Fulfillment of All Desire Advent Mission | Night 2: Important Practices

wow we already have 1232 people here and uh just like last week uh i think it's really inspiring when you let us know where you're from and we already have one of the reasons why i think it's encouraging is because there's just a lot of God's people all over the world there's a lot of God's people over the United States and Canada and uh it's just encouraging to know we're not alone but we got a lot of brothers and sisters all over the place that's really really important okay last week we had a a few technical glitches particularly at the end and we've been working on uh solving those we may not have completely solved them yet but uh i think we're going to be okay let's open with the prayer and ask the Lord to help us in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit amen dear Lord we thank you for the privilege of being together we thank you Lord for the comfort and consolation of knowing that we're not alone and following you that to so many that are all over the world and though we thank you for this Advent season we thank you for this time where your Holy Spirit is helping us to pay more attention to you and be alert to your Holy Spirit and meditate on you jesus and remember the love of your Father and his plan for the salvation of the world Father we ask you to help us tonight benefit from the wisdom of your holy saints those great doctors of the church in the area of spirituality that were drawing on their wisdom we actually be with us for this next hour or so and help us to understand more of your plan more of your call and receive more of your practical wisdom and be able to come to some definite decisions that will help us move along the journey to greater union with you whereas is the name of Jesus amen name the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit amen well you also kind of see behind me we don't have Teresa of Avila this week we have Jesus and i have another painting or picture in my office you know print that i might bring next week because we're just surrounded by a cloud of witnesses but the main witness is Jesus okay um i want to tell you some amazing statistics you know we had over 4 200 register last week and we had 2500 people show up and we had people stay for an average of 37 minutes which is phenomenal i mean most video stuff going on at youtube and other places uh people don't stay for anywhere near that long so that was that's really really amazing and then we kind of published it on our youtube channel renewal ministry's youtube channel the next morning and as of this afternoon we had more than 20,000 people who had viewed last week's advent talk you know 2500 people in person and then another 20000 people uh through youtube and many people told us they had registered but they weren't really able to uh get there at the time they thought and other things came up and uh but they got it and many many more people that registered got it during the week through our youtube channel so if for some reason you know somebody who should hear what's going on here tonight after you hear it you say Jesus somebody i know that really needs to hear this you can tell them how to get it just uh type into the search box youtube renewal ministries channel and it should be right right there you know when it comes up or renewal ministries and Advent Mission but anyway we're known as ralph martin there's lots of different ways of getting there but just put in the search box on youtube renewal ministries or whatever you'd like to put in there you'll probably find it so uh this is a good way to evangelize too this is a good way of trying to help catholics who don't know how much there is to the catholic faith and don't know how much God loves us and don't know the purpose of why he created us uh to really get that also um last week we told you and all in the weeks ahead of time we told you that you don't have to get this book the all the wisdom that i'm speaking about comes from this book it's called the Fulfillment of All Desire a Guidebook to Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints and we are offering a discount on it uh it got held up in the mail uh lots of orders came in we had to order more uh amazon has to order more they're out on amazon right now we hope they're going to get back quicker than they say they are Emmaus Road publications has it in stock now but uh it might take a while to get into all the channels but we're expecting a big shipment tomorrow and so we'll be able to fulfill the orders that haven't been fulfilled yet we're still offering the discount on it just go to uh our website and go to uh the store or actually there could be a pop-up right there on the front page and you can get the book and then when you check out uh put in the uh you can tell i haven't done this myself you click on apply coupon button in the product box at checkout and enter the code FADADVENT all one word all capital letters f a d a d v e n t so uh if you want to get the discount it says it's a 20 discount it's actually more than that because our typical price is discounted and we also get free shipping so it's 30 plus discount so again you don't have to get the book to get a lot out of these uh weekly talks during advent on the fulfillment of all desire but uh there's a lot more in the book that i can cover in fact i really experienced that today when i was preparing i've been actually preparing the last couple days of course and i'm saying how do i leave this out how do i leave this out i mean the talk has got to be a reasonable length and so they're going to be time for questions and there's just so much fantastic wisdom that we have in our Catholic tradition from these great saints that uh it is a valuable book to get is a really useful book for spiritual reading now i'd like to say a special shout out to those who are watching from Europe who have told us they're staying up late tonight it's one o'clock in the morning in the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe it's six hours difference now you know anyway it's it's it's uh it's really amazing that folks are staying up to watch this and now that they know it's on youtube tomorrow uh maybe they'll maybe able to go to bed when they start falling asleep or whatever watch it tomorrow but we're so grateful to to have you with us and we thank you for letting your witness of being Christians in the UK uh inspire us here in North America so last week we had people from Seattle to Miami from Maine to California from Vancouver to Newfoundland from Malaysia Australia Switzerland Malta India and just all over the world and i think of you know what Saint Peter said he said the worldwide fellowship is suffering you're not suffering alone you're you're part of a worldwide fellowship you're part of the mystical body of Christ you are Christ's body and we're members of one another and when we're together like this even though it's virtual it's not virtual it's real we're really communicating we're really being with each other we're really together hearing the word of God we're really together opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit's working in this word he's working on each person well let me begin with just a little review of last week for those who maybe are joining us for the first time who uh aren't um i didn't have a chance to watch last week's video yet the main point of last week is to make clear clear clear that holiness is necessary we paid attention to a scripture passage in the Leviticus and other places in the Old Testament Exodus be holy because I am holy and we saw how that same exhortation from the Lord was repeated in the New Testament Saint Peter quotes it be holy because I the Lord your God am holy if we want to have anything to do with God we have to say yes to the call to holiness then in Hebrews chapter 12 it says strive for that holiness without which nobody can see the Lord if we want to be with the lord forever we have to strive for holiness we have to turn away from those things that block our relationship with the Lord or damage it we have to turn towards the Lord and embark on the path of holiness and then we also paid attention to Ephesians chapter one where it tells us the purpose of our life why God created us he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him he destined us in love to be his sons and daughters through Jesus Christ before the world was created God had us in mind he had us individually in mind he had us personally in mind and the only reason why he created us is so that we could be one with him forever the whole reason why we're alive is to be one with God but in order to be one with God we have to become like him I know that sounds like an impossible thing to become like God God 's perfect God 's holy God's transcendently holy he's transcendentally good he's transcendently merciful how can we be like God well we can be like God by participation in his life by eating his body by drinking his blood by listening to his word by obeying his word by praying by communing we're going to be talking about some practical things about that in a few minutes last week too we talked about making a decision decision number one to believe what God's word tells us about why he created us no matter how worldly we think we are no matter how weak we think we are no matter how sensual we think we are no matter how wedded to the things of this world that we think we are we were created for holiness even if we think we're not spiritually inclined even we think that we don't have a clue about certain things even if we think that our bad habits are so great that they'll never be changed it's not true he who calls us is faithful he who created us has a plan for making us holy and if we just kind of say yes to their plan and say yes I believe that God created me for union with him that's a really important initial step of the journey and then the second decision I suggest that we make last week was to make a decision to strive for that holiness without which nobody can see God to actually get in gear to actually start doing some things to actually come up with a plan we're going to be talking more specifically tonight about what that plan is i'd like to say something about the cover of the book i'm inspired by the cover of the book it's a painting by a painter called a painter called Thomas Cole who lived in the last part of the 19th century and the name of the painting is "The Pilgrim of the Cross at the End of His Journey" you see a little picture of a little figure entering paradise where two figures in white are ready to greet him and that's the journey that we're talking about we're talking about a journey that all of us are on one of the things that Teresa of Avila said it's not it's not rocket science she said it's so simple if you just keep your eyes on Jesus you'll soon find yourself at your destination we want to enter paradise we want to be greeted by brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and aunts and uncles and ancestors we've never met and children that maybe pre-deceased us who died in a friendship with the Lord we want to be there we want to be in paradise we want to return to the Father's house that's what we're talking about now the epistle today for the second sunday in Advent is really relevant it talks about the Lord coming how he's not delaying he's patient he doesn't want anybody to to perish he wants everybody to come to repentance but at a certain day the day the door is going to close the door's going to close in our life the door's going to close on this phase of life on earth and the day of the Lord will come like a thief then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire and the earth and everything on it will be found out since everything is to be dissolved in this way what sort of persons ought you to be conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames the elements melt by fire but according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which the righteousness of God dwells therefore beloved since you await these things isn't that what heaven is all about is stirring up the desire for the Lord's return stirring up our gratitude for his first coming therefore beloved since you await these things be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him at peace pretty powerful word pretty powerful confirmation of what we talked about last week now i'm going to start off tonight by talking about an overview of the journey the journey to God traditionally in the in the spiritual writings of the saints and the tradition of the Church has been delineated into three stages they're talked about as the purgative way the illuminative way and the units of way and you can see the book is actually divided into those three sections but I don't like to use kind of technical language very much so purgative way I describe as the beginning of the journey, the illuminative way the journey continues, the unitive way way the journey's end so we're on a journey and it does have stages it does have phases the purgative way which is the first part of the journey and that's the part we're focusing on during these Advent talks uh it's not that that everybody I'm talking to is only in the purgative way I'm sure a lot of you are in the illuminative way some of you are probably in the unitive way but it never hurts to review the foundations it never hurts to review basic truths basic realities basic decisions to make sure our foundation is still firm it's not crumbling no cracks have gotten into our armor uh no chinks have gotten into armor uh no lies have kind of gotten into our head and now we're still really clear about what this is all about and how to make progress on the journey so we're going to spend our time these four sessions on the purgative way now the purgative way has what eight chapters in in the book yeah it's uh it's it's long and there's a lot of stuff in there and so I've had to kind of narrow down what we're going to talk about in these four weeks so the purgative way is the initial turning away from God returning away from sin repentance getting the lay of the land about the journey overcoming initial temptations uh engaging in initial spiritual conflict moving towards basic stability and order and peace in our life we're not falling back into grave sin where things are basically pretty stable the illuminative way is a stability our life is basically under the lordship of Christ is all still kinds of things that need to come more under his lordship but we're pretty much under his lordship that's our intention that's pretty much where we're at and uh new habits are established we're getting good habits habits of prayer habits of resisting temptation habits of love and charity habits of forgiving those who offend us you know good habits virtues growth and virtue growth and self-knowledge growth and understanding how much there is in us that still has to be changed uh growth and knowledge of God you know and uh those are the two things that Catherine of Siena says are the most important things for helping us advance on the spiritual direction self-knowledge getting to a greater understanding about what's blocking us what's holding us back our attachments the things that are inordinately attached to in our life and getting a greater knowledge of how good God is how loving he is how close he is how much he's for our good how much everything he asks of us is for our welfare is for our fulfillment that how he so much wants to fulfill our deepest and greatest desires okay it's also uh dealing with uh and learning how to recognize in our life movements of our soul it's called concupiscence being attracted to things desiring things uh the irascible passions being adverse to things uh turning away from things uh and so learning how to recognize our attractions and our aversions learning how to discern putting our loves in order putting our desires in order getting them under the control of the Holy Spirit so that we don't react negatively out of the Lord and we don't react positively in an inordinate way but in a balanced way in a godly way in a Holy Spirit way living in the Spirit not living or reacting or acting in the flesh in these disordered desires the units of way is prepared for by a very profound purification purification goes on all through these stages and there's a deeper purification that happens you know John of the Cross talks about it as in the earliest stages of the spiritual life it's like the weeds in the garden were cut off on the level of the soil but the roots were still there so the the obvious kind of weeds in our garden get get dealt with but distill the roots there and so the Lord after a period of time and according to his wisdom according to his kindness according to his tenderness begins to deal with the deeper roots of the weeds that are still in us now in order to not discourage you about the journey or the later stages of the journey let me read you something that John of the Cross said he said those who have more considerable capacity and strength for suffering God purges more intensely and quickly but those who are very weak their purgation is less intense and the temptations lessened and he frequently refreshes their sense to keep them from backsliding Francis DeSales says a slow cure is the best cure now I'm on the slow cure path myself true confessions tonight I'm I'm glad the Lord isn't doing that overwhelmingly intense quick progression I want to be completely purified I want to be completely transformed but I'm glad that the Lord has recognized my weakness and is taking me a step at a time and it's so encouraging to be on the pathways to so encouraged to see what the Lord has done already and and I know he's got a lot more to do and I'm really looking forward to it because I know he's so skillful he's so wise he knows how to work with each of us and not discourage us and not turn us back from the journey okay after the deeper purification that leads to the unitive way all kinds of wonderful wonderful fruits Teresa of Avila says once we reach the unitive way once this deeper purgation happens amazing spiritual fruitfulness happens amazing apostolic fruitfulness it makes sense doesn't it the more we're in tune with the Lord the more we're sensitive to the Holy Spirit the more we're going to be a blessing for other people the more we're going to experience the love and freedom that the Lord has for us the more we're not going to be tossed about by our own disorder desires but we're going to be moved by the Spirit we're going to act in the Lord and what a blessing that's going to be for everybody else in our lives so there's just all kinds of wonderful things we're not going to get to them in this four weeks but as you get to the later chapters of the book there's going to be a temptation for you to say you know I I don't think I'm here yet I'm not sure I can handle this and and that's okay you know if you don't feel like you're ready for a later chapter right now that's okay you might want to though can at least skim through just get a little feel what's happening and not skimp on the last chapter about the fruits of the deep reunion because it's really helpful to know how good it gets taste and see how good the Lord is it's really good the deeper union we have with the Lord it's really good it's really worth everything it is it's worth everything okay but it's perfectly okay if there's an earlier chapter in the book that's really resonating with you say hey this is really speaking to me stay with them don't feel you have to go on some people like to get a the whole lay of the land to get the picture of the whole journey some some are ready some are okay with waiting on that and just kind of working with what's really speaking to us right now in an earlier chapter now on page 13 there's a chart I don't want to get too technical here but one of the things that I discovered in studying these doctrines of the Church is that even though they use different terminology even though they sometimes use the traditional categories of purgative illuminative and unity sometimes they don't they're all talking about the same basic transformation by the work of the Holy Spirit and what this is is a little chart showing the purgative way the illuminative way and the unitive way and how Teresa of Avila John of the Cross Catherine of Siena Bernard of Clairvaux Francis DeSales talks about those ways so it's a little chart to get you an understanding of the different vocabulary they're using but basically what they're talking about is the same thing those traditional three stages now Teresa of Avila for example divides it into seven mansions and I'm not going to go into detail in the seven mansions and what she's talking about there's an interior space in our soul that the more we get to the center the more we get to the Lord himself who's dwelling in our soul she says the first three mansions are purgative it's it's kind of turning away from sin it's battling temptation it's overcoming initial mistakes we make it's uh getting to the point of a basic stability in our life but then she makes the remarkable statement she says anybody who gets to mansion 3 which is a basic stability in the Catholic life there's no reason why they can't all go all the way to mansion 7. this is a pretty radical statement it's pretty important to hear this she says there's no reason why people who reach a basic stability in their Catholic life can't go to the full mansion seven the full spiritual union and she says the reason why so few people do it is because of a lack of knowledge and a lack of desire the lack of knowledge is a lack of self-knowledge but it's also a lack of knowledge about God but it's even a lack of knowledge about the practical things we need to do to make progress on the spiritual journey which is what we're going to be focusing on in these weeks lack of knowledge about how we can get off the track lack of knowledge about how to understand things that are going on in our life that we don't understand so self knowledge knowledge of God knowledge of the pathway that these doctrines of the Church have mapped out for us what we have in this this teaching here is an incredible guide map for the journey to god and we're going to learn tremendously important and useful things but then she says she talks about lack of desire she says unless you have a very great desire for God you're not going to make very much progress that makes sense doesn't it unless you really want it you're not going to really go after it you're not going to really be willing to do the things you need to do but she says if you lack a great desire for God ask God to give it to you and he will this is really an important truth here every time you think you've reached your limit every time you think you can't go any further every time you think you don't have what it gets what what it takes to go keep going on the spiritual journey every time you're tempted to think well I think I've come far enough I think I'll just stop here this is good enough I'm so much better than I used to be and I'm certainly better than those people over there no no no no no don't do that don't compare yourself to other people don't even compare yourself to what you were like before other than to thank God for his mercy and understand that he has more mercy for you but keep your eyes as Teresa of Avila said on Jesus he's saying come on he's come on come on up like in C.S. Lewis's uh Chronicles of Narnia the one the last battle come on further in and further up further in further up there's more we're being invited to more we're invited to come right up to Jesus as scary as that sounds and it's unbelievable he says yes he says come to me come to me keep going keep coming don't stop so if we're lacking great desire ask God to give it to us and he will I kind of look at this like this you know somehow in many of our countries if you fall below a certain level of income poverty level if you're below the poverty level you qualify for welfare you qualify for state help well in the spiritual life if you admit your poverty you qualify for divine welfare the Lord stands ready to help you in your poverty and understanding of poverty is part of the spiritual journey part of the self-knowledge okay now does it matter if we know the seven mansions if we know the three stages of spiritual life not really it can be helpful uh people sometimes ask me do we need to know what mansion we're in do we need to know what what stage we're in well you know as you grow in knowledge of of the spiritual stages as you grow in knowledge of characteristics and fruits of various spiritual development you might get a rough ballpark idea about where we're at that we were we're still in a purgative way or we're in the illuminative way and what what the saints say is these these stages can take years you know you can be many years in the illuminative way uh you know yeah I mean Teresa of Avila says you know it took her 10 years to get from one stage to another it took her another 12 years to get to the final stage and uh you know it can take years it takes it takes a long time for the Lord to work these changes in our life so don't get discouraged and so it can be helpful to roughly where we are but we don't have to know exactly and we shouldn't get into naval gazing kind of saying where exactly am I we just need to keep our eyes on Jesus keep making forward keep doing those things that the Lord and the saints tells us is really helpful Therese of Lisieux said the higher the more she grew in union with the Lord the simpler she became and the simpler the journey became it is really simple it really is basically simple keep your eyes on Jesus do what he tells you to do keep opening your heart to the Holy Spirit Teresa of Avila said uh on page 129 I'm not going to read it you can look it up she's saying all I'm saying is keep your eyes on Jesus if you do so you'll soon find yourself at your destination Jesus is the way and the destination if we keep our eyes on Jesus he's going to bring us to himself he's the way to the destination he's the destination ourselves so we're already there in a certain way and we're just unfolding the reality of that you know scripture says our life is already hidden with Christ in God we're already with Christ we're already in the Trinity with them this is a peeling back the layers of of dullness of mind and hardness of heart and and and sin that kind of keeps us from fully realizing the union that the Lord has established with us already okay now remember the four principles we talked about last week that govern the spiritual journey these are principles that are applicable at each stage of the journey they they they're more or less prominent one stage than the other but their principles for the entire journey they're relevant in every stage of spiritual development remember what they were principle number one and this comes from John Paul II in his document Novo Millennio Ineunte the beginning of a new millennium where he summarized the the spiritual teachings of these doctrines of the Church in four principles principle number one the spiritual journey is totally dependent on the grace of God spiritual principle number two even though the spiritual journey is totally dependent on the grace of God our effort is necessary we're going to talk about those first two principles tonight next week we'll talk about principle three principle three there are some painful dimensions to the process of purification there's some death that we have to undergo there's some picking up of our cross we have to go there's saying no to sin and yes to God that has to happen in our life but it's a wonderful stage it's it's wonderful wisdom it's really good news principle number four we're not going to get to it during these four weeks even though it takes some effort even though it's totally dependent on the grace of God even though it can take many many years making progress on this journey is the most worthwhile thing we could do in human life because even if we don't reach the final stage before we die every little progress that we've made every step forward that we've made every consolidation of habit and virtue in our life that we've made every liberation from sin and from deception that's happened in our life is going to bring us into a greater identity of who we are and what we are created for and be a greater blessing to other people and not be afraid of suffering anymore in our own life okay let's talk about principle number one principle number one the spiritual journey is totally dependent on the grace of God here's where Therese of Lisieux is a tremendous teacher she writes in her Story of a Soul she says I'd really like to be a saint I really want to be a saint I know it's the purpose of life but I don't think I've got what it takes I'm not attracted to these great penances I see so many saints doing uh I see these big steps I need to take in a spiritual life and I don't think I could do them I don't think I'm like a spectacular rose or a spectacular lily in the garden of the Lord I think I'm just a little forest violet you can hardly see on the forest floor she says I wonder if there's a shortcut for people like me well I'll tell you she discovered the shortcut and she really really felt like this was a shortcut that made a huge difference in her life what shortcut did she discover she writes the story of a soul she says once I took my place in the arms of Jesus it was amazing when I was unable to see and understand what happened in my life now for the many men who are with us tonight you may feel uncomfortable with that image in the arms of Jesus you may not it's personal but but men can also kind of relate to another image it's the beloved disciple resting his head on the chest of Jesus what does that communicate to us what is the arms of Jesus what is resting our head on the on the chest of Jesus in the heart of Jesus what does that communicate it communicates ah complete trust complete security complete complete happiness we're with the one who loves us more than anyone could ever love us who knows us more than anyone could ever know us and who accepts us more than anybody could ever accept us we're with him with our creator with with our redeemer we're with the one who sacrificed everything for us we're with him and we're in friendship with him and we can rely on him we can trust you I think of how Saint Faustina expressed that Jesus I trust in you and that brings such a peace to our soul such a joy to our heart even in the midst of difficulties in even in the midst of the spiritual battle that we're in Therese goes on to talk about her life in the convent and she says you know i've been in the convent almost seven years and uh she she she died at the age of 24 suffocating from tuberculosis her last year and a half was pretty hard physically and spiritually the battle she was going through but she says she writes a Story of a Soul I've been in the convent almost seven years she entered just short of her 16th birthday so she only has a year or two to go and she says almost every time I've gone to pray even after receiving communion I fall asleep she says the whole purpose of a Carmelite vocation is prayer and honestly I have to tell you that almost every time I go to pray even after receiving communion I fall asleep she says you'd think I'd be desolate you'd think I'd be profoundly discouraged but I'm not and then she tells us why she's not discouraged she says I know that God loves me even while I'm sleeping wow okay let's remember that in our sleepy prayer times let's remember that I know that God loves me even while I'm sleeping and then she says she knows this because she sees that parents when they put their children to sleep still love them as a parent of of six and grandparents I can say that sometimes we love our children even more when we put them to sleep their screaming was driving us crazy we were losing our holiness and then she also continues writing she says I see that surgeons when they're doing life-saving surgery put their patients to sleep so Therese's confidence wasn't in the quality of her prayer time Therese's confidence was in the quality of God's love to love her even in the midst of her weak prayer time her sleepy prayers somehow the desire to pray to desire to be with the Lord was was uniting her to the Lord even though she was falling asleep in her prayer time even after receiving communion Catherine of Siena tells us that the desire for union with the Lord is itself a prayer now principle number two even though the spiritual journey is totally dependent on the grace of God our effort is necessary it's not sufficient there's nothing we can do to make ourselves holy it's something that God has to do only God is holy it's like Jesus said call no man good only God is good there's just things that all of us human beings that aren't good there's these things in all of us human beings that need healing need purification need cleansing need redemption that's why Jesus came because of what we need we need Jesus we need healing we need deliverance we need freedom so our effort is necessary what kind of effort this is where seek the holiness seek for strive for the holiness without knowing which well without wish nobody could see God this is the striping that we that we need to do uh okay my microphone just lost a little part but i think it's gonna hold up yeah okay um first of all we need to pay attention to God we need to uh look in his direction we need to pay attention to God Pete something just fell off my microphone I don't know if it's a vital or not I've sounded okay so it must be just a wire that fell off okay yeah okay good it's nice to have a brother helping me in this because uh I don't know what fell off the microphone I didn't know whether you could still hear me or not so anyway that's that's okay okay so we have to do our part our part is seeking the Lord striving for holiness and that's primarily expressed in paying attention to God and the primary way in which we pay attention to God is pray is to turning our heart and mind to the Lord in his direction thanking him asking for things praising him uh just just kind of being in his presence just just being still like one of the psalms says be still and know that God we just need to be still in a regular way and pay attention to God I want to tell you about my own my own journey the most important decision I ever made in my life was when I made that weekend retreat at the University of Notre Dame just before I graduated I had gotten caught up in the confusion of of the 60s when I was growing up in a good Catholic home going to a good Catholic school I I really remember loving the Lord I really remember wanting to be holy wanting never to do anything to offend him but oh the sad story as I got older I got affected by the world the flesh and the devil I got confused I got off track and uh before I made that that we can retreat the Cursillo uh Spanish retreat that that has helped a lot of people around the world a lot of people in the United States and Canada Australia and other places uh I was I was confused I even had become a philosophy major trying to understand the truth and I was getting more confused all the time and I made that retreat all I could tell you is that at a certain point I couldn't deny any longer that Jesus was alive I couldn't deny any longer that he was in that retreat house and I knew that if Jesus was real if he really had been raised from the dead if he really was in that retreat house speaking to me in the talks speaking to me in the testimonies of my fellow retreatants I knew I'd have to make an incredibly important decision because I knew I was smart enough to know this at least that if Jesus is the Lord the only sensible response to make to him is total surrender is to write him a blank check and I knew what he was going to write in on that blank check I knew that what he was going to write in was everything forever I knew that there wasn't a trace of selfishness in it and the reason why he was asking for everything all of me is because he wanted all of me to be healed he wanted all of me to be loved he want all of me to be purified redeemed and he never be made ready for eternal life that was the most important decision I ever made in my life every time we say I want to give it all to the Lord we were sincere and we give as much as we actually have control over but it takes us years for us to make that promise real to be able to give more and more to the Lord to recognize the things we've held back recognize the things we're attached to that are keeping us from him that's the spiritual journey the second most important decision I ever made in my life happened a few weeks later I knew that there was going to be a fluctuation in my experience of the Lord and my in my uh feeling of love my feeling of peace I knew that that was going to fluctuate but I knew that Jesus was real and I wanted to be with him I wanted to pay attention to him even when I wasn't feeling anything I knew that for me meant paying attention to personal prayer and uh I needed to decide to take some time each day to be with the Lord to pay attention to him I had so many sleepy prayer times I can't number them I've had distracted prayer times frequently one of the encouraging things is Teresa of Avila said for 14 years she just couldn't meditate without spiritual reading spiritual reading is really important it really helps keep our mind and focus on the Lord helps us raise our mind and heart to him but the saints didn't start off as these these profound contemplatives they started off as normal human beings and Therese kept falling asleep her whole time in the convent for 14 years in the convent Teresa of Avila couldn't focus very clearly on the Lord in prayer she needed the help of spiritual reading to do that so take heart brothers and sisters so I've had my share of sleepy prayer times and distracted prayer times but I have to tell I've had my share of skipped prayer times you know I find out if I don't pray first thing in the morning and I think I've got a really light schedule a particular day and I could do it later well sometimes I can't do it later but sometimes I can't and so I've resolved to pray first thing in the morning even when I think I'm going to be able to do it later in the day and that's made a really big difference in my life I'd recommend that to you you got to find a time you got to set a time you got to commit yourself to a time you know and you just got to look at your own life circumstances and and and find the best time for you but really stick to it you know really stick to it as best you can what do I do it's not rocket science I actually did a YouTube video on this a while ago I think it's called struggles and prayer you could kind of find it on our youtube channel but I I start off just kind of being with the lord I start off actually kneeling down putting my head on the ground like the little children at fatima did and saying their prayer I believe in you I adore you I hope in you and I love you and I ask your pardon for those who don't believe in you and don't adore you and don't hope you don't love you I've got a whole video on Fatima if you want to get more of the background on that you can just gonna google Fatima Ralph Martin you'll find it but uh that's what I do and I say that three times just like the children of Fatima say it and then I just kind of be with the Lord and if there's days that I'm kind of awake and feeling sort of inspired I'll just say anything or walk around my office room where I pray I have this icon of Jesus in my office and that's very moving to me to to look at the Lord like that I might just kind of praise the Lord I could even sing you know I have a terrible voice uh every time I start singing in church my children tell me dad dad you know kind of you know calm quiet you know you're off key you know one of my desires for heaven one of the fulfillments of my desire is to be able to join the uh heavenly choir I I hope they let me in after my resurrected body kind of does a better job of singing I'd love to praise the Lord with my whole heart mind the soul I'd love to sing beautifully and I can't do that on earth but I'm hoping to be able to do that in heaven then after about 20 minutes or so it seems like that's just normally how it goes I'll pick up this little book Magnificat and I know there's different helps for daily prayer and daily scripture readings I I think this is the best one out there I don't get any commission for this the people of Magnificat don't even know I'm doing this you go to magnificat.com and you can order this it comes every month and it's really helpful it's also you can download it on your phone or your computer or whatever I like the physical copy and uh what it does is has a little morning prayer there a little psalm a little place where you can put in your prayer requests and I have a I have my prayer requests written down on a piece of paper I don't read them each day but they're there in my heart each day I read through that uh and then there's the Mass readings and if you haven't been to Mass this is fantastic way of keeping touch with the cycle of readings uh and then after after the last thing there's a there's a meditation that somebody writes and uh usually it's pretty understandable and and inspiring sometimes it's not and then one of my favorite features is each day there's a new saint they give you a little one-page bio and it is amazing to see how many saints from so many different countries and so many different vocations it's really really inspiring and it kind of keeps our hunger and desire for God going but after doing this about 20 minutes or sometimes it takes longer sometimes I'll really hit something and Magnificat there I'll just stay with it for my rest of my prayer time or sometimes I'll just put it down and go back to quietly being with the Lord you know that if I have time I'll do some additional scripture reading and if I have time I'll read some more of John of the Cross you know so anyway that's how I do my prayer time it's not not complicated it's pretty simple and but do it do it do it do it it's really really important now uh just because we have a set of side prayer time which we really need to have because the Catechism of the Catholic Church says you know actually we're called to pray always but unless you pray sometimes it's really hard to pray always that makes sense too doesn't it well we should be raising our heart and mind to the Lord as much as we can all during the day you know don't always listen to the radio you know when you're driving in your car uh just be quiet and be with the Lord uh Mary's asked us at Fatima to say the rosary every day and I I have committed myself to pray in a rosary every day some days honestly I'll miss but I'll make it up the next day I'll say two the next day sometimes I do it while I'm taking a walk sometimes I do it while I'm driving in the car my wife is holier than I she says you can be more meditative at the rosary if you do it like sitting in your chair in your office and uh you know it's a little harder for me to do that because I have all these other things I want to do in my prayer time you know but anyway uh I do pray the rosary every day and that's really important but but don't don't commit yourself to more than you can actually handle right now you know like if all you have is 20 minutes for a prayer time each day take that 20 minutes and let it grow over time you know just because you can't do a lot of prayer don't do no prayer you know my mom used to always tell me I'm not asking you to say a rosary for me just say one hail Mary I bet she got more hail Mary said for her because saying one hail Mary is very doable more doable than saying a whole rosary just because you can't do everything just because you can't even do your the prayer time that you're committed to each day uh do some prayer do prayer on the run yes it's not as high quality but it counts now one of the things that Therese of Lisieux didn't make explicit but you can see by looking at her life even though she kept falling asleep each day and even after receiving communion what'd she do she kept on showing up she kept on showing up I can't tell you how important it is to just keep showing up even though you don't think anything's happening stuff is happening just by showing up you're saying something to the Lord even if you feel dead in your spirit and distracted in your mind your being there physically is is so precious to the Lord Romans chapter 12 it says offer your bodies as a living sacrifice just dragging your body to prayer kneeling down when you're tired uh just getting out whatever prayer you can get out or whatever turning to the Lord he can get is precious to the Lord and it keeps it keeps your heart open to him and it keeps him able to give grace to your soul and you'll see stuff happening if you persevere you will see stuff happening but also just like holiness is necessary perseverance is necessary you know the Curé d'Ars Saint John Vianney says the only people who are saved are those who pray and the only people who are lost or those who don't pray so persevere Jesus says he who perseveres to the end will be saved so don't just persevere after going to a retreat don't just persevere after listening to a park like this but set yourself for the long haul ask god for the grace of perseverance to persevere in friendship with him until the end the Christian life the spiritual journey is not a sprint it's not a marathon in fact in in the early chapters of this book uh what chapters I'm drawing from today I'm drawing from chapter three I'm drawing from chapter six I'm joining from several different chapters in the purgative way perseverance is necessary he who perseveres to the end will be saved now I've got to stop now I'm disappoint that I gotta stop because I didn't get to other really important things on principle two really really important things we're talking now about what we can do to turn in God's direction but we also need to talk and we'll do this next week we need to turn away from those things that block or slow down the journey to God lots of great wisdom here lots of really important truths here really important truth here because a lot of lies from the world have gotten into our minds and hearts I know and so I hope you'll be with us next week uh we will post tonight's talk tomorrow morning on youtube or as soon as we can get it posted Elizabeth uh our staff member's been online today helping you Pete Burak here he's been online to helping you and helping me and uh so that's the deal uh if you want the book we're still offering the discount like I said go to our website click on store and you'll find it there or maybe even on a pop-up it might be there on the front page I don't know but you know go to a checkout and when you go to checkout click apply coupon and you'll get what's called the 20 discount but it's more than that you write in f-a-d-a-d-v-e-n-t Fulfillment of All Desire advent the initials for Fulfillment of All Desire f-a-d-a-d-v-e-n-t and you'll get the discount on check out uh there's been a demand on the books surprisingly this demand on this talk surprisingly and uh so be patient the books will get to you if you've ordered them and let's let's end with a prayer Lord I I thank you I I thank you for your love I thank you for your kindness to us I thank you for your mercy to us I thank you for the wisdom you're giving us what you've revealed to us about how we can be one with you forever how we can persevere to the end i'd like to ask you to make another decision tonight tonight's decision is to really be specific about when you're going to pray each day and for how long you're going to pray don't overdo it if you can do it for 10 minutes do it for 10 minutes if you can do it for 15 if you do it for 20 if you do it for a half hour if you do it for more do it for whatever you can do because being realistic about you and your circumstances is the most important thing that's the first step if you did it at a previous time in your life you drifted away from it come back to it the Lord's calling you right now in advent to return to your first love yes return to your first love that means concretely returning to daily prayer yes that's the decision I'm asking you to make tonight last week you decided to strive for holiness and you made a decision to believe what God told you about who you were created for and what you were created for tonight I'm asking you to make a very practical decision to make those things real in your life a decision to take time each day and personal prayer next week we have more decisions to make and more wisdom to to to pay attention to so make the decision now and start implementing it this week Lord I thank you for my brothers and sisters I thank you for all that you've given us I ask you to ignite in them a greater desire for you let the living flame of love burst into flame even more and more and give a hunger for you or desire for you that will draw them ever closer to you and thank you for for telling us that as much as we seek you you seek us even more amen Pete I don't know do we have any uh questions we do we have several okay yeah all right uh first one is I can't tell where I am on the journey how do I identify where I am well like I said it's not essential that you identify where you're in a journey but if if you avail yourself of the descriptions of the different stages of the journey uh and and gradually over time you'll get a feel of where you're at as we go through these initial talks you'll you'll get some feel about that I'm gonna do some real signposts there's some real things that happen that indicate we're taking steps forward on the spiritual journey honestly I'd recommend the book to tell you the truth uh I'm only going to be able to get to certain things in these four weeks I'm not even going to be able to get to all the tremendous wisdom for the purgative way so I would I would recommend the book and uh as you go through it as you look at the different stages you'll get a feel where you are there's very specific things that that that will happen that will be present or that won't happen and then but it's not so important it's not so important the important thing is you just keep doing what you should be doing tonight last week we talked about some things about making decisions tonight we talked about this about a decision if you keep making these decisions and implementing them you will find yourself making progress great uh if I went through a fierce trial and lost faith but had repented was the purgation still valuable yes nothing is lost God brings good from every fall there's such joy in heaven when one sinner repents we know that from scripture the Lord is so pleased when we turn back to him from whatever the fall was the Lord is so pleased with repentance um from today's reading how do we hasten the day of the Lord what does that even mean yeah well it means that you know I I just saw another question coming in the chat let me just say people said people are saying they can't get the physical book is that it's kindle there's an audible book on amazon you can download the electronic file you can go to St Paul uh Biblical Theology Center and you can get the mp4 you can download it so it's available in every format you can think uh it's available on cd album so all those things are available uh even on on amazon you can get the cd album you can get an audible book you know it can be downloaded into your computer into your cell phone it's on kindle so yes it's available in all those different kinds of ways so how can we hasten the coming of the Lord I guess I shouldn't be looking at the chat thing while you're asking me questions yeah okay uh the last chapter of the bible as verses talk about the Spirit and the bride say come and the Lord wants to return for a Church that's without spot or wrinkle that's what scripture says the Lord wants his church to be without spot and wrinkle he wants his Church to be holy so the way we can help hasten the coming of the day of the Lord is to do our part in helping the Church be without spot and wrinkle growing in holiness the more the church is won the more the Church is crying out to Jesus come Lord Jesus and honestly we can't cry out come Lord Jesus unless we're in a close relationship with him unless we know that we're crying out for our lover for our friend to come unless we know that there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus we can't with freedom and joy and wholeheartedly cry out come Lord Jesus too many of us Catholics are afraid of the second coming too many Catholics don't understand what the final judgment is and how different it is for Christians for and non-Christians how different it is for people who are friends of the Lord people who are not so as we grow in holiness where we're more and more the Church that's crying out for the Lord to come and the more and more of the lord can come um several people wanted to remind you that you mentioned last week that you would talk about being delivered from fear particularly of illness and physical suffering so do you mind mentioning that well it's taking me a little longer to get to that that I thought it was going to take but I promise that certainly in the fourth week if I haven't done it next week I'll do it in the fourth week and if I haven't put in capital letters Ralph you promised and i will certainly do it but I think I'm going to remember to do it because there's some other things I have to do first okay but I think I think I'll do that in the fourth week but I I promise to do it I I mean it's a lot of things I wanted to do today I didn't get to they're really important stuff preview of coming to attractions yes that's good that's a book very good all right uh how would you recommend breaking a habit of excessive self-focus or introspection I think about myself more than I think about God and this makes it difficult to come to deeper knowledge of well i'm going to quote my mother again stop thinking about yourself or do something for somebody else honestly get out of yourself start serving somebody start volunteering start start get out you know get out come on you know kind of do something with somebody else get out of yourself Teresa of Avila actually says at a certain point something very similar she says yeah she basically says start doing something for somebody else because all the saints point out that it's not really love of God if you're not also loving your neighbor so look for ways to love your neighbor and get out of yourself part of denying yourself is denying yourself focus and self-concern and taking a concern for others and you might need some help you know you might need something to pray with you for deliverance or freedom and there might be some some things that you know you got to be delivered from you know but in the meantime do something for somebody else uh quick question and then a slightly longer one quick question is what should they read in preparation for next week okay that's that's a good question I actually have that written down here um today we're talking about chapter three although i hardly talked about anything in it you're going to read about Teresa of Avila's conversion of Saint Augustine's conversion in chapter three Teresa of Avila is the story of a conversion of a holy girl who needed a deeper conversion you know a good girl who needed conversion Augustine's story is a bad boy who needed a conversion so whether you're a good girl who needs conversion or a bad boy who needs conversion there's a path and there's wisdom for people in both situations then we also talked about chapter seven the importance of prayer we just scratched the surface but we did I didn't get to chapter six which I wanted to which is the struggle against sin but we'll talk about that next week uh next week uh chapter six and uh maybe we'll do a little more in chapter seven more on prayer stuff and then chapter the next on the fourth week we're going to jump into the early stages of the alluminative way chapter 10 and that's where we're going to talk about freedom from fear okay great um is it possible to backslide from one stage to another yes and uh Catherine of Siena actually says sometimes we have elements of different stages going on at the same time in our life like we might be getting some uh deeper experiences of prayer that are more characteristic of the limiting way but still dealing with some backsliding sin in our life that's more in the purgative way and sometimes we might even get like a foretaste of coming attractions like wow I just had an amazing prayer time I just I just experienced such a closeness to the Lord or we may even have a period of days where that's the case and we're not there in a stable way but the Lord has given us a foretaste of coming attraction so it is possible to have elements from different stages of spiritual life going on in our time and at the same time but we're going to find out it the more we get to know about these stages that we're we're primarily here or primarily there with maybe a little kind of backsliding there a little advanced attractions there but this is kind of basically where we're at you know type of thing two questions that are similar that I think you can answer together one is if God created us to be one with him then why do souls go to hell and then the second question that is similar Jesus in the gospel really makes it seem rare to enter the kingdom of heaven yet in other areas we hear as long as we believe we'll be saved I waver between feeling confident in God's mercy to feeling scared that I'm not doing enough thoughts on this tension yeah hopefully over the course of these weeks we'll get a real balanced feel of this but um the reason why people who have been created by God to be one with him don't end up one with him and end up in hell is because they they say no they don't want to be they say no because they refuse to believe in him or they say no because they refuse to repent so nobody gets sent to hell unless they say no to wanting to be one with God and they're saying they're basically saying I want to be eternally separated from God I don't want to humble myself I don't want to repent I don't want to believe I don't want to give up these sins now um we're called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling so we should be concerned about not ending up in hell I mean you're stupid if you're not concerned about that and that's supposed to actually help us on the spiritual journey in fact Jesus actually said chapter 5 of Mark's gospel no chapter 10 of Mark's gospel well chapter 5 or chapter 10 he says don't be afraid of those who can kill the body but be afraid for the death of the body and soul in hell so you know be afraid of the devil don't don't I mean in a helpful way don't don't forget you got an enemy who's throwing fiery darts at you all day long trying to get you to believe falsehoods about yourself about god about all kinds of things resist the devil uh don't be don't be don't be casual about sin you know uh sin could send you to hell but at the same time as we get stable and turning away from sin as we get stable in prayer we're going to develop a tremendous confidence in god's love for us we're going to we're going to kind of perfect love cast out fear now the Catholic Church teaches so sometimes people get confused by this that you can never know for sure that you're in a state of grace but you can have a very reasonable belief about that if you're doing the things that jesus asked you to do if you're not committing those sins that Jesus says could separate us from ever if you're praying if you're loving the lord if you're a lovingly neighbor in some measure not not canonizable saints but some reasonable level of ordinary Catholic life you can be very confident that if you persevere in that Catholic life until the day you die until the moment you die you will be saved you can be confident about that maybe you'll need some additional purification that's where purgatory comes in but you could live in a basic confidence a basic hope a basic joy not a not a a kind of a cowering fear about God sending you to hell God's not going to send you to hell the only person who could send you to hell is yourself and as you as you get stable in the Catholic life there's less and less chance of that happening although Teresa of Avila warns us even in the highest stages of spiritual life you can still turn away if if well how does that happen well it happens by little gradual kind of exceptions a little gradual so I'm so strong in the faith I can allow myself to recognize myself that but that's that's for another talk all right last question uh and I would imagine Ralph the sacrament of penance plays a big role in that too in terms of confidence in your relationship right right somebody commented that wasn't my idea that was somebody else's well it'd be okay if you throw your own ideas in here you've got some good ideas you know all right final question um combination of could you speak a little bit about dryness in prayer and the patience to persevere through dryness or just persevering in in prayer in general yes um I already talked about how Therese kept showing up for her sleepy prayer times I already talked about how Teresa of Avila persevered in prayer despite her desperate dependence on spiritual reading I am going to talk more about dark nights next week I am going to talk about prolonged periods of dryness for long trials and temptations and yes we need to persevere through them but we can persevere easier if we have a better understanding of what the lord's doing through those and also for a better understanding about what really is a purifying dark knight and what is the result of careless or unfaithful behavior in our part which I'll try to explain next week great uh any final announcements I'm going to put up a slide here hopefully uh for how they can support renewal ministries and also for your new book uh that information about that but anything final from you well let me say something about support of renewal ministries you know somebody mentioned to us that they got a telephone call asking for support that isn't because you signed up for this several times a year twice a year we call people who give us their telephone numbers some people prefer to be called and there's usually a matching gift connected to that and if you don't want to be called just tell us take us off the call list if you don't want to donate please don't donate but people like to be given an opportunity there's so many things we're doing so many things we'd like to do we know the lord's going to provide but the way he has helped provided for 40 years is through people who get inspired to support us so if the lord is inspiring you to support us please do please help towards the end of the year that most of the support comes in as the year comes to an end a lot of support comes in so we'll be making several opportunities we'll be mentioning it several times uh that if you feel called to support us please do uh all the donations are tax deductible we have an outside board of directors we have an episcopal advisor we're on the up and up you know we've been around for 40 years we're not a fly by night an operation but honestly we're doing these advent things because we think that so many people are experiencing life as sheep without a shepherd and we want to help we want this great wisdom for the catholic church to support people who are who are confused today who are alone and uh please don't please don't contribute if that's not something the Lord's really moving you to do uh and then the other slide was about my new book well I don't wanna I'll I'll tell you more about that next week but I'll tell you something now um Fulfillment of All Desire is about the internal battle A Church in Crisis is about what's going on out there in the Church and the culture and a lot of the internal battle is affected by what's going on in the Church and the culture there's a lot of us who are confused who are disturbed by what's happening in the Church what's happening in our culture and so the books are sort of complementary Fulfillment of All Desire for the spiritual journey the internal battle inside the Church in Crisis is for the external battle what's happening in the Church in the world and how we can better understand what's happening and how we could find solid ground and recover a peace and understanding and a confidence that doesn't get discouraged because we know what's happening and why God is allowing it so that's available too at renewalministries.net okay well you know I really look forward to our times together uh I can't look at all the chats while I'm talking but I looked at every single one last week and I look at every single one this week and i want to do shout outs to all the people i know are watching but i can't and uh i promise you i'm going to look at all the chats and I'm going to be be inspired by them and I'm going to spot things I should cover in future talks so thank you very much

Channel: Renewal Ministries

Views: 35,162

Rating: 4.9553075 out of 5

Keywords: Christianity, Jesus, Christ, Evangelism, Mission, Spirituality, Evangelization, Religion, Catholic, Church, God, Trinity

Id: 7BA3LFP5pFA

Length: 72min 48sec (4368 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 06 2020