Fr. William Casey - God Have Mercy on Us - CONF 329

the title of this talk is God have mercy on us I'm going to talk about the reasons why the world needs the mercy of God now more than ever before why our Holy Father Pope Francis has designated this extraordinary year of grace 2016 as the Europe mercy for the church and for the whole world and I would think this will be the most difficult talk for me to give during this retreat let me ask you something how many of you have been on a retreat or parish mission with me before or maybe heard something I've done on EWTN or Catholic radio okay um if you have been with me before at an event like this you know that when I come to preach I never come to tell people what they want to hear all right I refuse to do that I come to tell the truth among many priests now there is a saying that truth has become the new hate speech hmm the truth doesn't always make us free popular guys that doesn't bother me at all our Lord said the truth will set you free our Lord said in the gospel to his disciples woe to you when all men speak well of you so did their fathers speak of the false prophets you got to understand this as we're talking about the divine mercy it is not mercy to affirm people in their sins or to keep your mouth shut in the face of what you know is wrong that is the most merciless thing that I can think of for a bishop or a priest to fail to make moral judgments about sin is to give consent by means of silence I would have to say that the biggest complaint the fathers of Mercy get as we travel around the country preaching these missions and retreats the biggest complaint from the Catholic laity to us is that they are sick and tired of lukewarm water down Catholicism right they're sick and tired of what Catholic writer George Yeo calls Catholicism light they want the real deal our people feel so often like they are not getting it hmm you see one of the big problems is this people today among them many Catholics have gotten the idea somehow that the church is kind of like one big social club or like a political party where we are free to make up the rules as we go along and change the rules change our teachings to fit the times right the results of the latest public opinion polls this is nonsense you got to understand this if you don't already what the Church teaches and what we believe is Catholics we hold to be God's definitive revelation to humanity it does not change and it cannot change that should make sense to you because God does not change the truth and does not change God is the truth hmm so I would say this to you as I begin this particular talk this is no time for happy talk hmm you're not going to get it from me hmm all these years I've been traveling around speaking about the spiritual battle of our time and it seems to me that the spiritual battle of our time has become the spiritual massacre of our time god help us we need the mercy of God the apostle st. Paul said an obligation has been placed upon me to preach the gospel and woe to me if I fail to preach it the apostle st. Paul of course is the patron saint of missionaries one of the patron saints of the fathers of Mercy but there is wit quotation that I found from Pope Benedict the 15th who is the Pope at the time of the first world war about st. Paul he said this quote the Apostles preached the gospel in its entirety so too has the church throughout the ages what st. Paul taught was all the truths and precepts of Christ even the most demanding ones without silencing or watering down any he spoke of humility of self-denial of chastity of detachment from earthly goods of obedience and he did not fear to stress that one had to choose between serving God and serving beiow because it is not possible to serve the two together he taught that after death all had wonder go a terrible judgment that no one can bargain with God that one can only expect eternal life if one has kept God's laws their seeking pleasures by breaking these laws one can only expect eternal damnation never did the preacher of truth think he had to admit these things because they might seem harsh to his listeners especially in view of the corruption of the times we must act in like manner end quote right that was a hundred years ago friends I don't think I have to tell any of you here what a pathetic miserable dire state we are in in the world and in the church today if you need proof of the reality the depth the spiritual and moral meltdown of our time all you have to do is look at the fall of Ireland the collapse of the faith in Ireland which was at one time just fifty years ago according to Pope Paul the sixth the more Catholic country in the world now the faith Ireland is just about dead one of our brother priests the fathers of Mercy is preaching this week in England in London in England the faith is dying hmm only 2% of Anglican Christians are practicing their faith in the UK only 15% of Catholics there are practicing their faith 48% of British will say they have no religious affiliation or belief at all and so this is happening to so many formerly Christian countries around the world now America seems to be going down that same Road we need the mercy of God we live in an age when moral wrongs have become civil rights good is called evil evil is called good vice is called virtue it is the inversion of reality the truth stood on its head a world turned upside down we are sinking into insanity what every generation before us understood to be immoral based upon natural on divine law and God's revelation to humanity things like abortion contraception fornication cohabitation pornography sodomy now of course the whole transgender mania issue which Pope Francis thanks be to God has made a very strong statement publicly against all of this is the new normal and Catholics web bought into all this the whole rotten messy neo-paganism the whole so-called sexual revolution are according to Pope Francis guilty of apostasy but you will not hear that in the secular media will you they're very selective about the way that they quote Pope Francis and they love to distort his words and take his instead of context hmm now as I say all this has become the new normal and those who resists people will not give in to this new normal will be attacked as ignorant bigoted backward hate-mongering Neanderthals and if they won't be cowed into silence they will be ground under many of them will be ruined their careers their reputations their businesses their jobs will be wrecked now many people that I meet my travels especially older Americans tell me what I've been thinking for years they would never have imagined this country could go downhill literally go to hell in a handbasket so quickly the spiritual and moral collapse the pagan conquest of this country is taking place at break neck speed accelerated exponentially by the electronic media especially the news and entertainment media which never fail to confuse dominate and manipulate public opinion to the point where now according to recent Pew Research study there is no difference in the opinions and attitudes of a majority who call themselves Catholics and evangelicals and those who have no religious affiliation at all the 27% of the American populace they call the nuns nuns not nu NS that's n o n is people who have no faith no religion at all hmm they are gaining in numbers with every passing month and friends if you need proof of all this what I'm saying here all you need to do is think of the smashing success of the series of novels all 50 shades of grey hmm they have released now the fourth novel in the series the first book sold more than 100 million copies worldwide the movie when it came out brought in about 100 million dollars it is a celebration of sexual perversion a celebration of the objectification and degradation of women and the really phenomenal thing about Fifty Shades is that the vast majority of people who bought the book are women you got to admit it the devil is a genius it's a work of genius on the part of the devil to induce so many women to revel in their own degradation there all this talk about the so-called war on women here is the real war on women it is being waged in buying the devil and it is the death of romance without the gospel of Jesus Christ raised an elevated marriage to the dignity of a sacrament the mutual love and respect and self giving that you'd characterize the relationship between man and woman will degenerate into lust egotism envy rivalry and suspicion and with all this now of course we have the attempt to redefine marriage one of the legal redefinition of marriage you see if marriage can mean anything to anyone then ultimately it means nothing right the end game the end result is the ruin the collapse of the family and the loss of souls and this is precisely why Pope Francis has now issued his apostolic letter called amorous Letizia amorous Leticia is an impassioned defense of the sanctity of marriage human sexuality and human life if you get a chance please take the time to read it now it sits in a form of a book it's 264 pages long but it's well worth the read I guarantee you you may recall that Pope Saint John Paul the second his theology of the body is essentially the theology and philosophy of personhood the dignity of each human person made in the image and likeness of God the Creator each human person being unique precious and unrepeatable in the sight of Almighty God JP - always made this point the opposite of love is not just hate the opposite of love is also use and abuse it is when one person uses another person for his or her own pleasure his or her own selfish ends with no concern no regard for that person's welfare especially that person's eternal salvation you see the church is always taught that the greatest love of all is concern for your neighbors eternal salvation the definition of love and a truly Christian sense the virtue of charity means wanting what is truly best for the people that you love what could be better than God what could be better than heaven perfect eternal happiness in God's heavenly kingdom there is no greater love than that that's what love is all about but to reduce another person to the level of an object is directly contrary to the love God intends for the human person hmm you see the essence of lust is this it's when you look upon another person and say let's say a man looks at a woman and says what can I get from her what can she do for me how can I get what I want from her how can she give me the pleasure that I want to enjoy from her there's no concern what is best for that person mine is inherently selfish and egotistical this is the essence of lust and again this is what pornography is now when I was a kid pornography was something that was kept in the shadows it was seen as shameful disgraceful demeaning disgusting men who used pornography used to sneak it around under their coats wrapped in brown paper they were ashamed now it has become part of the atmosphere part of the mainstream of American life 89% of all pornography worldwide now emanates from the United States this is a national disgrace there are now 4.2 million pornographic websites on the internet it is now a 100 billion dollar a year industry worldwide and it brings in more money than all professional sports combined in the u.s. their friends I can tell you from hearing thousands of confessions over the years it is now epidemic it is not enough to say it's epidemic it's pandemic especially among men especially among young men it is the devil's most deadly trap the methamphetamine to the soul I was reading an article written by one of the most well known and popular evangelical youth ministers and he was making the point that a high percentage of the teenage boys that he works with have already been addicted to internet pornography most exposed pornography by the time they reached the age of 12 hmm a recent nationwide survey the government's survey taken among young people of high school age about their attitudes toward love sex in marriage showed that a wide majority of the boys were interviewed say that love is not really a high priority for them sex is far more important to them than love and foremost marriage is not even on their radar screen now the girls interviewed said the opposite right but what else would you expect from boys we've been enculturated socialized to see girls as nothing more than sex objects objects for their own pleasure for their own use this is disastrous and Friends these are the rotten fruits of the contraceptive mentality once you cave it into the idea that there is no necessary link no divinely willed connection between humans sexuality and human life marriage human sexuality and human life then the floodgates are open that genie is out of the bottle sex becomes nothing more than fun and games and the mentality then is get all that you can any way that you can that's it an abortion is the backstop when contraceptives and contraceptives fail I wonder how many of you saw those disgusting videos of the officials from Planned Parenthood calmly sitting over lunch nonchalantly discussing the preservation and sale of body parts from aborted babies hmm this is like something out of Nazi Germany scientists estimate that there are now about 400,000 frozen embryos left over human embryos from the in vitro business Pope Francis says these babies these human embryos are the waste products the leftovers are the throwaway culture the culture of death Pope Paul the sixth in his 1968 letter to the world who money vitae a truly prophetic document made five predictions about what would be the result of the acceptance of sexual revolution the contraceptive mentality five prophetic predictions number one hmm he said there would come a massive increase in sexual immorality loss of the sense of the sanctity of human sexuality with that become the endless downhill slide into sexual anarchy number two where that would come the inevitable traumatic increase in marital infidelity the dramatic increase in adultery divorce a tidal wave of family breakup and all the emotional and psychological devastation that goes with it prediction number three with that will come the general acceptance of abortion once the sense of the sanctity of human sexuality has been lost then this sense of the sanctity of human life will also be lost precisely because sex is the wellspring of life you cannot separate the two that is why we have had an estimated 56 million abortions in this country since 1973 the passage of the Supreme Court decision Roe versus Wade an estimated 60 million abortions per year worldwide hmm prediction number four the systemic degradation and sexual objectification of women with that explosion the plague of pornography as Pope Francis terms it you know Morris Letizia we now see the widespread exploitation and commercialization of the female body again a national disgrace v prediction government coercion government enforcement of the sexual revolution is a matter of public policy right the programs of population control the initiation of no-fault divorce of course the decisions like Roe versus Wade and now is so-called same-sex marriage my brothers and sisters we need the mercy of God history repeats itself as I say some of this is like something at a Nazi Germany and you know what the Nazis were defeated Hitler was defeated we might say that his philosophy triumphs hmm one of Hitler's early followers was a man named Hans Shem and Shem became the Nazi Minister of Education in 1933 Hans Shem gave a speech he spoke about gathering of German university professors and he said this quote from this day on you will no longer have to examine whether something is true or not but exclusively whether or not it corresponds to Nazi ideology end quote sound familiar hmm in other words the truth became irrelevant the truth would take a backseat to political indoctrination and it turned into a nightmare of course for Germany and for the whole world now we don't call it fascism today even though that's what it is we've got much nicer names for it now like political correctness and secularism and progressivism Pope Benedict the 16th said it is still part of a dictatorship it is the dictatorship of relativism Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy a man who calls himself a Catholic wrote this as part of majority opinion he wrote for the Supreme Court quote at the heart of Liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence of the meaning of the universe and the mystery of human life end quote in other words you create your own reality each man each woman creates his or her own reality he's her own view of the world hmm now up to this time um the psychiatric profession had a term a name for people who create their own reality they were called psychotic right create your own way out in essence you become your own God right light like Adam and Eve remember Adam and Eve wanted to be like God Adam and Eve we're going to decide for themselves what is right what is wrong what is true what is false what is good and what is evil without reference to God that's how sin came into the world you see we are right back where we were at the pole god have mercy on us okay you know that I could go on for weeks with all this stuff right but here's the question for us what do we do now how do we respond how do we respond in the face of this Universal apostasy Archbishop Fulton J Sheen once said this we've come to a point at which it would seem that most people don't even know that they have souls to be saved the soul is gone and what we call change is only decay how do we stop it by reversing the process by which we drove God out of the world namely by relighting the lamp of faith in the souls of men and women we need people to be healthy when the world is sick people to be stretcher bearers when the battlefields are filled with wounded people to be calm on the houses burning someone to be right when the world is wrong this is our mission as Catholic men and women end quote hmm this is our mission as Catholic men and women in the face of all this we are called to be faithful we not may not be able to turn things around hmm remember Mother Teresa of Calcutta it's going to be canonized September the 4th she used to say God does not call us to be successful but only faithful we've got to be faithful right remember this is how God gives his faithful people the opportunity to practice heroic virtue the virtues of the Saints friends we are living in a merciless age Pope Francis in initiating the year of mercy in the church has called upon all the faithful the people got everywhere to help him turn back the tide of evil in the world how do we do that here's how we do it we start with ourselves we start by answering the call that God has given each one of us to be men and women of faith pray and devotion not just good people not just nice people head of itself is not good enough on the site of Almighty God the head of itself being nice alone is not going to get anybody to have it right in the church today in so many places we see this theology of nice I'll tell you what I've known a lot of nice people in my time who are living terribly terribly immoral eyes for us it's got to be more than that it's got to go deeper than that we're called to be holy people people who understand that we have been created by God and called by God to be Saints people who are not content with spiritual mediocrity or called to be evangelizing witnesses for Christ one of the things Pope Francis calls us to do is to kind of get back to the basics of the spiritual life the focus and refocus on the things that are truly most important in life or we have come from and where we are going we've come from God and we are going back to God and he calls us to focus on what we can call the fundamental facts of our existence four main points first we have been created for heaven union with God perfect eternal happiness and God's heavenly kingdom in our lives the whole of our lives have got to be directed toward that end that's what it's all about anything in your life that gets in the way of that mortal sin that is has got to go God wants it out of your life for the benefit of those you were not here last night I quoted our Lord's words to st. Faustina jesus said to st. Faustina daughter know this there is only one thing that can drive me out of a soul and that is mortal sin that alone number two God is all-powerful nothing is impossible with God and God is going to get you there as long as you are faithful fidelity is the key word mmm this is the foundation of the virtue of hope number three God has a great love for you no matter who you are no matter what your life has been like up to this point God has a plan for your life that is going to end an eternal glory if only you'll cooperate with the graces that God wants to give you here now and finally God is always faithful faithful tazed promises in the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord made 130 promises for those who are faithful what does God promise above all else heaven heaven what will heaven be lying there a theologian st. Thomas Aquinas put it something like this I'm paraphrasing here he said heaven is the place where every good thing every good thing you have ever known or needed and did not have searched foreign could not find long before and has eluded you will be yours life is a journey a pilgrimage through a passing world we have come from God and we are going back to God we need the mercy of God Jesus said in the gospel actually in the book of Revelation be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life fight the good fight our Lord said this to Saint Faustina quote my child life on earth is a struggle indeed a great struggle for my kingdom but fear not because you are never alone I am always supporting you so lean on me as you struggle fearing nothing take the vessel of trust and drop in the Fountain of Life for yourself but also for other souls especially such as are distrustful of my goodness in quote you see life on earth is a struggle the spiritual life we say is a constant lifelong daily struggle within every human soul there is a battle that goes on between good and evil light in darkness virtue and vice all of us feel the attractive power of sin at work in our lives and we live in a society we find ourselves increasingly constantly bombarded with temptation the first temptation is not to live for God but to live for passing things transitory things or bombarded especially especially young people were the temptations against purity the movies the television the internet the pornography the immodesty and rest of peer pressure for this reason it takes a heroic effort to be able to put Christian virtue into practice in our day and age key word here friends listen heroic heroic virtue is the key hmm Jesus said the Spirit is willing in the flesh is weak we know we cannot make it alone human strength alone we must have recourse to all the means of grace constantly all the sources of God he'll first of all the power of prayer the prayer that moves hearts far better than words ever can prayer through which God changes and guides and directs the course of events in our lives and in the lives of others lives of the people that we love second spiritual reading and meditation immersing ourselves in the inspired Word of God the interior of reflection that will change our ways of thinking and feeling and acting and change our hearts and our souls and our lives and our families into what God wants them to be third frequent or the reception of the sacraments the life of Grace and the soul and finally avoiding the occasions of sin all the occasions of sin which can be as near at hand as the television remote or the mouse click for the computer or the iPhone mmm it's all that it takes you know I recently gave up my iPhone and I went back to the old flip top cell phone right and there are a couple reasons for that the biggest reason is of course that there are ways in which the iPhone the smartphone became an occasion as sin for me first of all because I am a news and info junkie right and I found I could waste hours at a time looking up things on mobile news websites you know and it was time stolen from prayer time stolen from God for me but also the other kinds of temptations it seems like you know you can't get onto a mobile news website without seeing scantily clad women staring you in the face and I'm saying to myself if I'm serious about my priesthood if I'm serious about the virtue of chastity this has got to go because that iPhone had become like my electronic right hand right you know um if you don't avoid the occasions of sin you will not long remain in the state of grace if you're an alcoholic if you try to stay on the wagon and you've always got puddles at Jack Daniels and Smirnoff in the kitchen cabinet you're going to fall you're gonna go off the wagon if you have a drug problem and you hang around with people who buy drugs sell drugs and use drugs you're going to fall if you keep bad company if you hang around with people who gossip costs swear get drunk people are mean nasty and uncharitable chances are that's what you're going to be that's what you're going to become Jesus said if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off if your right eye causes you to sin pluck it out better to go through life maimed then have the whole body cast into Gehenna because our Lord was using a form of speech we call hyperbole exaggeration for effect right the point is this anything that will lead you in the mortal sin God wants it out of your life don't play fast and loose with the salvation of your soul you may lose it don't presume upon the mercy of God and if you struggle with sin if you find yourself falling into the same temptations and sins time and time again don't forget this use our most effective weapon it's not a secret weapon it's no secret at all it is frequent confession frequent confession the most sure way to break an addiction to sin is frequent confession why it's because whenever you come to confession in addition to receiving the forgiveness of your sins through absolution you're also receiving an increase in sacramental grace you see the grace the Holy Spirit will give you that will help you to overcome the same temptations in the future you get a little stronger every time you come to confession I know an old priest he's passed away now he had been sixty years in the priesthood I remember him telling me one time I have never known the man we're to struggle with some is sin with the names who could not overcome it by means of frequent confession you see the Sacrament of Penance cannot coexist with habitual sin you going to give up one you're going to give up the other and chances are but if you fall any time you get right back up don't be discouraged get right back to confession as many times as you fall you get right back right back into the tribunal of mercy hmm don't get discouraged hmm discouragement is a form of temptation most people don't recognize it as such again our Lord's words the st. Faustina by child know that the greatest obstacles to holiness are discouragement and exaggerated anxiety these will deprive you of the ability to practice virtue all temptations United together ought not disturb your interior peace not even momentarily sensitiveness and discouragement of the fruits of self-love you could not become discouraged but strive to make my love rain in place of your self-love have confidence my child do not lose heart and coming for pardon for I am always ready to forgive you as often as you beg for it you glorify my mercy to st. Faustina our Lord said this how very much I desire the salvation of souls my dearest secretary write that I want to pour out my divine life into human souls and sanctify them if only they are willing to accept my grace the great sinners would achieve great sanctity if only they would trust in my mercy the very depths of my being are filled overflowing with mercy and it is being poured out upon all I have created my delight is to act any human soul and fill it with my mercy and to justify it my kingdom on earth is my life in the human soul end quote one of my favorite stories in the diary is Saint Faustina is about another nun a contraire of hers in the congregation of the sisters of Our Lady of Mercy a sister who suffered from great scrupulous 'ti and she was never at peace she was always in great inner turmoil because she could never trust in the mercy of God she could never really believe that all her sins had been forgiven no matter how many times she went to confession now she believed that our Lord was communicating with st. Faustina and time after time she would go to Saint Faustina and as st. Faustina to go to our Lord and present her case to him right she would actually pester st. Faustina to talk about her to Jesus so finally st. Faustina did our Lord's response was go and tell her that her lack of trust wounds my heart far more than her sins have tell her her lack of trust wounds my heart far more than her sins have hmm something to remember Jesus says to st. Faustina let the greatest sinners place their trust in my mercy they have the right before others to trust in the abyss of my mercy my daughter write about my mercy toward tormented Souls souls that make an appeal to my mercy delight me to such Souls I grant even more Grace's than they ask I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes it appeal to my compassion my secretary write that I am more generous towards sinners than toward the just it was for their sake that I came down from heaven it was for their sake that my blood was spilled let them not feed or poach me they are most in need to my mercy you see we got to take our Lord at his word right and what you have to realize is this ultimately it is our weakness our humility that attracts the divine mercy you see our Lord never stops loving us even in the worst moments of your life he is there for you even when you feel like God has abandoned you the reality is he has never been closer to you if you fall if you sin if you get knocked down spiritually again you get right back up again go right back to confession right back into the fight our Lord said those who persevere to the end will be saved is mercy endures forever hmm remember there's only one thing worse than sin and that is the denial of sin sin will not separate you from his love if you repent if you confess if you struggle against it if you refuse to get comfortable with it if you refuse to make a pact with it I meet so many people who try to rationalize their sins away right sometimes the mentality is this well you know this is the way God made me and I can't change the way God made me just a part of my nature it's a part of who I am it's what I am I just can't help it God understands right so they live habitually in mortal sin this again friends as I mentioned you last night is the sin of presumption one of the extremes the sins against the virtue of hope don't ever fall into it God loves you this is the greatest reality of your life if you take nothing else away from you from this talk this morning remember this God loves you this is the greatest reality of your life Bar None by our Lord's own command the caption of the Divine Mercy portrait is Jesus I trust in you all right listen if you are someone who feels like you're overwhelmed by your problems trouble stress anxiety whatever do this don't put it off our Lord is waiting for you longing for you to come go before him in the Blessed Sacrament here the diary of st. Faustina Jesus calls the tabernacle the throne of mercy from which he dispenses his greatest treasures of grace if you can't get into a church go into your room close the door the kingdom of God is within you just do it speak our Lord from your heart and say Jesus I trust in you if you feel hard-pressed trapped in sin if you find yourself giving in to the same temptations over and over again if you fall time and time again if you have been a slave to sin your whole life say Jesus I trust in you get to confession Jesus says I never reject a contrite heart if you are someone who has never had a real loving intimate personal relationship with Christ if you think your sins are too big and too bad too many forgot to forgive say Jesus I trust in you say it from the heart if you are someone who up to now has never really been able to find any peace or consolation in your life if you find yourself constantly bogged down dwelling on the hurts and the wounds of the past worrying about the problems of the present anxious about what might go wrong in the future say Jesus I trust in you if you agonize over the state of your family or about your salvation the salvation of your loved ones say Jesus I trust in you pray the chaplet of the Divine Mercy every day our Lord revealed to st. Faustina what is his favorite prayer our Lord tells us his favorite prayer the one prayer he will always hear an answer is the prayer for the conversion of a sinner if you're in a dark place right now spiritually morally emotionally psychologically if you feel tempted to give up if you think there is no hope for you no way out of the message you're in for God's sake don't quit don't despair God still has a plan for your life that is going to end an eternal glory as long as you do his holy will repent turn away from his sin get back to confession get back to mass back into his Eucharistic presence you can't claim to love somebody you don't want to be with you can't claim to love somebody you don't want to talk to turn to his loving Providence and say Jesus I trusted you he says no one has ever trusted in me has ever been abandoned or forgotten or disappointed remember what Pope Francis says the church is not so much a museum for Saints as it is a hospital for sinners right he compares the church to a great battlefield hospital a hospital in which we are healed of the spiritual wounds the battle of life here is the secret the Saints to unfailing trust in the divine mercy my friends unfailing trust listen to the words of st. Teresa de su quote it is not because I have been shielded from mortal sin that I lift up my heart to God and trust in love I feel that even if there lay upon my conscience all the crime one could commit I should lose nothing of my confidence brokenhearted with compunction I would go and throw myself into the arms of my Savior I know he cherished the prodigal son I have heard his words to Mary Magdalene - the adulteress - the Samaritan woman no one could frighten me for I know what to believe concerning his mercy in his love I know that in one moment all that multitude of sins would disappear as a drop of water cast into a red-hot furnace end quote God knows us better than we know ourselves hmm God knows how weak we are how frail we are God knows we make good resolutions and we don't keep them hmm how often does it happen we say we're going to change we say we're going to do better we're going to love more give more pray more make a new start and it doesn't happen he knows we can't make it alone the gospel jesus said without me you can do nothing friends don't get this wrong you got to understand listen God loves each one of us as though you were the only soul in the world the sole object of his love only God can do that so don't ever think that you are nobody in the sight of Almighty God many people got the idea well you know why should God care about me so many billions of people on the face of the earth how could God care about me individually right the idea like God sees us as grains of sand on the seashore or sees you as a single blade of grass the vast green field no God alone listen God alone has the capacity to be concerned focused on each one of us as though he or she were the only soul in the world that's what God does that's what God does Pope Benedict the 16th said this who we are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution each one of us is the result of a thought of God each of us is willed each of us is loved each of us is necessary end quote you know I have to say my greatest joy as a priest is to bring someone back to the sacraments my greatest joy as a priest is what I'm hearing confessions and someone comes in it makes a beautiful sincere heartfelt confession and comes back to the church after having been away 10 years 20 years 30 years 40 years that brings great joy to my heart sometimes after I've heard that kind of a confession I stop and give thanks to God there on the spot and say Lord give me the grace to make that kind of a confession give me that kind of humility that strengthens my faith it edifies me the love of God the conversion of sinners I believe is God's greatest joy it is that that brings the greatest glory to our Savior amen may the blessing of Almighty God the Father and the son of the Holy Spirit descend upon you and remain with you forever amen see you over in the chapel for Mass at 10 you you

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Keywords: Religion, Christianity (Religion), Catholic, Spirituality, Conferences, Fr. Casey - Mercy, Jesus' Own Words, Divine Mercy, Fathers of Mercy, Fr. Bill Casey, mercy, retreat, St. Faustina Kowalska, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Year of Mercy, Franciscans of the Immaculate

Id: KFf0e2YS0Mg

Length: 54min 52sec (3292 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 23 2016