blue when I was having a hard time the founder of Sister Burnett's community there's like 300 nuns and all this and so I'm like why is this famous priest calling me they're like oh I said hello father he's like yes I use it a fake no I said hello he said Michael I said yes he said this father paul i said oh hello father he said i just want to tell you i have holy envy of you i said why he said because i've never seen a nun pray for someone as much as i see sister Bernadette pray for you I just wanted you to know that bye-bye there's a little bit more to it but that was the that was the essence of it now why do I tell that story that was because remember when I was in the chapel I said Lord I feel like I need buckets of grace I need super grace otherwise I don't feel like I can do this and he's like yeah you do you need lots of grace so he inspired this wonderful gal to enter in it to go into the convent and to pray for me so that I could have those graces but why because it's the time of mercy I asked for them and in his mercy and seeing that I needed he gave them and this was a real sacrifice for sister Bernadette so they were very high French society a friend of mine went to visit their house in the Beverly Hills of a Paris it was at the address he's like okay there's this house and then there's this Museum and then there's this house wait that's not a museum that's their house but sister Burnett gave up all of that she lives a life of simplicity and prayer and it's like holy Toledo that's what I call mercy for a lot for father Mychal that knucklehead from Southern California but what is the message now is the time of mercy now is a time of great and extraordinary grace God wants to pour out huge Grace's right now and his heart is broken according to st. Joe as in st. Faustina because he longs to pour out that mercy and there's nobody to receive it or there's few who will receive it they are nervous they don't want to get too close to and they're afraid what's it going to cost me this and that I think that the message here for this at least tonight they're saying father do you have a word for the crowd I think this is the word that there's that you here are a special special group that I think will be open to receive that rejected merciful love that others don't want I challenge you here to tell the Lord this night and throughout this weekend Lord give to me all of that rejected love that others don't want give me that ocean of Mercy that you longed to pour out in the world but that you find hearts that are not open to receive it give it to me now I would say to you if you start getting nervous I would say Jesus I trust in you what's that image on the bottom of the image divine mercy well this is what I always say the Lord said Lord make me no saint but please be gentle right you can do that and the other thing is there's an image of our there's the statue of Our Lady of Our Lady of fátima back there and I told this story about the consecration my freshman year and also I'll talk more about that in the talk tomorrow but the idea is a consecration of Jesus through Mary the quickest easiest way to holiness is another one of the great gifts that God is giving this time of mercy how many you guys have done the consecration okay if you haven't done the consecration do the consecration I hate to do book plugs and things but go get the book you know there's a book about it and if you don't use that one get another one just do the consecration but do if you've already done it renew it but renew it in this way I beg you go to the Blessed Mother look at her eyes and in that statue see how she almost looks like she's crying that's our Blessed Mother because we all know times are tough and sure she knows it more and some of you guys have children that break your hearts because they've gone astray she sees all the children of the whole world and her heart is bleeding and what a consecration is is to go to Mary and say Mary I get look not for my sake but for the sake of your children I give you permission to use me use me as your instrument to help all of your rejected broken sinful children and I'm the first one right but you're my merciful mother and I put myself in your hands and I'm not afraid why because when I consecrate myself to you this is the quickest easiest way to become a saint hello and she's a gentle mother and she knows what we can take and she'll be more gentle than we are with ourselves but let's be generous in receiving the generosity of God in this time of mercy let's trust in him to receive that merciful love so that his heart doesn't continue to break and let's cry out to the heavens for mercy on ourselves and on the whole world Jesus told st. Faustina for your sake I withhold the hand that punishes for your sake I withhold the hand you know that dishes out the punishment that the world deserves if three people in John Vianney right remember the devil said to John Vianney if there were three men like you on this earth my reign would collapse well even better we got all these women here and sends more than three guys to hopefully but if the thing is if we say my time just ran up so I know at this point if just three of us say Jesus give me all that rejected mercy and if you're worried well but that's not fair to other people no he'll give it to us and our sanctification and our prayers for the world we'll give people who have rejected a second chance through our prayers so let's cry out for mercy for ourselves and for the whole world and all the doom and gloom that we hear can be reversed in a new springtime in the church could be given to us why because now is the time of mercy amen let's close with the prayer so Hey so thank you how about I give you a blessing the Lord be with you through the intercession of Mary Immaculate and all the angels and saints may Almighty God set your hearts on fire with his merciful love may you trust even more in his tender love for you through the intercession of Our Lady in the name of the Father and of the son of the Holy Spirit amen thanks very much amen thank you Father Michael tell you what father would you mind staying up here for a while do look qat with you if you don't mind we got a little time left you guys go ahead and have a seat all right so secretly honestly I hate to say this I kind of had a crush on you before I met you was it was a bro crush but your book really did change my life and I think a lot of people haven't you guys have gotten his his book to 33 days and I'd like to ask you some questions on that but when I first can I say one thing yeah yeah yeah real fast real fast one thing that's why I like to tell that story if you did read the book and it did have an effect on you now you know it's not my fault it's sister Bernadette's right amen to that true it's true so how'd you go from beach volleyball player to you know just completely given your life to the Lord like how did you I guess give up sort of that old idea of what you wanted to do with your life well I think the heart of it I think is that sometimes we get attached to things like I always say I'm a I'm a Catholic priest but I'm also religious so I make vows of poverty chastity obedience right but I always say it's poverty chassie obedience and goodbye to California right because I like the sunshine I like the Mexican food all that type of stuff but the idea is we all have attachments in our lives that block is from Jesus for a long time you say oh how did I go to this it's still a process for me but a game-changer for me was to realize that I didn't have to be perfect to go to Jesus to have all those attachments to remove which I used to think what I realized that it was drawing close to him that freed my heart from the attachments it's like if you play fetch with a dog if you ever you know you throw the ball and the dog brings it back and you grab the ball and you say drop it and the but dog doesn't drop it and even growls at you right but if you get down there with it real nice and you're like nice doggy right and then you still have your hand the ball then you can pull it out when it doesn't notice that's what Jesus does with us seriously all he says is like Mother Teresa said he wants us just to come to him as we are the devil tells us you have to come down when you're perfect he says come as you are even my hands are full of all my attachments absolutely but when we come to him as we are and then we start to see his love there's nothing more beautiful than his love there's nothing more beautiful than his mercy as the Saints say oh if only they would they knew him they would love him and when we draw close to him in adoration in prayer the attachments other things they lose their grip and so for me I'm still under the grip but at least I'm walking to Jesus with my hands full but slowly under his gaze of love that I talked about talked about his gaze of mercy he performs a certain heart surgery when we're in that prayer that we don't notice his love is an anesthesia where he pulls those things out so I'm still going just like everybody else but the secret of it is not being afraid to come to him amen god knows what would happen if you would have been 6 1 or 6 - I'd be over yeah you'd be done you'd be on some beach oh I'd be Pro Beach man ha ha Olympic gold medalist uh so what's your favorite food honestly that you miss in California my favorite food let's see it's the it's a tacos pasta store from taco Sun Pedro what is that it's like tacos that are like smeared with the kind of sauce that's really nice and messy and so I go there when a few times I can make have vacation or time with my family I go in to talk with some Pedro so if you're in LA look up taco San Pedro it's really good awesome so you are religious do you get time off to visit your family and what does that look like how much time do you get I'm an anomaly actually I said that but it's been a very long time since I've been out there I have a job at its in Stockbridge for the last four years that's been extremely excruciating I hadn't had a book I hadn't had a day off in four years I hadn't had a vacation in four years I hadn't had a retreat in four years it was interesting I I finally when I made the retreat after no I hadn't had it in two years when I was on retreat finally after all that the reason the way I wrote 33 days - morning glory I'll tell the story tomorrow was I was on the retreat and I had to be on call it was all phone calls and emails and I was upset with the Lord I was like well I can't even make a retreat what are you doing and the next morning I woke up and I had the idea for the whole 33 days - morning glory so what I learned from that is the Lord is saying keep running even though I've lost 30 pounds of muscle weight in the last two and a half years but now there's light at the end of the tunnel because this dinah dynamic you has ever heard of the Energizer Bunny that's not got priest named father Chris lr he was ordained last year and he took my old job so now I finally have a little bit more where I can relax a bit but I have a new job with these young men called the Marian missionaries of divine mercy they give a year to do the works of mercy in the streets of the Bronx and Boston and I say Mass for them that's even busier than my old job but it's even greater with joy but if you guys know anybody a young man who's maybe in discernment wants to give a year you have them give us a call in Stockbridge so Amen well obviously sister Bernadette must be really praying for you huh yeah she needs to pray that you get a vacation well it's it's interesting cuz sister Bernadette we had been in contact for a while like not a lot you know with the permission of our spiritual directors and but - not last Christmas or the Christmas before last she called me up oh no she didn't call me she sent me a letter and said dear Michael and it went on it said I've been praying or whatever and I think Jesus is asking me to make this the last lever letter you'll ever get from me and she's saying I think there'll be a greater fruitfulness if I if I just offer up this friendship like in terms of being able to talk it was interesting because I was like what okay but it was the next month was when these guys the myrin missionary started and it's kind of like it's been a lesson for me because I was talking we were talking about attachments before there's people in our lives that we love there's things that we have to give up sometimes and when we give it up and we think oh this is no good but what I realized was she was right the Lord would pour greater Grace's and it came with these young men that I offer Mass with and get to go out in the streets with them and it's really enriched my priesthood so it's a lesson that you know sometimes there's crosses in life sometimes there's sacrifices we have to give up things but in that suffering God always gives a greater grace amen so a lot of times I don't know for you guys but in dealing with maybe fallen away Catholics or Catholics that aren't practicing their faith or even non-catholics when we talk about you know novenas when we talk about devotions a lot of people will say you know that's superstition you know it's magic so you know how would you really explain those things that we do as Catholics that are very fruitful to people who don't understand them maybe I could speak to the chaplet of divine mercy for instance because I mentioned in the talk the segmenting council said some things about devotions which were misunderstood or whatever but there was a really good point it said all the oceans should actually point back to the source and summit of the Christian life which is the Eucharist the mass right so what has power is the is the mass is the Paschal mystery of Jesus Christ Jesus gave the chaplet of divine mercy to Saint Faustina when she was looking at a city in Poland that was about to be destroyed because of a big sin there and Faustina was praying for that city and her prayers were powerless but then suddenly she felt in her heart she was like Jesus please spare that City all these people are going to die and so then she heard the words of the chaplet of divine mercy in her heart and she began to pray them and the angel of wrath that was assigned to destroy that city became powerless and what I like to think about with that is the chaplet of divine mercy and all our devotions they should point back to the liturgy but the chaplet of divine mercy the reason it's so powerful the reason why our prayers can be so powerful where Jesus said to Faustina like for your sake I bless the world for your sake i with hand the I withhold the hand that punishes why is that so powerful because the chaplet of divine mercy is this powerful devotion really takes its source the mass its power from the mass specifically what I call the supercharged moment of the mass what's the high point of the mass what's the climax of the mass everybody says the consecration I don't this is my opinion the high point of the mass and this is so important the supercharged moment of the mass is that moment when is the Ministerial priest and you as the common priesthood uniting yourself set for you ministero priests out there unite yourselves to the offering of the priests at the altar and he says through him and with him and in him O God Almighty father in the unity of the Holy Spirit all glory and honor is yours for ever and ever amen that's what I call the supercharged moment of the mass why because it's in that moment that we are holding up the infinite merits of Jesus Christ's body blood soul and divinity I truly at the altar I mean literally sacramentally and you uniting yourselves spiritually and we hold up the perfect sacrifice of love to the face of the Father and we can ask for whatever we want and it's why in that sometimes in the chat and the diary Saint Faustina Jesus like souls are only one of the price of suffering and Festina is like well I want you to save every soul that's dying this day well sister you don't know what you're asking but then she says while I'm relying basically on your infinite merits he says okay I have to grant what you've asked in the mass this is the ID when I was just when I was here as a student when I was in the seminary I used to be afraid of asking for too much because I thought a lightning bolt would come down and like Lord save everybody in the world this day you know here it comes because souls are only one of the price of suffering right but who was I kidding how much suffering would I have to go through to save one soul our job is to unite our little puny little sacrifices and sufferings and they're all puny little compared to the sufferings of Christ to unite those to his infinite merits to lift them through and bring them through him with him in him in the end of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father and ask the Father to have mercy and he does so the idea is it might not always work out like we want but if we're praying for mercy in the world if we're praying for these things God grants it because the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary made president our altars which we offer to the Father has infinite merits not a lot of merits infinite merits this is why in the chaplet we say for the sake of his sorrowful passion have mercy on us and that's a lot and that's because the graces are a lot amen amen Wow yeah so kind of going along those lines Pope Francis has talked a lot about joy and if you look out on the world today where we all live it it's oftentimes difficult to think about joy in this world and then when you when you kind of boil it down to your own personal life and the sufferings that that each individual deals with how do you have joy in the midst of pain and suffering okay I think I can answer that like my own personal experience is I would make an argument because I'm at the National Shrine of divine mercy and my job as the director of Angela's ation is oversee the spread of the message of divine mercy not in the United States but in the whole world of English and Spanish speaking world I've had that job for four years and so I would make an argument I'm one of the littlest souls in the world because Jesus says the ones he uses to spread his mercy are the littlest souls and I say that I've struggle in a since I was a little kid with a very melancholic temperament it very easy for me to get discouraged very easy for me to fall into depression even but what has really saved me and for people who are struggling with those things I we all do I'm a pro at this with dealing with that darkness plus I was a professional seminarian I had more than 15 years of studies toward the priesthood so that was not an easy road but the idea was I always had that image of divine mercy there in my room that's what saved not only my vocation but also my life and I would look at that gentle gaze of Jesus looking at that gaze of love that Pope Francis talks about and any time I'd be doubting that God loved me because that's a lot of times where the devil goes with this you you're nothing you're worthless you're look at you you've done this you're disgusting to me or that so those thoughts that go through our minds that we don't deserve God's love and I'd look at that and I would see that gentle smile of Jesus that gentle gaze and I would say Jesus I trust in you times you know I wasn't all bubbly and singing the praise and worship that we're doing here that's good that's a good day right but the but the joy of the gospel comes from when we can not we can say no to despair when we make a promise and I remember I did this when I was at stupid on the Austria program to net I said okay I'm never going to give in to despair Jesus that no matter how dark it gets and even if it's I can't mouth the words even if I'm like just totally broken in the depths of my heart I'm not going to give in to despair and in the depths even if I can't say with my lips I'm going to say Jesus I trust in you and my testimony it says in the dire Festina and never was it known that anybody who trusted my mercy was ever disappointed I can tell you in 15 years of a lot of Darkness never was I disappointed by his mercy it didn't mean I was happy slappy you know like woohoo everything's great but I knew Jesus I trust in you I took strength from that if some of you guys if you walk around or if you're near me at the meals or something you'll see I just will start saying Jesus I trust in you and people like what is he up to rats like the reverse of Tourette's though like it's like holy Tourette's I do because when the thoughts like every time after I finish a talk or something which just going through my mind is all you messed it up you should have said this this it's like constant and I just like Jesus I trust you Jesus I trust in you but it works it works and so when we're in darkness Jesus I trust in you and just the last point I'll make it quick especially a deep deep darkness the biggest things are when you think you've ruined everything because of your sin oh I blew it and there's no hope now Jesus says in the Diary Faustina one of the gifts of mercy is that Jesus can bring not only good out of our evil but an even greater good if we trust in His mercy that's how he can work the miracles he needs our faith and if we trust in his or his mercy even blindly he can fix it it might not be in our like in our lifetime it might not be where we see it but he wants this blind trust to me everything is trust and that's the secret to joy even if it's not a bubbling over joy it keeps us from the opposite of joy sadness and despair amen one of the things that that I'm sensing just tonight is you know a lot of times when when we meet Christ or come to know Christ or even proclaim that we're Christians think that everything is going to be perfect you know right and we're going to have this bubbly joy all the time and it's just not the reality you know life's difficult life's hard we deal with suffering and pain and one of the things that that I'm senses maybe you could just lead us in a prayer of healing just begin to lead us in a prayer in our own suffering and and offering that trust to Jesus and whatever we're we're all dealing with in our own personal life whether it's family issues or relational issues or physical pain or suffering so that as we go into worship tonight we can just begin to trust Jesus with our own heart and our suffering would you mind doing that for us in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit amen amen Lord Jesus you reminded us tonight of how much you love us especially when our hearts are broken when our sins weigh heavily on us when we feel discouraged when we feel overburdened and Lord that we believe your words we believe your mercy that it's in those times that you love us most that your merciful love comes out to us and embraces us Jesus we come before you right now in your divine mercy and we open our hands and we open our hearts to you and we give to you we hand over to you all that is stuff all that all the suffering in our heart Jesus we give to you the things that we're worried about right now we give to you our anxieties Lord we give to you the the problems that are going on in our families among our friends Lord Jesus we bring to you and to your feet into your heart the sufferings of those who've asked us to pray for them and now Lord Jesus we bring you the deep wounds in our own hearts we bring before you Lord the bitterness and the resentments that we hold in our hearts that we've laid that we've harbored over time and right now is the best of our ability Jesus we give you over those wounds we give you over those people who have hurt us we ask that you would also receive the people that we've hurt and embraced them and embrace us with your merciful love Jesus we thank you and we praise you for your merciful love we thank you that you love us even when we're weak and broken and especially when we're weak and broken we thank you for loving us now we thank you for embracing you with us with your merciful love and Jesus we place all of our trust in you Jesus I trust in you Jesus I trust in you Jesus I trust in you the Lord be with you your spirit and Almighty God bless you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen amen you

Channel: Divine Mercy

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Length: 67min 27sec (4047 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 07 2015