Kimberly Hahn - We Don't Run this Race Alone - 2018 Defending the Faith

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's a lot to live up to oh thank you so much Scott it is such a joy to get to share with you and and what a what a privilege to have heard that wonderful testimony of Lee is and you know God is writing a wonderful story in every one of our lives and I'm so grateful for her parting words of encouragement that each of our lives is so unique and God has given us that opportunity to speak the gospel part of what I think may have led to some of that brokenness she talked about was the fact that she was alone and this final message is that we don't run this race alone we are surrounded by witnesses from the beginning of Jesus ministry he called together a band of brothers they traveled together they talked together they listened to him teach and then they discussed it afterwards I'm sure they laughed and cried together and in mark six seven Mark Hart had mentioned this passage Jesus does this amazing thing you know mid ministry he pairs them up prays over them and sends them out to imitate him it's wild I mean they're sent out to heal even to expel demons to teach to preach about the kingdom and in Matthew 10:16 he adds this warning behold I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves so be wise as serpents and gentle as doves don't you wonder who paired up with Judas I figured that now the disciples could have covered more ground if Jesus had sent them to twelve places right what if he had sent him out one by one instead of two by two even the whole plan after the resurrection you know was was just starting with a small group but that's how God wanted to do it because we are not alone we're to pair up or to be together with other brothers and sisters in proclaiming the kingdom following the Passover in which Jesus instituted the Eucharist as Scott mentioned last night commissioning them as priests they head out to the Garden of Gethsemane and they are not prepared for what will happen so much human fear comes into play the candidates stay awake because of sorrow heavy sorrow in the prayer they flee from the soldiers and even Peter denies knowing the Lord and they regather in the upper room after Jesus crucifixion again bolting the door there's so much fear until the resurrected Christ appears and then everything changes just before the Ascension our Lord gives the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18 2:20 all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the son of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and lo I'm with you always to the close at the age that's all you have to do go into the whole world make disciples of all nations and I'm not going to be here except that he's gonna send the Holy Spirit so Jesus doesn't just send them out without his presence and his power he will not physically be with them but the Holy Spirit will and this is what he promises us as you go forth from this place as a disciple to disciple others he is sending you out with the Holy Spirit to be able to do this 9 days later the Holy Spirit descends upon the disciples in the upper room and Peter preaches powerfully to the people do you remember how many converts 3,000 good you were really paying attention okay 3,000 converts begin their Christian lives can you imagine can you imagine I read 3,000 people are baptized now they've got to be taught the faith and so they devoted themselves x2 41 and 42 says those who received his word were baptized and there that day were added 3,000 souls and they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching fellowship to the breaking of the bread and prayer very very important ways in which we need to grow in our faith they were following Christ together we do make an individual decision for the Lord to give our lives to the Lord but we grow together we're in this boat together as the early church grew missionary disciples went forth and Paul always has a companion you know he takes along Barnabas and then at a later time he splits off he goes with Silas Barnabas goes with John Mark why just support each other to encourage each other to pray for each other why was prayer then and now so important interceding for each other why did we pray it's not like we're gonna change God's mind right well first of all we're commanded to pray first Timothy 2:1 and 5 first of all then I had urged that supplications prayers intercessions and Thanksgivings be made for all men for there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus there's one mediator there for in him we also approach the throne of grace with our needs and others needs his mediation allows our mediation to be possible second we're not telling God something he doesn't already know we don't pray to change God's mind or to alter the future but we do pray so that we give voice to our concerns we express our trust in our Heavenly Father in other words here's the situation here's the person in dire need I'm not sure what to do but I know you are trustworthy and I bring this to you and that includes opening our minds to him because maybe we're the ones who have to have a change not to change God but to know we can be changed in that encounter with him in prayer third we imitate Jesus Jesus prayed Hebrews 7:25 consequently he's able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them that's what Jesus is doing right now he is living to intercede on our behalf and so what a privilege to actually imitate him as we pray for each other we accompany our brothers and sisters in Christ and their joys with Thanksgiving in their sorrows and suffering through intercessory prayer and finally forth we depend on the Holy Spirit to help us romans 8 26 and 27 business likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness for we don't know how to pray as we ought but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words and he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God have you had those moments in prayer where you cannot even formulate a prayer where your tears are the only thing your heart can utter but you can know that the Holy Spirit takes that groan of your spirit and knows how to pray according to the will of God and intercedes for you or for your loved ones on your behalf over and over in Paul's letters he writes how he prays for believers with Thanksgiving for them we don't just come to God and plead for things we also thank him we notice I don't know if any of you've ever kept a prayer journal I would really encourage you to to write down a date that you begin to pray for something and then put that petition and then take time to note how God answers that prayer of course sometimes the answer is no and sometimes it's not yet and sometimes it's yes st. Paul writes this in first Thessalonians 5:16 2:18 rejoice always pray constantly give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you there's never a time that we may not be in dialogue with our Lord talking to him praying why would we do this why do we pray for each other because we don't run this race alone ever since I can remember I have loved to pray for others and even in junior high in high school which was the secular school if someone had a crisis in their life for some reason they knew I was a person they could come up to and say would you pray for me and they would explain their circumstance when I said the Apostles Creed growing up I thought communion of saints meant prayer for each other like brothers and sisters I can see and I had no idea that it might involve contact with Christians who've gone on to heaven I mean I was aware that the Old Testament clearly condemned talking to dead people asking for things that you know predictions about the future if you remember Saul goes to the witch and has has her divin eight weather or you know divine whether or not he's gonna win a particular battle and it is it is absolutely forbidden to do that I was told that in heaven people are so caught up with the Lord they wouldn't even notice each other let alone notice anybody who's on earth I mean my mother has said quite frankly and they've been married almost sixty two years they have a deep love for each other in Christ and she says honey I don't think I'll recognize dad it won't matter because Jesus is all that matters you know it's called a marriage supper of the lamb I I never went to a wedding where the groom said all eyes on me look the bride doesn't matter the guests you know it's it's a it's sad I understand why she says it because she she comes from a Napoli and culture that when people died the emphasis was all on well Maui and Billy's gonna now be with Uncle John forever and in the they kind of miss part of focusing on Jesus but I think I think it's skewed the other way now well one day after Scott was Catholic and I was not I was having a difficult day and a friend who had converted the same night Scott dead very eager to move me in that direction he called out of the blue and he said Kimberly how you doing how's your day and I said it's not going very well I have three little kids and it it's a very hard day and he said well have you asked Mary to pray for you and I said I don't talk to dead people I said let me ask you a question how many children do you think he had because he said I believe if she only had one Jesus and did her son struggle with sin of course not he was perfect and do you think she struggled with sin no I believe she was sinless I already knew he answers those questions and I said so I am a person who struggles with sin and I've got not one but three little children who struggle with sin and I think about Mary Joseph and Jesus sitting around the table and something goes wrong it'd have to be Joe I said if I talked to anybody it would be Joseph it wouldn't be married at least that's what I thought until January 22nd 1989 I didn't think that I was pregnant but I woke up with this feeling of someone sharpening a pencil into my side unrelenting I called my sister was a nurse and she said you know I really think you need to get to the hospital and be checked out I went to the hospital and they said well we'll do a pregnancy test I said oh like I couldn't be pregnant I I know where I am in my cycle and they said we'll run a test anyway and they came out and and they said you aren't pregnant I'm pregnant and I don't know why but they sent me home didn't run any more tests three days later Scott was up buying on a book buying thing with a good friend and I knew something was radically wrong I called a friend and said you I need you to bring a daughter to drop you know to be at the house and I've got to have you take me to the hospital right now I'm starting to get numb in my hands and my feet I'm gonna have to crawl to the door I don't even know if I can get into your car and I did get into the car but by the time we got to the hospital I couldn't physically even get myself out of the car they did a kado synthesis which is I've had the seven sections c-sections but it is the singular most painful procedure I've ever had in my life it's one of those silent scream ones where they they said this is gonna pinch and they begin to pull the needle was about I well the needle may have only been that long but there was a tube and they began to pull this fluid out to see if I was hemorrhaging internally and and it was filled with blood and they said you know we don't know when you began to hemorrhage but we we've got to get you into surgery I think you've got a tubal pregnancy and I said I had done a lot of pro-life talks and I and you know it's not not the least of which knowing the date that this was and I said I have to have a technician coming and check my blood to see if my HCG levels are coming down and the doctor got right in my face and he said you have been hemorrhaging for three days you may be dead in an hour and a half we don't have a technician I have to do surgery I'm like okay okay so we went into surgery and for some reason I'd already had c-sections in that bikini cut as if you'd ever wear a bikini anyway but he wanted to get in immediately and get a view of everything and so he did a c-section up and down and side-to-side and and did find the SAC in the tube when I came to he he let me know how extensive it was and he said I couldn't tell whether or not the baby was alive but I baptized the SAC in case the baby was alive and he said and then I removed the sac and of course we had never discussed this Scott as Catholics having any different view and so we didn't know we really should have had the tube removed and not just the sac but his thought the doctors thought was I had hemorrhage so long probably there was no chance the baby was alive anyway so I am coming through you know a full section surgery on the Eternity floor the heartbreak of losing a baby and we've got three little kids at home that Scott needs to go be with Scott say that as long as he possibly could but then he had to go home and I was very alone and I have to tell you this is why I think it's so crucial that we memorize Scripture because you don't know when you will need to have a scripture there and you're not gonna have someone to look it up for you and so thankfully I had memorized Hebrews 12:1 and 2 and I'm gonna read the whole thing to you and then I want to take it apart a little bit Hebrews 12 follows the great chapter of faith the heroes in here the Old Testament who who were steadfast and then he begins in 12 therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the Pioneer and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God those words began to tumble around in my mind since we are surrounded you mean right here Lord you mean right now Lord as I'm laying in this hospital bed feeling gutted like a dead deer feeling tremendous physical pain but even more the emotional pain alone this room's full I mean I knew Jesus was there I never doubted whether or not Jesus was with me but right now present tense not just leading before me as an example not just pushing me from behind but present witnesses martyrs people who with no anesthesia had undergone horrific things for Christ people didn't just have a husband go home to care for children but maybe their husband had been murdered for Christ to do what they witnessed faithfulness in tough times they were there to encourage me to do the same I love the image because it's almost like a stadium of the Olympics where everybody in the stands has already meddled in the race that you and I are in the middle of and they are not standing there in criticism you know saying I can't believe she said that I can't believe she did that but instead they are cheering us on they were cheering me on at that moment how would they even know how to pray but God was allowing the to pray to be there this wasn't anything like contacting the dead to tell me the future they were with me and then we get this admonition let us lay aside every weight and sin it's a choice it's a choice to cling to the sins that cling to us or to allow the sufferings and the sorrows that are such burdens to allow those to just linger but instead were to cast them aside we're to lay them aside the the kinds of things that make it so hard to run that race I thought about father makani's talk about sin and confession helping us to unload I didn't think about that at the time I was laying in the bed but it did make sense later and then let us run with perseverance now at the moment I wasn't even getting out of bed there's nothing quite like that first stepping out of bed and walking to the bathroom where you think you literally are going to split open and everything's going to tumble out and it's just as bad every time but it isn't a walk it isn't a meander it isn't just saunter it's a run and we're to run with perseverance not start strong and Peter out but run with determination the race set before us this is not our own choosing I'm sure if you look back on your life there are all kinds of twists and turns that you didn't plan and yet it's the race set out before you because God knew what he needed to do in our hearts in our lives to conform us to his son one of the images that I get is father Gregory plow who spoke about the priestly discernment program he runs ultra marathons those are those are the thirty to a hundred mile races that have to be completed in 24 hours what is what is something like that require well first of all you gotta have a training and this is part of why you're here part of why you've been gathering up books and materials and copies of the talks you're you're gearing up you're getting together your training plan then essential gear talks like how to get how to speak the truth in love and how to understand Islam better so that we can speak to Muslim neighbors and friends they don't ever recommend that you go alone you need somebody who's encouraging you along the way you've got to figure out your fuel like drinking from the fourth cup or the third cup the third cup fourth cup is coming it comes at death to realize the setback is just a stage for a comeback and then a great thought and then you keep your eyes on the prize and of course the verse goes on saying looking to Jesus the Pioneer and perfecter of our faith made perfect Hebrews 2:10 says true what he suffered as we go through these times of suffering God is refining us through obedience who for the joy set before him what joy the joy of our salvation the joy of bringing his family home he endured the cross despising the shame we're not searching for ways to to suffer it will come it will come but he endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the Father the throne of God mission accomplished how did Jesus run his race he accepted his suffering he kept his eyes on the prize how do we run this race keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus like at the holy hour last night we have to allow suffering to have its full effect now the world says suffering is to be avoided at all costs actually what needs to be avoided at all costs sin sin not suffering sin okay the devil tempts us to think that if we're people of faith we shouldn't suffer doesn't God love us doesn't God care about us if God's a loving God how would he allow any suffering in our lives suffering can be approved with our lack of faith well don't listen to the evil one he has no clue he's a liar listen to Jesus and third our flesh hopes we don't have to suffer I mean Jesus did after all isn't that enough and certainly and there are Protestant circles in which that is their teaching of the health and wealth gospel Jesus suffered so I don't have to know Jesus suffering shows us the way how to be conformed to him and you know we experience suffering in very different ways when we were in college the men were applying for young life and one of the questions was what is the worst suffering you've ever experienced one young man wrote down the death of my father one man wrote down missing valedictorian by 0.001 now that almost seems ludicrous except at that point in his life that was the worst thing he had ever suffered okay sometimes if you're with children you know I almost laugh I probably do with the grandchildren because now I've lived through it so much but you know a little thing happens a toy breaks you know and they just saw like it's the end of the world and you know you just have to enter into their little angst and you know or how many one year olds in my little John is this way you know I can be holding him in mommy's three feet away and we're okay a mommy just walks around the corner and he collapses it's just you know he weeps as if she's gone forever but to them the suffering is real okay even though it doesn't compare with what it will be when they're older one of my little granddaughters bounded down the stairs Eliza at age 4 and she announced to her mother today I want to be a saint and her mother said okay that's great Eliza and she said so don't ask me to do anything I don't want to do Kate oh I think I tell God that every day we do we do tell them that don't we whether small or great Jesus suffering transforms our suffering into something meaningful Romans five two to five says this true him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God more than that we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope doesn't disappoint us because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us we've got access to this grace in which we stand even in those moments where we feel like we can't get up the floor we can't get off our knees and yet we do have grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of sharing the glory of God how can st. Paul say rejoice in our sufferings because sufferings are part of the human and yes even the Christian condition in fact if you're not suffering at the moment it's a lull need to say it but that's the truth what is our attitude to be one of dread embracing ourselves or preparing thinking of this is an ultramarathon okay now how do i how do i nurse the injury back to health so that I can keep running the race how can I see the setback as a way to move forward the word rejoice catch a spy is to triumph to glory to exalt there's an exuberance God's at work don't buy into the discouragement because gods at work and he's gonna produce that endurance that he's gonna produce that character and he's gonna produce that hope and the suffering slips slip us in the Greek is pressure it's resisting the temptation to quit in the midst of tribulation and how do we do this in the midst of suffering well one of the ways is in giving God thanks now when I became a Catholic Mary was one of the tougher things for me to get my heart around my brain around initially and then my heart around and when people would refer to Mary as our Lady of Sorrows I was like you know it's just kind of like this Catholic thing of being so doom and gloom I mean she got to bear the son of God she got 30 years with him I mean without with a child that you know probably was doing little healing miracles here and there who knows I mean just how wonderful that life must have been and so do we really have to use a name like Our Lady of Sorrows to describe her well God in His infinite wisdom is always showing me truths at a deeper level we had found out on a Friday that we were expecting and we shared the wonderful news with our children we were all so excited and we went to new NASA at the University and you know just couldn't hardly contain the joy we had for living children at the time michael gabriel hannah jeremiah and this was the next baby and so we came home and then Scott and I went to Minneapolis and spoke for the weekend and I just had a sense that things were not right when we came back and sure enough when we landed I had started to bleed and by the next day we had to gather our children and share that we had miscarried the baby and like on Friday we went to Mass Saint Chapel right here on campus and it was amazing how many of the verses were talking about praise praise you for this praise you for that in fact I don't know if you've ever thought about it but I think the phrase was used a sacrifice of praise and I'm sitting there thinking you know yeah it's a sacrifice to praise you and and I in my heart I just said I choose to praise you I will praise you and this was our third miscarriage I said but I will always have a sorrow in my heart for these three little ones I am NOT getting to have and to hold and it was like he shot it right back to me and said and how could my mother not be Our Lady of Sorrows when she held the broken body that she gave me I was like okay I get it I'm slow we grieve but we don't grieve as people without hope right we have to trust the Lord and have a healthy mistrust of our own perception of things we need an eternal perspective looking to Jesus the Pioneer and perfecter of our faith to be able to endure and to go further than we think we can go and I think that's part of running a marathon too is pushing through we think we have limits but God knows what our actual limits are philippians 1 2 2 4 saint paul writes this counted all joy my brethren when you meet various trials for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and lets did fastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking and nothing what is the joy that is being set before us what could possibly be worth the suffering becoming perfect and complete in the garden of gethsemane jesus never abandoned hope he knew why he faced suffering and death to restore us to the Father how did Mary endure her sufferings to the Cross you know the Catechism affirms she never lost the virtue of joy the entire Via Dolorosa we have to forgive people that do things to us she had to forgive as they were torturing and killing her son and she consented she consented to this total gift of self that Jesus was laying down offering herself along with him Colossians 1 24 is a verse actually very familiar to Catholics although I don't know if Catholics really know it's a verse of scripture I think for some it's when you when we talk about offering up our sufferings that some of my friends say they when neighbor children it was sort of the Catholic Way of saying shut up I don't want to hear your complaints offer it up you know or as my one child said suffer it up but Paul says this amazing thing I remember the first time Scott quoted it to me and I thought I don't think that's in my Bible and some reason I thought the Catholic insights he kept coming up with we're in his Catholic Bible and not mine but all right let's see where Colossians is Colossians 1:20 for now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body that is the church are you saying Jesus offering was insufficient no I'm saying Jesus so allows us to truly be his body that as we unite our sufferings to him in some incredible mystical way it redounds to the well-being of the whole church he permits us to participate as we unite from the smallest things to the biggest Scott has quoted numerous times to me the Fulton sheen would pass by hospitals and say there is so much wasted suffering here so much suffering that could be offered in union with the Cross I remember one time Joe he was six years old he was so sick with the flu and I said is there anything you can think of that you could offer this suffering for without another word he just bowed his head and he prayed that someone somewhere who was thinking about an abortion wouldn't do it John 16 32 and 33 says in the world you have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world and there's some South Korean Christians who just are sorry North Korean Christians who described the impact of the Communists who were trying to beaten them down pressuring them to abandon their faith and they said quote we are like nails the harder you hit us the deeper you drive us beautiful image [Applause] shortly after that third miscarriage we had an opportunity to go to the Holy Land in 1993 and I took with me the weight of that miscarriage it was it was the fact that it was a miscarriage it was also the fact that it was our third miscarriage and just that disheartening sense of am I ever going to conceive again and what's wrong with me and all of that burden and I kept praying throughout the Holy Land you know asking God to just lift it it was such a weight it was one of those weights that clings so closely I don't know if you've had the opportunity to go to the Church of All Nations which is in the Garden of Gethsemane but I love how dark it is they use alabaster on the windows so it's very it's very dark inside all the time there's the rock in which on which we believe Jesus sweat blood and there's a powerful image made out of iron of nails sorry thorns that are like the crown of thorns all around it and there's just something so ominous because our Lord chose knowing what he was about to face he did this for me and so I went in and I just said God I don't want to leave this church till you meet me here help me with this suffering and what he brought to my heart was Isaiah 53 you know when we think of the Cross we think of him gathering up our sins but Isaiah 53 says he was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows Emmanuel God with us he is with us in these intense moments of suffering he was with me in that miscarriage that was part of the sorrow he bore and I'm telling you even though there was sadness in my heart when I walked out of that church the burden of it was lifted the next time we were there well I found out when I got home I was already pregnant with Joe which I didn't know the next time I went back to Israel was six months pregnant was David in fact as a little aside I've been where Mary and Elizabeth met and in reflection I was as pregnant as Mary the first time I went to Israel and as pregnant as Elizabeth the second time and I know how happy Elizabeth was when Mary showed up because I'm cream is a really long winding road and Mary would go to market and I only I was glad I only had to do that that trip one time pregnant with David anyway that's a total aside so when we were getting ready to go to the Garden of Gethsemane I recounted to Scott how meaningful that had been to me and I said I I know that this is a very very meaningful place and there's a particular woman on my heart and I really I'm I'm going to really pray for her and we would this time we were gonna have Mass in the church well what the story was ten sorry was now 20 years ago after defending the faith I met a woman she had come to defending the faith with a dear friend and what was shared with me was a sorrow I had never heard of before in fact later she sent me the newspaper article and I and I read it she was estranged from her husband and he had broken into their home one night brought their children into a room and bare barricaded the door and then she woke to their screams because he was killing them with a baseball bat and that he set the room on fire and shot himself so by the time the firemen and the police officers got there there wasn't even a body for her to hold now I don't have a clue how you breathe after a suffering like that and there was a group of nuns who just took her in and she lived with him for quite a while and then she began to create sing glass art of Christ with three little children around them she would pray in adoration and then she would work on her artwork and God slowly brought healing to her and as we headed to the Garden of Gethsemane that day and she was just on my heart that's the worst suffering I've ever heard of we're getting ready for mass kneeling in prayer and I get this little tap on my shoulder I turn around and it was that woman she was not on our pilgrimage but she'd gotten word the Franciscan University was having a mass at this church and she said you may not remember me I said remember you I prayed for you on my way to Mass today we must bear the sorrows and sufferings of the body of Christ this is a privilege to imitate our Lord to do what the Holy Spirit does to walk alongside each other to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ hope doesn't disappoint us because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit there are times we beg God for help and he says no or not yet Paul had that three times we don't know what the thorn of the flesh was three times he begged God to take it away but do you know what Jesus word was to him and it's an important word we need to hear 2nd Corinthians 12 9 and 10 but he said to me my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in your weakness I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest on me his grace is sufficient even when we don't know the answer to that dilemma even though we don't know to how to fix that broken relationship even if we don't know how to have our body's response so that we can conceive or so that we can bear a child we conceive and the question isn't am i strong enough to go home and share all of this am i strong enough to do the things that I've been challenged to do the question is are you weak enough are you weak enough to admit you cannot do it because then then His grace can work powerfully in you and in me His grace is sufficient his power is made perfect in our weakness now the cloud of witnesses that surround us include our Blessed Mother when I was converting I had a friend who said you know Mary's your spiritual mother and I said I don't feel it so much and he said well what do you do with revelation 17 12 and I said I don't know what that is he said go get your Bible because he was on the phone I'm okay I got my Bible and I read it sorry I think it's 12 17 I think I gave you the wrong yeah 12 17 sorry alright so there's there's this very dramatic war going on and the woman who has the the son is being attacked by the dragon and then the dragon is very angry with the woman according to verse 17 and he goes off to quote make war on the rest of her offspring on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus so do you bear testimony to Jesus do you want to keep the coming of God that I can tell you for sure Mary is your spiritual mother she is your mother and we are at war as Scott says this world is not a playground it is a battleground it is not possible to be casual Catholics we are part of the church militant because we are in the midst of a battlefield at the same time we recall that the battle is the Lord's so it's not to strike fear in our heart but it sure better make us aware it sure better wake us up we cannot afford to just keep hitting the snooze button spiritually the outcome is certain he has lost and our Lord has won but we live in this in-between time we're not there yet we're in this world for a purpose and we shouldn't be looking at other times and saying oh I wish that's when I lived because then it would be easier even even reflecting back I wish it was 50 years ago or 30 years ago this is our time this is the time in which God wants to make us Saints and we make the stand and the success is not overcoming as much as it is being faithful and entrusting to God the outcome there is so much going on in our world that is so difficult we have to be aware of what's happening and some of you heard that in the workshops and the questions that were answered about marriage and all the gender confusion questions we heard the talk about Islam and there are committed Muslims who very much want to simply destroy us and how about the problems with atheism and how many are simply abandoning any belief in God whatsoever but we are not alone in this battle at one point in the fall I said to Scott and I'm not prone to getting discouraged but I said to Scott what kind of world are we giving our children and grandchildren i I just I just shake my head I can't believe it and he he was so calm and he just said honey we've never given them the world we give them the faith and we give him heaven [Applause] first John five four and five says for whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that overcomes the world the faith who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God in Ephesians 6:12 2:18 Paul goes through our armor for spiritual warfare but do you know there are only two offensive weapons the first one is the scripture the sword of the Spirit and I hope you'll soak in it I hope you'll read it and meditate on it I hope you commit it to memory and review it I hope you take it deep into your heart because these are the very words of God in the words of men uniquely god-breathed we know from 1st Timothy 3 inspired so we've got to have a I mean how can you do battle with a rusty sword or a sword that's still in the scabbard you know the unopened Bible no it's got to be sharp in fact my little nephews in a little Baptist Church used to have they would they would go back and forth going through their Bible memory verses and they called them sword drills thought that was cute Catholic kids need to do sword drills too okay we all but the other weapon is prayer it is prayer mental prayer the Rosary Eucharistic Adoration scripture and prayer and where do we always find both a mass mass the primary place we do battle for II against evil is not in City Hall even though it's a place we've got to be there or on the picket lines or in the voting booths we have to engage our culture but the primary place we are going to fight evil is in the midst of the church's liturgy so let's gear up as we prepare for mass and then go forth remember you're in the middle of an ultramarathon you and I are in this for the long haul and we are not alone the Saints and the angels our Lord Himself cheering us on calling us on encouraging us therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely let us run the race with perseverance looking to Jesus the Pioneer and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God god bless you brothers and sisters let's pray for each other okay [Applause]

Channel: Steubenville Conferences

Views: 5,362

Rating: 4.8657718 out of 5

Keywords: Steubenville Conferences, Catholic, Franciscan University, Catholic Ministry, New Evangelization, Youth

Id: ONghORlTBko

Length: 50min 29sec (3029 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 18 2018