Explaining the Faith - Learn How to Bring Loved Ones Back to the Faith - Sts. Monica and Augustine!

well thank you for joining us everybody from literally around the world i'm father chris aylar one of the marian fathers here at the national shrine of divine mercy we are live here coming to you on august 28th we're celebrating a special day today it's saint augustine and yesterday was his mom saint monica so they're back to back and today we're going to talk about them and before we do the prayer i'm going to give you and this is so beautiful as you always hear me say bringing you back to seminary with me for no cost and a lot less time and i'm giving you all the highlights of everything i learned in seminary and so the series that you've been joining us with is a way to do that so today i'm taking you back in a good seminary if it's a good one trains its priests in the history meaning what happened in the teaching means what does the church say and then impractical application how we use it and what we can do so today stay with stay with us because we are going to teach you the history of saint augustine and saint monica tell you a little bit about their lives then we're going to give you the teaching a little bit summary of the teaching of saint augustine why he's so important and then we're going to finish with the third big part what to do to bring our loved ones back to the faith because that's what saint monica and saint augustine are all about so let us begin with a prayer in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen heavenly father we ask you send the holy spirit down upon us all those beautiful souls that have given up their time to come and learn about you and our faith for all those watching that have sacrificed this afternoon to give back to you lord reward them abundantly into the intercession of monaco saint monica and saint augustine please bring back and have mercy on their fallen away loved ones and we ask this through christ our lord in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen i'm doing mass later today because father kaz does it on saturday and i want all of you right now to take a second because i'm offering the mass for your lost loved ones maybe even yourself so i want you to take a second right now and just place into god's hands who that is because when i do the mass later today i'm going to place those from your heart onto the altar and that's going to be what the mass is said for today now you might meet me 10 years later and say well gee father your prayer wasn't too good my my son my son and daughter never came back to the faith trust me as jesus says to saint faustina my favorite passage of the diary 1698 don't despair because when it looks like all hope is lost at the end of their life that's when most conversions happen and we're not even talking on the deathbed we don't know in the catholic faith when the soul leaves the body it could be in five minutes after death it could be an hour after death the church is always taught we don't know when the soul leaves the body and if you listen to jesus's words to saint faustina i believe that there's a certain amount of time that during that moment from death when the soul leaves the body jesus comes that's what he tells saint faustina in 1486 of the diary he says i come to the soul three times and give it three chances to say yes to me then he says in 1698 of the diary of saint faustina that when i come to the soul that is when most conversions happen when it looks like there's no hope they're despondent they're not reacting to any external things yet here i come and i come to the soul and that is when your prayers kick in for your loved ones and that is when the mass that we are going to say to i'm going to say today is offered for every one of you and your loved ones if it's you it's yourself if it's your loved one your children your siblings put them in god's hands right now because i'm we are going to do that mass for them tonight that's the grace god's going to reward you with for giving of him the time you just are right now god will never be outdone in generosity and you're giving him the time he's going to give those rewards back that's the beauty of our faith to help our loved ones it's like the four men my you all know me if you've heard my talks about one of my favorite biblical passages the four men in the paralytic because jesus didn't say to the man it's your faith that healed you get up and walk he looked at the four men on the roof and it says it's their faith that helped this man so parents don't despair don't lose heart keep trusting keep persevering even if it never looks like they come back i told you a story before my cousin and my father said gee there's 20 years of prayer wasted no because we don't know when and how god works in that soul this today is a great example saint monica she's why we're here and then augustine is the example that fruit all right let's talk about this let's do a little history a little teaching and then some practical pointers and advice to what you can do saint monica born in 331 so we're talking 16 1700 years ago exactly actually 1700 years ago almost she was born into a catholic family let's take a look at the slide here there's a picture of saint monica her feast day was yesterday and she was born in north africa now it's algeria all right and she was raised by a maidservant not even by her own parents so remember who you have your children associates very important you know back in the days when schools used to really teach and worry about your well-being i remember i was hanging around with a couple of the wrong kids i was all of in third grade and i was hanging around with the wrong kids and the teacher pulled my mom aside and gave my mom some suggestions of who i should hang out with so my mom pulled me aside and god bless you for all your prayers from my mom wow it's amazing my dad she wouldn't do an mri and and they told my dad he couldn't be up in the room with her because he has heart stents and he couldn't we couldn't get her to take the mri and then out of the clear blue my dad's cardiologist called him my dad wasn't going to call the cardiologist never imagining that there would be any reason he would need to ask him about the stents because at the hospital they told him he couldn't go up with her and then and when the cardiologist called out of the clear blue he said to my dad no no no no you have the new stents you can go up there with her and my dad rushed back to the hospital they went up to the mri room he sat with her held her hand and she did the mri praise be to god that's how it works well anyway um so the people you hang around with my mom told me as a third grader i'd rather see you hang around with these three boys rather than these three and i listened and it made a big difference that are the primary times that you're formed as a child right and so it's not just you as parents but who they associate with so anyway she married a man named patricius he was a civil roman civil servant with a bad temper hated religion and he would mock her and in fact monica was really patient because she was distressed his behavior he was in he had infidelity he was cheating on her he wasn't faithful in the marriage she even had greater grief when he wouldn't allow their children to be baptized and so there was three of them gustin had two siblings and he wouldn't allow to be baptized so basically her hands were full here she had a very temperamental husband a disagreeable mother-in-law none of you have ever had that right she had a very disagreeable mother-in-law but she prayed prayed here's what most people don't know you know she actually prayed more years for the conversion of her husband and mother-in-law than she did for augustine she prayed more years for for her husband and mother-in-law than she did augustine now it worked for all three because all three of them converted now like many of us augustine was brought up as christian but fell away he fell into a life of sin and drifted away he had concubines he had a child out of wedlock 17 years old he had a child out of wedlock and he said lord please make me chased and sexually pure just not yet so that was what he's known for right so anyway uh monica wept every night for augustine and it even led her to drink so she had a lot of stress on her so just know turn to monica when you're stressing out she prayed very diligently but you know augustine like most of your children and most of mine they're not bad people they're good people they're great people and they really don't think that they're leaving christ they're not rejecting outright necessarily i hate the church but they just think they know better they just think that they know more their own way they think they know best and this is what augustine did so one year later he got into manichaeism which was a heresy and why why did he go to manichaeism because it promised listen to this does this sound like today this crazy new age religion of the time promised scientific answers kind of like scientology right the mystery of nature we're going to explain to you what life means we can disprove the scriptures they contradict and we can explain the problem of evil and so he fell for this and when he came home as a mannequin monika now this goes against most motherly instincts because most motherly instincts are [Laughter] most of us want to bring them back in and embrace them and in a way we need to okay like the prodigal son this is true but notice what the prodigal son did before he came back he repented so augustine didn't repent he just came back looking for a room and a free meal and what did monica do she threw him out it's called tough love she tough loved him and so anyway augustine then went on and followed this heresy of manichaeism for nine years but monica was praying and then her prayers kicked in he ended up going to rome and then milan in 386 where he met saint ambrose all right i was baptized at st ambrose he's a good good bishop and he's a doctor of the church too now here's what's important his sermons inspired augustine looking for the truth so just remember when it looks like your child is out backpacking in europe and away from the faith god's eyes are never off them and so he wanted or monica wanted to reconcile god softened her heart right and she followed him to rome then learned he went to milan and she followed them so let's take a look at our next slide here's a picture of saint ambrose this is him and he consoled her with the now famous expression or famous words that the child of this many tears will never perish that's a great inspiration for all of us right a child of this many tears will never perish so years of struggle augustine succumbed finally to god's grace he was baptized in 387 returned back to africa northern africa where they were from and cast himself and the cares of the world at the feet of god so he finally cast off himself in the cares of the world and lived for god so now after this monica died in peace you know it's it's it's it's a lot of parents wishes that if i could see the conversion of my child i can die in peace don't worry god's got this right and so she died with the knowledge that what she had hoped for in this world had now been fulfilled was from her prayers now she saw augusta convert after 17 years 17 years it took so she died she was young 387 at the age of 56. so in modern times she's become an inspiration for all of you maybe you want to join the saint monica sodality this is encourages prayer and penance among catholics for wayward children so you could do that so anyway she's famous i mean look at in california i had somebody just write me on the online when we did the homily last week he said father i live in santa monica and we did a little video on thursday and it talked about her and and the question was one they had too and so anyway it's named after monica and the legend is in the 18th century father juan crespi named a local spring that would drip this dripping spring let's take a look at it on your thing called the cirrus springs or essentially the las aligramas de santa monica which means saint monica's tears and today is known as cirrus springs and that's a picture of just part of it i think i don't think that's the whole thing but anyway this was reminiscent of the tears of saint monica and so she shed year after year over augustine so now monica is a great example her patient prayer changed everything with faith we could move mountains so she's the patron saint of wives mothers of wayward kids even abuse victims all right now let's go to saint augustine let's take a look at our next slide this is saint augustine whose feast day we celebrate today so he's now waiting for you to ask a favor of him say augustine you were wayward my son is wayward my husband is wayward please pray for them so you can see saint augustine here now let's take a little break and watch a video this is from the saint paul center a good friend of mine who i've done some work with matthew leonard and notice the very first quote of this video it's only two and a half minutes she'll take a quick break like whoa father you've never gone this short a time before taking a break um that first quote on this video says we first need knowledge and what you guys are doing coming here today is getting the knowledge so that we then can live it first y'all you got to know god then you can love him and so let's watch this video about the life of saint augustine it's only two and a half minutes what is said before us is as far as humanly possible to be made like god without knowledge though we cannot be made like him and knowledge cannot be achieved without lessons perhaps no one illustrates this truth better than saint augustine the great mystagon bishop of hippo born in north africa in the middle of the 4th century he is without a doubt the single most influential figure in western christianity that's a pretty sweeping statement but it's hard to say enough about saint augustine he cited more than any other person in the church's dogmatic pronouncements even our modern catechism of the catholic church references his name more than anyone else aside from the biblical authors a prolific writer and profound thinker augustine left behind an immense treasury of writings that goes well beyond his famous confessions and city of god simply stated he is the peak of patristic achievement now that said if you were to hang out with him in his younger years late in the 4th century you weren't thinking future saint it wasn't even close to apparent that this paragon of the christian faith would ever serve as a guide into the mysteries of christ in fact the reason he published a book titled confessions in the first place was because he needed to make one for many years he lived a life that would cause even many of us to blush many people don't know that augustine was a teenage dad he fathered an illegitimate son when he was only 17 and he continued to live with the child's mother for the next 17 years in fact one of his more famous lines when he was still resisting the pull of god was grant me chastity incontinence but not yet now you can imagine the tears that were shed by his mother saint monica as she prayed for her son's conversion propelled by her constant intercession and the influence of the great saint ambrose of milan augustine eventually found his way into the catholic faith today he's one of our greatest saints and champions if you remember in our previous discussion about typology we quoted a line from augustine the new testament is concealed in the old and the old testament is revealed in the new but he went further augustine also clearly understood there is a unity not just between the two testaments but also between the bible and the sacraments and this relationship wasn't something incidental but central to christianity okay so thank you to matt leonard and uh that good little clip there showing us about augustine and monica you know saint augustine was born on november 13th 13 or i'm sorry 354 why doesn't his feast day on that day most of the feast days of saints on the days they died augustine had died on august 28th that's why his feast day is today because the church teaches we usually honor saints deaths as their real birth their birth into a new life not the birth on this world but the birth into heaven so anyway he lived in north africa uh was a roman citizen though and his writings helped develop western christianity and western philosophy very much he is a patristic father meaning a father of the church and a doctor what does that mean okay a doctor of the church means the church is analyzed and really in depth looked at all their writings and they are completely worthy of being followed in everything there right now it doesn't mean you can't follow other saints but saints make mistakes i mean even augustine and thomas aquinas made some mistakes aquinas didn't necessarily believe in the immaculate conception the way we do but that's okay it was because of what they knew in science back then and augustine you know he felt that adam and eve was all eve's fault he says it was because the woman got in the way but he wasn't chauvinistic he went on to talk about mother church and the woman at the well the samaritan woman at the well explaining all the rules of women so anyway doctor of the church means you can especially read their writings that they're hand-picked by god to be teachers so anyway he's become one of the most influential thinkers in the history of the catholic church all right let's take a look at our next slide all right and this is here is the story of his life and his conversion it's a book called the confessions you've probably heard of it this was required reading in seminary all of us seminarians had to read this book and i remember reading it thinking whoa this is awesome even i'm not that bad and so don't let spiritual pride get to us though because man the lord will nail us in other ways so anyway the confessions now perhaps the most intimate and well-known glimpse of any soul ever in church history is this book in saint augustine and so anyway what did he say now okay i can't give you all the teaching now but i'm going to just highlight a little bit of the big things that he talked about one of the big ones is original sin now his first insight was into the nature of sin and what happened he stole some pears the fruit all right and he did not want to steal them this is in the book the confessions he didn't steal the fruit because he was hungry he stole the fruit because it was not permitted it was one of those things about his very nature our nature is broken and he said it was very foul but i loved it sounds like sin right and so from this instance he concluded that the human person is inclined to sin it's called concupiscence and it helped to develop or he did the doctrine of original sin god works this way where's that in the bible the bible develops over time god has to develop us as we are ready and able to learn more at certain times this is what happened original sin then is what he wrote about and he said that's why we need the grace of god so his conversion was prompted when he heard a voice some of us have heard voices and it was a child's voice take up and read take up and read so he took that to mean a command from god to open the bible and read the first passage he saw you know it's funny i didn't know this story before i went to seminary before i became a marian and i was down in north carolina and i had a bible on the table i was just coming back to my faith and i accidentally knocked the bible off the table and it fell it flipped over and fell flat down and it was half open on one side half hope somewhere in the middle it opened and i remember looking at the bible first of all saying i didn't mean to do that lord but then i remember is there it just popped in my head is there a message that our lord is telling us and i opened up to the passage in matthew because i was discerning the priest the lord shall become a priest not become a priest and it says those who choose to become eunuchs for the kingdom of god should now that doesn't mean we're castrated what it means is we give up the gift of sexuality to be able to share with the kingdom of god something greater and i remember reading that thinking oh no lord no no but i knew in my heart and this is what augustine did he picked up the bible and he read what did he read let's look at our screen romans 13 13. not in rioting and drunkenness not in strife and ending but put on the lord jesus christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof hmm doesn't mean sexuality is bad within marriage it's a gift it's a beautiful gift the renewal of the covenant but misused so augustine ended his relationship with his lover he became a monk for a period of time and he was finally then his life was converted he became a priest in 391 and then in 395 only four years later he became a bishop of hippo this is in africa served for 35 years but we need bishops like this today and he learned not only that excuse me he learned that we're not going to learn everything in this world we're going to learn it through jesus wisdom humility and love and you know what's interesting is that's what we've been trying to teach you in this series wisdom we're teaching you the facts the knowledge that what the church teaching is humility surrender to god trust in jesus and love love that's why we have father cass and so we keep always pointing to these three now he saw and learned from philosophers now what's philosophy you know what's interesting of all the preacher men around the world there are baptist preachers methodist preachers non-denominational preachers tele evangelist preachers not any of them but the catholic priest takes philosophy we are actually required in seminary to take philosophy before we study theology what is philosophy the study of man then we study theology the study of god you got to understand man first or you're never going to reach him philosophy is the study of man the study of reason the study of logic the study of epistemology knowledge wisdom how does man think so in today's course in seminary i'm taking you to epistemology out epistemology the study of wisdom of the man's kinds knowledge actually the study of logic how the human brain thinks with a equals b and b equals c then a equals c only the catholic priest is taught philosophy no other place no other preacher and so this is important so he went and learned philosophy and he says that's where we can learn wisdom and then take it a step farther then we learn the wisdom of god but he said the best wisdom or excuse me pope benedict said the best wisdom augustine ever gave us one sentence pope benedict loved saint augustine and he said one sentence made him all his wisdom love the sinner hate the sin you know actually gandhi quoted that in his 1929 biography autobiography gandhi that in his autobiography and so anyway over many years he penned tons of sermons letters uh documents in which he explained catholic catholic doctrine and defended them against heresy he also had to contend with barbarian invasions sounds like us today doesn't it we may not have clubs and pitchforks well i think that might be coming soon when they're going to force me to take the vaccine but this is this is really happening in a way this is really happening and so let's take a look at what we see on our next slide in 4 10. i laugh my mom used to always tease my dad that we're related to alaric the hun my last name is our last name a-l-a-r and alaric the han is a-l-a-r-i-c which means the son of alar and we traced our family roots back to the western banks of the danube and that's where alaric the hun comes from the western banks of the danube i always laugh that's when my brothers probably say well now that explains father chris so anyway he sacked rome most people think rome fell in 476 actually the first fall of rome was in 410 at the hands of alaric he was of the goths i say lark the hun but he was a goth and anyway it was in this midst of this horrible situation just like we're facing now barbarians at the gates right there's a book barbarians at the gates this is what's going on right now we have the new world order and we have the anti-christian movement and we have secularism and cultural relativism these are the barbarians at our gates today and we have to fight that and so anyway augustine did and he finished writing according to this situation his most famous book let's put it up on there the screen the city of god you can see it on your screen this is his most famous book it tried to show that although human history is full of war and strife still by the mercy of god the city of god which is what the heavenly kingdom will endure hmm good stuff so he built up he talked about it that the city of god is built up through the means of grace that god gives us how how through the church here's a man let's see 315 1200 years before the reformation 1200 years before any protestant walked this earth explaining that god works through his church and what church was there then only the catholic church there was no other and so he gives us this grace to the church and this is whose duty and whose duty is to now convert those barbarian invaders to the christian faith so that's why we have to keep praying all right live your faith he said we are all called to evangelize but it starts with our own family hmm talk about that more in a minute so with threats augustine said man this is not good because we send all the priests in there all the priests are going to get killed and we're not going to have any priests and we won't have any eucharists in the eucharist so he said some priests should go some should stay some should go minister take on the barbarians others should stay so what happened he said the clergy should cast lots so they literally cast lots and he himself stayed in hippo when the vandals took siege and he died right before they took and sacked rome uh the second time so anyway he died on august 28th 4 30 before the barbarians broke through for their next biggest conquest so anyway he condemned a lot of things like he he's a good guy for teaching today do you know he condemned abortion he was really outspoken against induced abortion he said it is a crime at any stage of pregnancy any stage and so he worked tirelessly to convert people to catholicism now that's a dirty word oh you're proselytizing you're proselytizing he's like no it's called conversion and i'm gonna have to go before god someday and say did i bring souls to you that doesn't mean you have to stand on a soapbox and preach scripture but what it means is we always be christ-like draw people to jesus so he's the patron of theologians printers that's for us at the center of marion helper center and brewers so for those priests who have a beer once in a while think of saint augustine now a lot of other works that have become very critical in defining our faith i'll just touch on some of these um in fact pope benedict i mentioned says he's one of the a big big in fact the greatest father of the latin church he's one of the first four doctors of the church she's one of the originals now it's funny because even the protestants revere him you can't deny this guy most modern day protestants deny him that's where they've lost their way but earlier protestants didn't listen to this r.c spruill said quote if there is any giant that stands out in the history of the church as the man upon whose shoulders the whole history of theology stands it is a man by the name of aurelius augustine saint augustine this was a protestant in the 19th century so the 1800s this is before some others to modern day now almost no protestants see the value of church fathers it's a shame because how do you think the church how do you think the word of god was spread the first thousand years when there was no protestant religions it was spread by guys like augustine and aquinas church fathers now in the 19th century anglican historian phillip schafe called him quote a philosophical and theological genius of the first order towering like a pyramid over above his age and looking down commandingly upon exceeding centuries good stuff all right so why then do protestants ignore him today and most of all almost all the church fathers they shouldn't you can't just throw away the way that god used to spread his word through the centuries some protestants claim though that no actually he is pretty good and they try to twist his teaching saying for instance faith alone like luther and calvin now here's the thing no he said he said no to faith alone so when you're when you're challenged by your neighbors why are you catholic you are saved by faith alone ah the church fathers don't agree with that and i think they know better than we do two thousand years of church history he said no god created us without us but he will not save us without us we gotta cooperate with his grace when the catholics talk about works please don't be challenged when somebody says you think you catholics teach about works then we mean works of the law what we mean by works is works of love in matthew 25 the sheep and the goats and many other passages james 2 24 you are not saved by faith alone but by works of love this is what augustine taught so we are saved by god's grace but we must cooperate now how do you do that it starts with human reason remember i just mentioned a minute ago philosophy you want to know what a catholic priest learns in school the first two years we don't touch a theology book the first two years we learn philosophy how mankind thinks so that we can understand man and how he receives god now philosophy i shouldn't say we don't touch a theology because of course we're reading the bible we're reading all that that goes with it in the teachings of augustine that refer to theology but the key is faith and reason not faith alone we need faith and the human reason for instance this is a key issue in augustine's confessions all right augustine testifies how reason puts man on the road to god reason first gets you to look to god there's got to be something else in this world than than than what we see there's got to be something greater human reason you know thomas aquinas has the five proofs for the existence of god you want to blow away your atheistic friends google thomas aquinas five proofs for the existence of god not one has anything to do with faith it's all based on human reason now i don't have time to explain them but you know my favorite one is my favorite reason that thomas aquinas gives for the existence of god is called basically it's the first cause what does that mean okay i'm here before you today what caused me to exist my parents well what caused them to exist their parents well what caused them to exist their parents you can't keep going backwards odd infinitum you can't keep going backwards forever somewhere it had to have a starting point that starting point is god the first uh creator or the first uh mover the first um you know in terms of cause the first cause anyway he said the key here is augustine said that it is reason that looks us look to god but then faith gets us through the door he says that it felt faith elevates reason taking it beyond this is the problem with islam and protestant fundamentalism okay islam and protestant fundamentalism are blind faith not all protestants please don't send me the letters but the fundamentalists so so same with islam they look at as a blind faith islam says well just strap a bomb to my my body because that's the will of god that's blind faith that's not using human reason that god gave us and so this is important stuff so skeptics will bicycle basically say well you know what i'm not into this faith thing um all we need is something objective scientific and verifiable so i will you rely only on human reason no i'm not saying only human reason i'm not saying only faith i'm saying reason with faith that's not me saying it that's the catholic teaching since way back in the beginning of the church even augustine 1700 years ago so let's look at this uh basically they'll say faith is subjective personal irrational even bordering on madness no i remember getting letters like you know a lot of people that want to engage in dialogue is beautiful but prove to me well first i always go to the eucharistic miracles that is proof to me but faith is not about proof human reason leads you there logically to the faith door and then faith walks you through the door all right so for many people today it's only about our own intellectual power it's only about being oh the enlightenment i said the other day the world calls the dark ages dark and the enlightenment of the rev um the mankind's uh human or the french revolution as enlightenment it's actually reversed the dark age is a time of aquinas bonaventure these great teachers they call the dark ages scholasticism was the beautiful gift of the church and then came human the french revolution in enlightenment where we don't need god and they call that the enlightenment the world's got it backwards and so anyway this is why people rely too much on ourselves so we have to look out and say reason leads us to faith now let's finish up here before we go on to scripture but they can't conflict there can't be a conflict between faith and reason we can't do it they both flow from god we can't contradict each other reason should and must play a central role however faith gets us through the door as i said all right now i'm going to skip ahead here because faith is a gift from god what are the three gifts from god you all know about virtue through good hard work you can grow in virtue what are the cardinal virtues prudence think before you speak justice give somebody their due like religion go to church give god as do worship temperance don't like try to overindulge in any one thing these are called the cardinal virtues meaning we can do them with our own work but there's three that we can't they're purely a gift at your baptism and whether or not you foster them is up to you your parents your lifestyle and that's faith hope and love and so this is what we have to realize augustine said can god be understood by reason alone no we need faith not faith alone not reason alone both and so he said this is this is really important all right so pope benedict said he was one of the greatest christian scholars god can be approached by humans through truth of science and faith we're as opposed to in the other times for instance superstition up until christianity gods of the nile or gods of mount olympus they were different they had to have power they had to crush man they did not take into account the real truth but superstition and so augustine straightened this out he said the god of abraham uses human reason he works with mankind and this is why we have to understand what god was trying to teach us through augustine and he said but be careful he said this is important reason tells us that god is love he created us out of love we can make that human reason why else would god make what he did with us if it wasn't love but he said be careful dissident theology denies god's justice god has justice too he said there are people who say there is no hell no purgatory god sometimes chastises us by allowing us to suffer he said scripture hebrew 12 6 he said it wakes us up it summons us back to repentance because hebrews 12 6 says those whom the lord loves he chastises so basically this is what augustine was all about when he formed he became this whole idea of teaching he became a doctor of the church so now you have an understanding of what god gave augustine to teach us but now i want to dive in a little bit to scripture because augustine said everything is based on the mercy of god this was way back i get letters oh father faustina is some new saint that only poland john paul because he was polish made this saint mercy is a bunch of hogwash no improper mercy or false mercy meaning there's no justice yeah that's wrong but augustine talked about the need for mercy he said now check this out his teachings are basically what we still hold in the catholic faith today augusta did not augustine did not teach sola scriptura bible alone he didn't he said listen to this all one of all the topics that besides call no man your father that's number one but of all the questions and challenges i get as a priest probably right behind that is man-made tradition and augustine makes a great point he says this is not man-made tradition this is called sacred apostolic tradition from the apostles which came from jesus and listen to what he said he said always put sacred tradition above any personal interpretation of scripture wow i think i'm going to put that on my email you know how they sign at the bottom of the email because that is the number one way that we are losing souls i interpret scripture my way augustine's saying uh-uh never put it above sacred apostolic tradition he said if an interpretation contradicts a tradition of the church not man-made apostolic meaning from the apostles he said then that interpretation must be abandoned now this is coming way before there were non-catholic christians a man who only conforms to the literal fundamental sense doesn't understand the spiritual sense that's why the pharisees he said made malicious accusations against jesus because when he was healed on the sabbath or when he healed people on the sabbath all they did was attack him that's all they did was attack him why because they were holding to the letter of the law not to the sense of the spirit this is important so augustine reminds us that we have to understand these things you know he even talked you know this is kind of interesting i was going to skip this but he gives an example and i think this is interesting he uses the example in scripture of the lion is the lion good or bad in scripture what's your interpretation is the lion good or bad hmm he said well in one place the lion signifies christ the lion of judah the lion of the tribe of judah has prevailed revelation 5 5. but he says in another place first peter 5 8 it's satan your adversary the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour so this is why augustine said we need the church he said this is why we need the church to interpret for us the meaning of a lion and when it's to be interpreted as god and when it's to be interpreted as as the devil this is why when people write to me about mary calling her the of babylon this can't be the interpretation of the mother of god but yet people are putting personal interpretation above sacred tradition sacred tradition is found in the church so augustine found authority he said in three places well wait a minute only jesus is authority aha yes this is true but they're all part of jesus let's listen to this he said there's authority in three places the person of jesus his church and the church's teaching they're all christ what do you mean father they're all jesus when somebody says it's jesus only you can say yeah it is said there is no conflict between christ that was the first one the person his body that's the second one the church and wisdom that's the third one the church teaching like wow do we not see this so when somebody says why do you go to that catholic church it's only about jesus you can say yes it is because jesus had body and he had a wisdom and so we have jesus the person that's the first thing we follow but jesus had a body his body is the church and jesus had wisdom the wisdom is church teaching because he speaks through the word so this is funny because this is he said christ through his body the church demonstrates the truth of wisdom i would not believe in the gospel he said had not the authority of the catholic church already moved me so here's augustine mentioning the word catholic church 1200 years before there is any other church [Music] holy scripture the word of god put to paper by men inspired by the holy spirit he said possesses a certitude of authority coming directly from the divine author and protected by the church this doesn't mean the church can't do stupid things this doesn't mean the church doesn't make mistakes what it means is in her teaching in her excathedra teaching of faith and morals it will not lead you astray that gates of hell will not prevail against it now augustine says forgiveness of sins is so readily available in the church how confessions that the only unforgivable sin sorry here we're telling you to turn off your cell phone and i'm the one with my cell phone on so he said this is augustine that the only unforgivable sin the sin against the holy spirit is not to believe that sins are forgiven in the church wow augustine is saying the only unforgivable sin the sin against the holy spirit is to believe that christ's church the church he established the church that he built doesn't have the authority to forgive sins now again the authority doesn't come from the church christ gave it to the church and so this is where we have to understand all right and so this is really powerful now he would also affirm that god knows from all eternity who would accept his gift of salvation or not god you know one of the famous things i met it was funny because this is a couple years ago i was flying home from somewhere and one of our employees called and says hey somebody landed at the airport and they're coming up here i forget the reason they were meeting with one of our priests or something and they said could you give them a lift since you're coming back from the airport i said sure so i gave this person a lift and it was hilarious we had never we had never spoken before and the entire way home all this person drilled me on was how can we have free will if god already knows we're going to end up in heaven or hell god has predetermined it he has ultimate authority so why bother good question now god has foreknowledge he knows every single one of us watching or in this church our eternal fate god knows every one of us in this room this church this chapel on the live stream if you ultimately are going to be a lost soul or a saved soul or by way of purgatory he already knows the end result well then father there's nothing i can do about it yeah because for knowledge meaning god is omniscient he has all knowledge he sees everything at once if this was the beginning of the world and this was the end of the world god sees it all instantaneously god's outside of time and so people say all the time well if he knows then what do i get he already knows there's nothing i can do god's foreknowledge his omniscience doesn't trump your free will let's suppose you say tomorrow i want to change well god knew a million years ago that tomorrow you were going to change you see the point predestination from a protestant john calvin is something we call double predestination meaning that god says you souls over here are going to heaven you souls over here are going to hell and that's it there's nothing you can do about it the catholic church doesn't teach that we do teach predestination not double predestination meaning that god has ordained you for a particular mission and to be an elect with him in heaven we don't teach double predestination that there are some souls damned to hell the day they are born there's no love in that and so you don't want to belong to a faith that teaches such a thing that's why you got to be saved don't be one of the those condemned in predestination because you're a lost soul if we choose it we're a lost soul but right now you have the three free will power to change that and if you say well god already knows your decision today to change your life would have been seen by god a million years ago and thus seeing you in heaven i think that's fascinating and that is catholic church teaching all right you want to summarize all of gustin's in one paragraph i think i got enough time to read it you want to summarize it this was patristic scholar richard price summarized everything of augustine's teaching in one paragraph let's listen to this man in his fallen state meaning after the fall in the garden is only capable of evil but god is able to rescue him not by overriding his free will but by precisely empowering it giving you the choice if you want to be saved or not giving you the choice if you want to be with god or not evil is not something concrete and positive and created i teach that all the time evil's not a real thing evil is a lack of something a privation a lack of the good when you suck the good out of something you have evil that's why we take god who's goodness itself out of our families out of our courts out of our schools what's left is evil and we wonder why there's school shootings left and right he says evil is not something concrete and real but a mere deficiency an absence of the good every created thing in virtue of its mere existence is good god wouldn't have created you if you weren't good by the fact god created you your good that's why when people say father i am so rotten to the core you are created ontologically good your choices could be bad but you are created good in the eyes of god every living thing every conscious and rational being has some potential to respond to the grace of god even in the midst of suffering in fallen man this potential though is weakened that's why we need baptism he said after the fall we are weakened but divine grace is able to bring back this potential to realization to reawaken and re reanimate the natural powers within every soul and every human being to do the good powerful stuff this it does by acting through external stimuli such as get a load of this listening to preaching the sacraments and the good example of christ and the saints where do you find all of those the church and inner assistance within the will itself meaning you have the ability to choose the good from the bad you are given free will as beings endowed with free will we could choose to resist the healing grace of god or accept it that's why when people say father why do you keep carrying on about good works works are of love means you cooperate with god's grace you love him and love your neighbor what did jesus say the two great commandments are love him love your neighbor but everybody in non-catholic field says it's only about grace yes it starts with grace but what did jesus say the two great commandments are grace no he said the two great commandments are love love god love your neighbor so you've got to take that grace accept it into your heart cooperate with it then live it that's what makes the catholic faith different from every single 40 000 other christian denominations and it makes sense using what human reason again the catholic church teaching philosophy i love this so he says but god can so work on us that we have the desire to seek him that is faith god bless all of you for watching because you have faith you wouldn't be watching this if you didn't have some sliver of faith so you have enough to build on you have enough to be saved just by the fact that you're seeking god here it's amazing it is rare though that we talk about this anymore in society when is the last time you turned on the tv and heard about augustine's day doctrina christiana [Laughter] when was the last time but we turn on the tv and hear garbage garbage it's never taught in fact it's not even taught in the seminaries i went to one of the few seminaries that even teach this praise be to god so god augustine reminds us of our love for god and love for neighbor that's how you cooperate with his grace to be saved so all men are to be loved equally but here's the catch can you love all men equally you can't love them in the same way there's no way i can love the man in in in india the same way that i don't know and i'm 10 000 miles away from in the same way that i love my mom when i'm at her bedside so here's what augustine said i think this is powerful he said yes all men are to be loved equally but since you can't love everyone equally those are especially to be cared for are who are most closely bound to you by place time opportunity or relation so no matter how much you like or don't like it the people god puts in your path maybe it's the co-worker sitting right next to you at work [Music] god puts that soul in front of you for a purpose and a lot of saints tell us the people you're going to be most thankful for when you die are the ones who annoyed you the most because that is how we grow in patience virtue and we carry our cross jesus said there's no other way except curing our cross so among all men not all of whom you can care for you must consider those in your life that god has placed there as almost chosen by lot meaning god gave them to you they were chosen by god all right so to finish the last third of this talk how do we put this into effect what do we do father all right you've given me all the you've given me the history of monica and augustine we did that you gave me the teaching of augustine that paragraph that i just read you amazing we gave you the teaching of augusta now let's finish with the biggie what do you do because i always hate it when i used to go to these seminars when i was an engineer and they would tell us all about our problems and you got to have a paradigm shift you got to look at all the different ways of solving these problems okay all right thank you for coming to the seminar have a great day well how do you solve them give me the tools that's how we're going to do this rest of this talk right now what do you do all right first power of prayer first thing you have to do is to acknowledge patient prayer is hard it's not easy all right prayer i said this in my thursday video prayer can seem like a holy waste of time it really can in the same way that we i pointed out the example playing with your little toddler you won't get anything out of it in terms of a to-do list you're not going to get anything done in the sense that mowing the lawn or shopping for groceries geez i wasted all that time the conversation doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be intellectual or a high level it's going to be gugu gaga but and the chores won't get done the yard won't be mowed but you're going to do something love our relationship has now been affirmed you know one of the biggest reasons why men end up in prison lack of affirmation when they were yet little lack of a father lack of having somebody there for them teaching them the faith so it is with prayer you can spend time with them you can grow with them same with god you can spend time with him in prayer and you can grow with him not just god but also the communion of saints like we are today augustine and monica all right you enrich and restore your relationship with god through prayer all right yeah you don't get the bed made or the dishes washed all the work can be prayer you know we work all day but offer it up as prayer the benedictines aura at labora work and prayer and yet yeah i get nothing done father yet you get everything done i accomplished nothing father yet you accomplished everything why because prayer is powerful not in the same way that a computer or something that you can point and click and get some instant result is powerful no but prayer in a broken family for instance is powerful just as speaking the truth in the midst of a bunch of lies right now this world is full of a bunch of lies telling you marriage is not between a man and a woman telling you there is millions of different religions and all of them are the same telling you that we don't need to have our freedoms i'm watching this video the other day and a hollywood actor you all know actually gets on there they're talking about the vaccine they're talking about religious exemptions and they said what about our freedom and he said f your freedom it's the last time ever watching a movie of that actor because this is in the midst of lies it's as powerful as speaking the truth that's what prayer in a world of secularism is like it's like speaking the truth in the midst of a bunch of lies a midst of a secular world with atheistic ideology you're praying you're doing the same kind of thing it's like living a virtuous life amidst universal corruption all the all the immorality going on in the world right now go to any place on a weekend night go to las vegas on a weekend night see all the immorality going on you living a moral life in the midst of that is the same thing as prayer screaming out in a world of atheism prayer is powerful because it lets god in allows the saints to help opens the door to the angels to heaven unleashing heaven on the world through prayer is powerful it's amazing that god influences and guides the course of human history but yet respects our free will this is incredible he responds to our free will he did with augustine but yet he pursued augustine he respected his free will but he kept after him after him after him my free will for years decades said i'm not going to be a priest for decades for years i said i'm not going to be a priest but god kept pursuing me did he trump my free will no i could have made the decision not to become a priest but god is a love story the bible is a love story the the groom pursuing his wayward bride he doesn't trump the free will he respected gustin's free will so anyway god what did he do then to to pursue him he put truth in his path he put truth he sent christians and saints like saint ambrose in his way he brought him to church put converts in front of him speaking to him he took up the scripture he heard a voice take up the bible and read have you taken up the bible and read lately struggling with your faith use these tools god's place in before you and it all came through the prayers of saint monica not even him came through the prayers of saint monica you want your loved one to come back starts with prayer she was tempted to give up didn't believe her prayers were making a difference or tears were having no effect we may too and the news seems to get worse every day the world afghanistan what's going on it's intense it may not seem like it but the great the greatest thing we could do is patient perseverance of prayer we must pray for all of our church our priests and bishops those who are making stupid comments and stupid decisions or even failures i mean i don't think too much that i've ever said anything against church teaching but i've done stupid things dumb things uncharitable things selfish things so we pray we must continue to pray for our loved ones each day even if it seems they're slipping farther away saint faustina was given special insight into this jesus told her that the salvation of thousands of souls depended on her prayer are you kidding me yeah he told her that even in the face of suffering we need to persevere but your own salvation though is just the beginning the salvation of your loved ones depends on your prayers too jesus told that to saint faustina i can't emphasize enough you'll be like ah father you're giving me the answer here what to do you tell me to pray i know i know i can't emphasize it enough jesus said in diary 1777 pray as much as you can for the dying by your entreaties obtained for them trust in my mercy because they have it i'm sorry because they have most need of trust yet have it the least be assured that the grace of eternal salvation for certain souls in their final moment depends on your prayer so we need to pray open the floodgates to heaven allow the grace of god to pour out on the earth we need to be steeped in prayer the word of god strengthened by the sacraments actual grace it's the word and the sacraments both not one not the other independently both the word and the sacraments you know the rosary has certain promises right one of the promises number six this those who shall recite my rosary devoutly meditating on its mysteries shall not be overwhelmed by misfortune the sinner shall be converted are you praying the rosary well no father but i'm praying the chaplet okay jesus told saint faustina at the three o'clock hour to do what i love saying this is from father seraphim everybody always thinks pray the chaplain actually the first thing to do at the three o'clock hour is pray for the conversion of sinners we'll talk about that in a moment but i'm going to finish here with something i talked about a year ago and i've never mentioned since but i think it's that powerful you want to know father chris what do i do to bring my loved ones back to the truth or to the faith i'm going to give you something of all the things i've ever read in seminary online been taught been teached is by a guy named brandon voigt called the seven steps to bring your loved one back to the church or anyone and i read these and i'm like this guy gets it and i want to share those with you that's we're going to finish so if brother mark can put the seven steps on the screen i think he can make them up in the little corner where they'll just stay up in the corner great so i'm going to have him leave these up in the corner i'm going to go through these seven steps with you this is how you bring a loved one back to the church now french author antoine de san xupery said a goal without a plan is just a wish a goal without a plan is just a wish so what's your plan are you wishing your loved one comes back to the faith or do you got a plan to bring your loved one back to the faith well yeah i trust everything in jesus yes you do but he's saying okay it's like a good manager at a fortune 500 company what does he do he tasks his managers to carry out the tasks god's like the ceo but the ceo's not out there pounding the pavement the sales reps are and so we aren't here to push pull or prod anyone back into the church it'll never work how do you get them back you rather you stand beside them so step number one pray fast and sacrifice or alms nothing else matters without these three why they're in the bible prayer we've already talked about fasting and sacrifice or almsgiving none of these nothing matters without these three how much do i need to pray father okay there's no right or wrong answer to that but if you're super busy you're a parent at least 15 minutes a day everybody has 15 minutes a day i challenge every one of you remember mother teresa when the guy said mother teresa i have no time to pray or to do a holy hour she says then you need two i am guilty of it myself i have no time for this i can't do this i can't do this i can't do this i challenge every one of you that if we look back and recorded your day i could find 15 minutes i promise you so at least 15 minutes make a quality the bible says god loves tireless prayer remember the persistent widow even if it is the same prayer every day sometimes that prayer takes 20 years before the seed you're planting germinate how much do you desire the conversion of your loved one recruit a heavenly ally a patron saint is your child a doctor then talk to the patrons saying cyril and methodius the patron saint of physicians is your son a cook or your husband a cook talk to saint lawrence the patron saint of chefs when they burned them at the stake so recruit a heavenly ally all right that's step one two step two equip yourself what does that mean you can't give what you don't have you first have to become deep in your faith you have to know your faith father how do i know my faith you're watching us you're learning your faith you're going back to seminary with me you're here as part of the explaining the faith series this is our part to help you equip yourself you can't give what you don't have you can't love what you don't know so the more you know god and our faith the more you can love god in your faith and you're doing it by watching this video you're equipping yourself the bible the catechism if you haven't read the catechism phenomenal every single thing in there is like a gem of gold if you're tired of me shouting watch scott hahn stephen ray some of these other great people out there all right there's a lot of other all right number three plant the seeds how do you plant a seed father give seed gifts like dvds or cds or books you know one of the biggest things that was part of my conversion was the book by scott hahn the lamb supper and one of the biggest things from my conversion because it told me what we have in the eucharist right or perhaps a small pamphlet left on their desk right then plant the seeds of faith in their life know make sure that they know that your love is unconditional you're worried about their soul not your self-righteousness what's your motivation why do you want them to convert so you can be right no so they can be saved you will love them though no matter what even if they don't convert you still love them you still love them even if they don't come back do works of mercy for them are you all keeping up on your works of mercy every day do a work of mercy word deed or prayer say something nice for somebody do something nice for somebody pray for somebody work of mercy good stuff all right fourth open the conversation i can tell you if you think by ignoring a problem is going to go away it ain't at some point you need to start the dialogue about god and the church some point but don't dwell on it don't do it with a club in your hand ask if they would be open to discussing rather than just starting it when they resist catch them in a good mood say you want to listen to them not lecture them you know i want to know what your thoughts are listen first thing you got to do is listen your goal is to find out why they don't go to church why they don't believe in god then you end the conversation and you can do your research to find out if they ended their thing let's say because the scandal of the church oh i left the church i don't believe in god because it could never happen a scandal like that well then you could go do some research read the jenkins report out of penn state or you know or the jaycon study out of penn state and in others they give you a whole new light it's not what you hear in the media all right um or the john jay report is another one i'm gonna do a talk on that soon but all right number five move the dialogue forward again you can go back in our video and get these steps later if you can't get them all now speaking with joy and positive positiveness is that a word positivity clear up any misconceptions they might have no the crusades weren't really what you learned no the inquisition wasn't really what you learned no mary magdalene did not carry the baby of jesus in her womb these are the things people misunderstand about our faith if the person says i was never spiritually fed as a catholic now i go to this non-denominational church and we sing kumbaya then you educate what the eucharist means all right it's likely that they never fully understood the eucharist or they were never exposed to it to great teachings of the church give them saint augustine gently propose them propose to them and encourage them to reconsider and learn what the church really teaches remember fault and sheen millions of people hate what they think is the catholic church very few if any hate what is actually the catholic church all right two more six invite and connect invite them don't force them i have two good friends they're always talking about their children father i gotta force them to go to church no you invite them they're adult now when they're kids no that's part of the family they're living under your roof that's part of the rule even adult kids if they're not paying rent and they're living under your roof you can say you got to follow the rules of this household now if they're adults and they're living on their own you invite them all right invite them to a parish event pull don't push maybe a softball game find something that matches their interests maybe they love sports take them to a a church softball game basically your goal is to usher in this person into the life of the parish to reestablish bonds and so they can see hey these are good people don't move too fast though only extend those invitations after the person has expressed a willingness or an openness to returning otherwise you might push them away all right seven last close the loop help them to reconcile with the church that's what the priests are for most people say they don't come back to church because they don't know what to do help them get a hold of the parish priest many say as i said that they they don't know how to come back maybe they just need to be a good confession maybe they just need rcia to learn what our faith teaches a good priest will assess the situation to determine the next best step not always us the key never give up remember the persistent widow never stop god loves them even more than you do and he wants them saved even more than you do but what you can do is help them see what it's affecting you how it's positively helped you tell your story people love conversion stories don't be afraid of it all right now finally i wanted to show on the last couple slides something i call the big four ways i always talk about the big four devotions the sacred heart of jesus the immaculate heart of mary divine mercy and the precious blood the big four devotions well i'm going to tell you right now the big four ways to bring somebody back to church these you want to write down so if you watch the video later pause replay it the big four one have masses said for them even if they don't know it you can have a mass said and not even tell the office of the parish what your intention is you can say for the intentions my intentions what is your intentions to my son comes back to the church have masses said for them the saints tell us one mass done for somebody why they are alive is worth more than a hundred after they're dead two pray the rosary and chaplet daily for them why because it's like the mass father they're not going to mass you can take them to mass what is the mass it's divided into two parts liturgy of the word liturgy the eucharist you're not getting them to mass you bring mass to them what are you talking about father all right it's a start yeah the best would be for them to be here receiving holy communion but yes start it get the grace flowing this is very important come on in you can god bless you and so bring them how how do i bring the mass to somebody father we'll first have a mass said for them secondly pray the rosary pray the chapel why because what is what is the first part of mass the liturgy of the word we meditate on scripture what's the rosary it's not a bunch of hail mary's the rosary is a meditation on scripture next you pray the chaplet what's the chaplet well what's the second part of the mass it's like liturgy of the eucharist pray the chapel why is the chapter like liturgy of the eucharist offer sacrifice in the liturgy of the eucharist the priests offer sacrifice when you pray the chaplet guess what by virtue of your baptism you're a priest you share in the common priesthood of christ the three offices of jesus priest prophet and king when you were baptized you became a priest a prophet and a king now when you say the chaplet you're offering sacrifice it's like the second part of the mass so if you pray the rosary and the chaplain daily you're bringing mass to them powerful stuff third let them see your joy if church does nothing but make you miserable how in the world are you going to get your loved ones to want to be part of that see the joy in your faith and finally offer all your penances and sufferings diary 961 jesus told saint faustina every conversion of a sinful soul demands sacrifice you want the conversion of a sinful soul that you love it's going to take some sacrifice offer up some penances offer up some sacrifices these are the big four you do these consistently with a big heart i can promise you or our faith means nothing that god is going to bring those souls or at least the opportunity for those souls to come back to him i guess you could add number five pray that they don't reject the grace all right now let's finish that's why sacraments communion and confession will help you become holy so then that your holiness and sanctity becomes contagious offer your communion for them how many times do you have a lost loved one that you come to holy communion and as you're walking up this line do you say lord god almighty in heaven i am offering up the incredible grace that you are giving me that i am now receiving in holy communion for them or do we just come up and stick out our hand [Music] are we tapping into the most powerful graces ever are we offering up our holy communion for their conversion if we aren't now's the time to start and ask for the intercession of saint augustine all right i know i'm way longer i could wrap this up in two minutes remember faith is about your relationship with god and the rest of the mystical body of christ the saints can help us here if you don't talk to god then start with mary or the angels or the saints get you to god they bring you to god do works of mercy this is what we've been teaching and preaching because then you are living the commandments loving god loving your neighbor do works of mercy for love of jesus and neighbor which will help change your relatives when they see you what did what change and we're going through this what they call a pandemic but when you look at the history the plague in the middle ages you know what converted and saved europe the plague what are you talking about father europe was wayward they were losing their faith then the plague hit and you know what converted and switched changed europe because all the people dying in the streets saw the priests and the nuns out there taking care of them and risking their own life and they said i want to be like that even if i don't become a priest i want to have that kind of faith that was the message that the church now we're closing our doors so pray for the church pray for our priests to get out there to the people so works of mercy do this allows us to have grace and powerful grace brought back all right consecrate yourself consecrate yourself to joseph or mary these are special acts of devotion great ways to let go and trust heaven to take on your challenges that's what miriam consecration is it means mary i can't do this i'm giving it to you you ever had that co-worker at work uh you know what john i can't really do this here you take it that's what's going on you give it to mary consecrate your family including those that are away you can consecrate your family as a whole so if it includes it or your workplace this is powerful make a regular holy hour for them are you making a holy hour for them are you actually going before the blessed sacrament and asking god for the grace of conversion for your loved one do you really want that grace of conversion and love for your loved one then get before that blessed sacrament you shall obtain all you ask for me [Music] by recitation of the rosary and the 15 promises of our lady jesus diary 17 31 through the chaplet you will attain everything if what you ask for is compatible with my will you don't think conversion of your loved one is not compatible with his will it is all right last couple slides diary st faustina some public powerful quotes here all right this one here diarising faustina call upon my mercy on behalf of sinners i desire their salvation when you say this prayer hear that when you say this prayer with a contrite heart and with faith on behalf of some sinner i will give them the grace of conversion two questions what prayer and when is that grace coming okay we're going to read the prayer in a minute and secondly when is that grace going to be given we don't know it may not even be to the moment of their death but what is that prayer jesus said call upon my mercy i desire their salvation for behalf of sinners when you say this prayer with a contrite heart i will give them the grace of conversion what is that prayer next slide o blood and water which gush forth from the heart of jesus as a fount of mercy for us i trust in you father seraphim went to his grave reciting that prayer that was his favorite ultimate prayer at three o'clock jesus said first pray for the conversion of sinners so the bottom line basically what jesus told say faustina this is hilarious stop talking so much to them about it and start talking to me more about it so stop talking to those of you who you love that are falling away jesus said stop talking so much to them about it start talking to me about it i love that light a blessed candle for them we have them here at the national shrine pray before a holy image of jesus like the divine mercy call upon the saints to be an advocate for them and last finally the green scapular let's put that slide up i talked about this on my other talk of all the scapulars and there are some great ones the brown scapular we have the blue scapular and they have enrollments and they have prayers that's great that's awesome but this green scapular is special there's no special enrollment there's nothing that's required especially designed and given by mary for the conversion of your loved ones and in fact they don't even have to say the prayer you can say the prayer for them with the green scapular you can go get that green scapular for them you can pray for them and you can hide it in their room i know people put it under their mattress put it somewhere in the house that green scapular has traditional stories of great conversions and so with that i've given you hopefully enough to at least think about and that is why this is so important and you know you gotta you gotta know our faith we gotta have what we want we wanna give some we gotta have it so you know i'll look at on the screen brother mark could put up you know what if you want more information on this we have our dvd out there called explaining the faith you can get that at shopmercy.org or call 1-800-4 marion 462-7426 there's three days left for the offer on my book which we've been offering all the way through the end of august so what's today the 28th 28th 29th 30th is our 31st in august yeah my mind is fried right now four days you can still get my book for any donation because we still have some supplies left once those supplies are gone it's out so you want to get that book call 800 462-7426 or you can visit online at divinemercy.org udm and you can order it you can call or order that's the only way that the discount is offered um our gift shop it's it's the regular thing but we can i'll sign it for you but and finally become a member of our marian helper staff um i'm sorry our uh our our association of miriam helpers become a miriam helper visit micprayers.org and you'll start sharing and all these graces the graces that we need for the conversion of our loved ones you just officially sat through the longest talk i have ever given on the three of this series this is the longest one so if you made it through this one you can make it through the others next week we're excited because we'll have first saturdays we'll talk about mirroring apparitions please join us until then you know that your loved ones are in my prayers i'm going to be offering mass tonight for them and may almighty god bless you through the intercession of saint augustine and saint faustina and saint monica and the father and the son and the holy spirit amen and god bless you thank you everybody you

Channel: Divine Mercy

Views: 82,819

Rating: 4.9186177 out of 5

Keywords: Divine Mercy, Mercy, Jesus, Christ, Marian, priest, grace, pray, prays, praying, chris alar, alar, fr. Chris, fr. alar, Catholic, Church, God, fr. chris alar, blessed virgin, Mary, Immaculate Heart, blessing, worship, Salvation, Faustina, Augustine, Monica, Conversion, Prayer, Fallen Away, Fallen-away, lost loved ones, Saints, Scripture

Id: aPt38Kq_qEU

Length: 93min 15sec (5595 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 28 2021