Lenten Mission: The Fulfillment of All Desire | Session 3

[Music] hey welcome to week three of our lenten mission i'm really excited about what's happening and maybe also a little intimidated you know when i when i first thought about doing these advent and missions i thought maybe a couple hundred people would be interested but uh i've been a little overwhelmed and slightly intimidated by how many people are are interested in our watching we have over 4 000 people who have registered for the latin mission and not everybody shows up on the live night but the next day thousands of people watch it like after our very first uh london mission uh talk number one we've had eighteen thousand views now on our youtube channel we publish it on the youtube channel after the live event and then after uh the second week we have 5423 views and that that's all going to keep growing so people keep accessing it uh as usual i need to say a few things about what we're doing because there's always new people who haven't been here for the previous talks i try to make each talk sort of something by itself that will be meaningful to people even if they haven't been for the advent mission or the first two talks of the latin mission so what we're doing is we are talking about this book of the fulfillment of all desire the guidebook for the journey to god based on the wisdom of the saints it's a book that the lord's helped me to write putting together the very best wisdom the catholic church has about how to grow in a spiritual life and uh just this we also have a discount on it you know you don't need to buy the book to find the mission meaningful but we have a 20 discount available on it if you'd like to get it you just go to our renewalministries.net and you'll you'll find a way of getting the book there i think we have a little thing we'll put up on the screen here that will help you kind of write down the the information so renewal liners.net and the code is fad what is it elizabeth fa fad f-a-d-l-e-n-t f-a-d lent l-e-n-t f-a-d-l-e-n-t would be the code you put in when you're checking out from the store and you'll get the 20 discount we do ship our products uh media mail the mail has gotten better recently you may get it within a week but earlier in the year we're having delays of two three even four weeks so if you need it tomorrow still the best place to go is amazon.com now i got a email this week from a priest in our stl program we do a program at sacred heart seminary in detroit where i teach in the summer i also teach in the fall but anyway we have a bunch of priests who are getting an advanced degree and they're really a tremendous group of priests there's a priest here from latin america who just sent me an email yesterday and he said my bishop is reading the spanish virgin of a fulfillment of the fulfillment of all desire he's dedicating one hour every day to read it he says he's enjoying it tremendously please pray for him that as he reads he may be ever more stirred up in the spirit so let's say a little prayer for this bishop in latin america who's reading the spanish edition of fulfillment of all desire well we actually the holy spirit fall and this bishop and all other bishops right now who are facing such tremendous challenges right now in the world in the church fall with your holy spirit on this bishop and ignite in him a blazing fire desire for union with you and holiness and a desire for the holy spirit to be active in his life i guess i should mention that we do have a spanish translation of the fulfillment of all desire i'm going to try to say it el cumplumiento de todo deseo and we have that available too at renewal ministries so now a couple weeks ago we had somebody make a comment on the chat saying he's he's a slave to sin he's he's locked in sin he'd like to be holy but he's trapped in sin we've had a number of people kind of weigh in about advice to give to this person and i said a few things last week but one of the things that people have recommended which i think is a good recommendation because i have personal experience with it is there's a book by neil lozano called unbound a practical guide for deliverance sometimes you know our own human weakness is taken advantage of by uh you know evil spirits that sometimes kind of lock us into unforgiveness or lock us into anger hatred or despair or lies with we've been told by other people about ourselves we're just kind of like cut off in some ways from the flowing of god's grace and so this is a wonderful book that can help you deal with some of those things identify some of those things so if you're watching tonight a young man or i don't know how old you are really you didn't say if anybody watching tonight is trapped in sin that is really a helpful book but i'd like to share a few things for a person in that situation from the saints bernard clairvaux has some really encouraging words for people who are trapped in sin my opinion is that all those who i'm on page 28 folks who have the book want me to mention the page number but again you don't need to have the book to get a lot out of these talks bernard of clerval says my opinion is that all those who lack knowledge of god are those who refuse to turn to him i am certain that they refuse because they imagine this kindly disposed god to be harsh and severe this merciful god to be callous and inflexible this lovable god to be cruel and oppressive so it is that wickedness plays false to itself setting up for itself an image that does not represent him supernova clairvoyant says you may have believed the wrong image of god he's full of mercy he's full of love he desires you to come to him and to repent and be forgiven your sin then he goes on he says what are you afraid of you men of little faith that he will not pardon your sins but with his own hands he's nailed them to the cross that you are used to soft living and your tastes are fastidious but he's aware of our weakness that a prolonged habit of sinning binds you like a chain but the lord loosens the shackles of prisoners or perhaps angered by the enormity and frequency of your sins he slowed to extend a helping hand but where sin abounded grace became super abundant are you worried about clothing and food and other bodily necessities so that you hesitate to give up your possessions but he knows that you need all these things what more can you wish what else is there to hold you back from the way of salvation so i hope anybody locked in sin and despairing of ever getting out will get some encouragement here from bernard but there's even more encouragement available from saint augustine so let's take a look at saint augustine [Music] and this is on page of 35. [Music] augustine fell into a deep pattern of sexual sin from his late teenage years had a mistress child out of wedlock uh when he moved to rome and wanted to move up in social circles he unfortunately i mean got rid of his mistress because she wasn't socially of a high level he got it got involved with somebody else and he was just uh really locked in sin locked in worldly ambition wanted to make money he wanted to make a mark for himself in the world and then he began to uh his conscience began to get pricked he began to run into people who seemed to spontaneously be coming in his pathways that were christians and eventually he began to want to want to get free of sin wanted to turn to christ but he found himself bound this is what he said in this way i understood through my own experience what i had read the flesh lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh i was split between them but more of me was in that which i have proved in myself that at which that than in that which i disapproved others he was tilting more towards christ but he wasn't able to get free though at every point you showed that what you were saying was true he's talking to the lord yet i convinced by that truth had no answer to give you except merely slow and sleepy words at once but presently just a little longer please but at once at once never came to the point of decision and just a little longer please went on and on for a long while the law of sin is the violence of habit by which even the unwilling mind is dragged down and held as it deserves to be since by its own choice it slipped into the habit augusta makes clear that even though he was now literally a slave to sin he was responsible for having gotten to that point by a whole series of free decisions he made earlier in his life lord my helper and redeemer page 36 i will now tell the story and confess to your name of the way in which you delivered me from the chain of sexual desire by which i was tightly bound from the slavery of worldly affairs i went about my usual routine but in a state of mental anxiety so he keeps running into people he keeps hearing things about the lord he sees people who are broken free from patterns and habits of sin and he he feels like he should be able to do it but he feels like he just can't such was my sickness and my torture as i accuse myself even more bitterly than usual i was twisting and turning in my chain until it would break completely i was now only a little bit held by it but i was still held you lord put pressure on me in my hidden depths with the severe mercy wielding the double whip of fear and shame inwardly i said to myself let it be now let it be now and by this phrase i was already moving towards a decision i had almost taken it and then i did not do so the nearer approached the moment of time when i would become different the greater the horror of it struck me but it did not thrust me back nor turned me away but left me in a state of suspense meanwhile the overwhelming force of habit was saying to me do you think you can live without them do you think you can live without a sexual relationship so he he just he just goes on and on and uh it's it's a tremendous thing if you want to look at pages 27 to 41 of chapter 3 called awakening and conversion you can read the whole story of augustine there and it's really it's really uh it's really very insightful very helpful very encouraging finally the moment comes as i was saying this and weeping in the bitter agony of my heart what i was saying was why not now why not an end to my impure life in this very hour why not now as i was saying this and weeping in the bitter agony of my heart suddenly i heard a voice from the nearby house chanting as if it might be a boy or a girl i do not know which saying and repeating over and over again pick up and read pick up and read i checked the flood of tears and stood up i interpreted solely as a divine command to me to open the book of the bible and read the first chapter i might find before i had heard how anthony happened to be president of the gospel reading and was immediately converted so he hurried back to the place where olympias his friend was sitting there i put down the book of the apostle when i got up i seized it opened it and in silence read the first passage in which my eyes lit it's from romans chapter 13 verses 13 and 14. this is the final the final stroke of the lord to set him free not in riots and drunken parties not in eroticism and indecencies not in strife and rivalry but put on the lord jesus christ and make no provision for the flesh and it's lust i neither wish nor needed to read further at once with the last words of this sentence it was it was evil it was as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart all the shadow of doubt were dispelled [Music] if the lord gives you the grace to break the chains of sin don't receive that grace in vain if the lord opens a door out of the darkness you're in go through it right away and don't turn back finally a final encouragement here from saint bernard this is from burning on page 442. we're jumping way forward there he says it should be known we have seen how every soul even if burned with burden with sin enmeshed in vice ensnared by the allurements of pleasure a captive in exile imprisoned in the body caught in mud fixed by mire bound to its members a slave to care distracted by business afflicted with sorrow wandering and straying filled with anxious forebodings and uneasy suspicions a stranger in a hostile land and according to the prophet sharing the defilement of the dead encountered with those who go down into hell every soul i say standing thus under condemnation and without hope has the power to to turn and to find it can not only breed the fresh air of the hope of pardon and mercy but also dare to aspire to the nuptials of the word not faring not fearing to enter into alliance with god or to bear the sweet yoke of love with the king of angels so vern is saying not only should you not despair if you're uh in deep sin the lord is standing ready to show mercy to you the lord is standing ready to forgive your sins but not only that but to get you started on a spiritual journey to deep union with the lord so that is what we are now going to devote ourselves to for the rest of the evening we're going to talk about some other wisdom from the saints that can help us draw into closer union with the lord at the end of the talk tonight i'm gonna tell you how you can get peter herbeck's new booklet fear god and give him glory for free so uh you know the average time that people stay with this talk is amazing something like 53 minutes or which is which is remarkable i mean it's a remarkable steadfast thing for the whole talk but if you stay for the whole talk a little extra incentive tonight i'm going to tell you how you get peter herbeck's booklet for free tonight we're going to talk about chapter 10 in this book and it's called growing and freedom and that's the amazing thing about growing in union with the lord the closer we come to the lord the freer we are the more joy there is in our heart today's littori littari sunday a day of rejoicing in the middle of lent and the more love we experience the more freedom we have uh the less anxiety we have the more confidence we have the more love we have to share with others the closer we come into union with the lord scripture says perfect love cast out fear and all those fears that are bad fears fears that come from the world fears that come from our own weakness fears that come from the devil are cast out by perfect love so what we need to do is draw ever nearer to perfect love so what this chapter is about is what the traditional spiritual writers call detachment now detachment sounds kind of negative doesn't it like i gotta let go of things i gotta detach from things and what to saints clearly say the only things we have to get rid of are those things that block us from the deeper union with the lord that brings us into our true self the only things we have to detach ourselves are things that we've kind of looked to for a happiness and a fulfillment that they can't give there's lots of good things in the world that the lord wants us to have there's lots of wonderful loves that he wants us to have but he wants us to have them in proper order under the lordship of christ in accordance with the purpose for which he created us so one of the things we do is we look to people possessions honor reputation success money work to bring meaning and happiness and hope to our lives but when we do that in an unbalanced way when we look to these things for something that they can't really give us because only god can satisfy those deepest desires of our soul it really holds us back from the spiritual journey now i'm not going to lie to you there are some painful dimensions in letting go but the pain is the pain of healing the pain is the pain of a surgeon cutting things that are causing us misery that are causing us to head in a bad direction so what are some of these things well first of all let's take a look at what catherine of siena says about the problem here of being attached to things in an exaggerated way or an imbalanced way she says this is page 206 from saint catherine santa creative things are less than the human person they were made for you not you for them so they can never satisfy you this is god the father speaking to katherine only i can satisfy you do you want me to tell you why they suffer you know that love always brings suffering if what a person has identified with is lost these souls in one way or another have identified with the earth in their love and so they have in fact become earth themselves some have identified with their wealth some with their status some with their children some lose me in their slavery to creatures some in their great indecency make brute beasts of their bodies they would like to be stable but are not indeed they are as passing as the wind for either they themselves fall fail through death or my will deprives them of the very things they loved they suffer unbearable pain in their loss and the more disordered their love in possessing the greater is their grief and loss had they held these things as lent to them rather than as their own they could let them go without pain they suffer because they do not have what they long for for as i told you the world cannot satisfy them and not being satisfied they suffer i think that's just an amazing the insightful well word that god the father gave to catherine these things can't satisfy ourselves can't satisfy us only god could satisfy us so what place should they have in our life then well let's turn now to some of the things that are big competitors for a primary love that they don't deserve you know jesus said in luke chapter 12 unbelievers are always worried about what they're going to eat what they're going to wear we might add what the future is going to bring but i say to you seek first the kingdom of god and his holiness and these other things will be added to you as well for your heavenly father knows that you need them so let's talk about money and possessions john the cross says on page 208 he talks about king david he says even though king david was manifestly rich he says he was poor because his will was not fixed on riches and he thereby lived as though really poor on the other hand had he been actually poor without his will being so there would have been no true poverty because the appetite of his soul would have been rich and full so what what john is saying is that it isn't how much money or how little money you have it's what place that money has in your heart you can be materially very poor but really make a god out of money and have your whole life devoted to getting more money you can have a lot of money but know that it's in loan to you that you're holding it as a gift and you're trying to use it under the lordship of christ and if it's taken away you'll be able to say like job said the lord gives the lord takes away blessed be the name of the lord so one of the greatest teachers about practical wisdom about things that we're going to be talking about tonight is saint francis de sales and i'm going to be drawing mainly from his book called introduction to devout life it was written in the 17th century and it's never been out of print it's been translated into numerous languages it's the first book of spiritual writing written specifically addressed to lay people who aren't priests or religious and he's got a tremendous practical sense about how lay people can grow in union with the lord there's another book he wrote called treat us on the love of god which is more theoretical it goes into the deeper theology of spiritual growth but the book that's most helpful right now for us and our purposes is the introduction to the developed life so let me tell you a little something about who saint francis de sales is we're trying to introduce each of the saints as we bring their teachings into the seminar well francis desales was born two months premature he was a preemie on august 21st 1567 he was the firstborn of 13 children with five dying in infancy he was named after francis of assisi who is his patron saint his father's name was francis francis married at the age of 43 to a girl named francis who was 14 years old that's just how sometimes things were in those days from a very early age francis decided to he wanted to be a saint he wanted to serve the lord he went through struggles at the university he was at paris studying and he came across the writings of teresa of avila who had died just 20 years before him before he came across her writings he was beset by many temptations at the university and that's where he began to develop some of the practical habits and practical wisdom that we're going to hear about tonight eventually he's made a priest eventually he's become the bishop and then he uh his diocese is geneva but geneva geneva switzerland he was born in a an area of france near switzerland and at that time geneva switzerland was under the control of the calvinist and so francis couldn't actually take his proper position in the city of geneva but he declared he wanted to uh win back the protestants of the catholic church he says we're not going to do it with force of arms we're going to do with prayer fasting and love and so he just devoted himself to he went personally in disguise to talk to the calvinist leader there he had many conversations with him the protestant leader never converted but it's just really inspiring to see what francis did francis also began to develop little pamphlets they would slip under people's door at night he'd knock on doors he'd preach in public he just did a lot of things to win people back to the catholic church and many many people came back he met a woman named john jean francoise the chantal and he became her spiritual director she became a widow she had five children uh and uh along with saint john gene i don't know how you say it in french john john francois chantal he founded that this the visitation order which is a really significant religious order in the life of the church and he died at the age of 55 of a stroke by that time 13 monasteries of the visitation existed at his death when jean de chantelle died there were 87 monasteries and so he's just been a tremendously fruitful person he was declared a doctor of the church by pope pius ix in 1877 and just has been a tremendous source of spiritual insight to lay people for almost 400 years so what does francis desales says about money [Music] we're going to go to page 210 to 211. my book is kind of old and it's kind of making a lot of noise tonight and it's been used a lot but we're going to get to 210 211 he says you can possess riches without being poisoned by them if you merely keep them in your home and purse and not in your heart to be rich in effect and poor in affection is a great happiness for a christian by this means he has the advantages of riches for this world and the merit of poverty for the world to come so he says it's a great blessing actually to have a lot of resources but not be possessed by them and be holding them and trust i willingly grant that you may even take care to increase your wealth and resources provided this is done not only justly but properly and charitably as long as it's not your god you're in good shape but francis says greed oftentimes hides itself under rationalizations we can say we're poor in spirit while we're wealthy but we may not be poor in spirit so francis gives us some practical guidelines to how to judge whether uh we're really holding the wealth in a way that's in our person not in our heart first of all he points out that first corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 to 19 lists greed as one of the serious sins that will exclude us from the kingdom of god you're familiar with this text because i quoted it in the advent series where we're talking about serious sexual sin paul says do you not know that the immoral will not inherit the kingdom of god don't be deceived neither the immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals who actively practice homosexuality nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor robbers will hurt the king of god did you modis notice not nor the greedy so this is this is this could be such a serious sin as it will exclude us from heaven so what are some of the practical things that francis still tells us that we can use as guidelines to see if we're really kind of holding wealth and trust under the lordship of christ or whether it's really become a god for us he says you are truly avaricious if you longingly ardently anxiously desire to possess goods that you do not have even though you say that you would want to acquire them by unjust means that's page 212. so he says if if if it's really if you're really being driven by uh avarice or greed if you longingly ardently and anxiously desire to possess goods that you do not have even though you say that you want to acquire them by unjust means that he says another way of testing whether we're really appropriately detached from material possessions he says if you find your heart very desolated and afflicted at the loss of property believe me you love it too much the strongest proof of love for a lost object is suffering over its loss you know we read sometimes you know when horrible financial disasters happen you know people committing suicide you know that's just that's that's just so sad and so tragic i mean we need to hang loose from the possessions we have the lord gives the lord takes away blessed be the name of the lord and if we are devastated you know when the stock market goes down and we're devastated when a business deal goes bad and we're devastated when somebody cheats us uh and we can't recover what we've been cheated from uh we're not properly detached and it's an obstacle to spiritual growth another thing francis says is that a real test of whether we're detached from an inordinate desire for well as if we are generous with it you know one of the proverbs says proverbs 11 verse 24 says there is one who scatters and yet increases all the same and is one who withholds what is just to do and yet it results only in one the generous man will prosper and be prospered himself so this is uh this is just an important spiritual principle you know once you give freely the lord blesses you i know this sounds strange francis says nothing makes us so prosperous in this world as to give alms but until such time as god shall restore it to us we remain the poor in the amount we have given so i i could share a couple practical things about this for my own life when my wife and myself first married we really were scraping by you know and yet we were part of a christian community that fortunately taught us about tithing and almsgiving we felt even though we didn't have very much we really should honor the principle of tithing and almsgiving now tithing isn't required in the new testament tithing was an old testament practice but the new testament makes clear to us is that we don't owe god any less than we owed in the new testament we owe him more because the the gift of christ is so much more important than the not to neglect that gift is really a serious matter so we should be even more generous with the lord jesus kind of commended the widow who put in all she had into the temple treasury even though other people were making very big monetary gifts and putting big amounts into the treasury jesus said she put in more than anybody else and he really commended her generosity there's also a scripture passage in where is that scripture passage it is in luke chapter six well i already talked about that anyway there's another scripture pastor that says give and it'll be given to you you know be just flowing into your lap or falling all over you're just going to be deluged with with blessing as you bless others now in my own life i have to tell you that even though we hardly had any money it just seems so right to tithe and and give alms sometimes i must admit i chickened out and tied it on uh net income rather than gross income you know and come after taxes you know when i chickened out but i was able to kind of grow in strength and courage over the years and uh we just had some pretty amazing experiences of the lord providing in lots of different ways uh maybe three or four years ago a friend in new york city who runs a ministry deport people in the bronx sent us their fundraising letter and it's really a very humble fundraising letter it's it's like almost mimeographed i mean it's just it's just not really high tech or high cost and they were saying that they had some needs in their ministry and we really admire these people they're really serving in a wonderful way and poor people in the bronx new york they said they needed 200 for bibles and they needed five thousand dollars to replace a computer system that was stolen from them so uh usually my wife and myself are on the same page will pray and say how much we should give usually we come up with the same amount it's just kind of amazing this time i said you know i think we should give two hundred dollars and she said no i think we should give it five thousand dollars so uh i must admit i kind of you know had to process that a little bit but i trusted her her discernment and we gave five thousand dollars and then two days later we won a raffle for a free trip on alaska cruise for that was worth seven thousand five hundred dollars so it was like like the lord is saying you thought you were doing a big deal when you gave the five thousand dollars but look here's his 50 percent more you know just really fulfilling the scripture passage about giving i'll give it to you now you don't give so will be given to you but it just oftentimes happens just recently this year there were some needs uh some big needs uh in our family uh you know extended family and we we gave a big amount to uh to help and uh two days later that exact amount came back to us in a totally surprising unexpected way now i'm not going to tell you that this is going to happen every time you give but it is so good to give it is so good to trust the lord for provision it's so good to share the blessings that he's given us in tithing and almsgiving another thing francis says is that if you meet with losses that impoverish you page 212 either very much or a little as in the case of tempest fires floods droughts thefts or lawsuits that is the proper time to practice poverty by accepting your losses meekly and patiently by courageously submitting to such impoverishment so francis just gives a lot of practical advice there it's really helpful now he also talks about sensual pleasure how we can be uh kind of inordinately attached to sensual pleasure i'm not gonna get into this in depth right now uh we talked about it a little bit the advent of mission but i'm going to just mention his advice and also bernard claire beau's advice about when we're tempted by sensual pleasures page 217 be very quick to turn away from whatever leads or allures to lewd conduct such things are always easier to avoid than to cure it is an act of impurity to look at hear speak smell or touch anything and modest if our heart is entertained nearby and takes pleasure in it certainly chastity may be lost in as many ways as there are immodest and wanton acts some weaken it others wound it and still others cause it to die completely so what he's basically saying is the instant you're tempted we talked about this a little bit in the advent series the instant year become attempted immediately identify that's a wicked thought i don't want to immediately turn away from it uh a lot of people get into dallying with temptation like playing with it like thinking about it you know for example you know i don't really want to take my friends uh one more you know without asking uh but i think we're gonna think about a little while because boy that would really solve a problem i have well thinking about a little while is already introducing darkness into your soul the the possibility of theft or you know you can put it whatever sin you'd like in there and the the longer we dally with sin the longer we play with temptation the harder it is to turn away and the more darkness comes into our soul so what what what francis is saying is the instant you become aware of your being tempted immediately label it as a wicked thought and instantly turn away from it saint bernard clairvaux adds something to this he says the downfall for many people is curiosity this is what he says the first step of pride is curiosity you can recognize it by these indications you see a monk of whom you had thought well up to now wherever he stands walks sits his eyes begin to wander his head is lifted his ears are alert you can tell from his outward movements that the inner man has changed his soul has fallen sick he's grown careless about his own behavior he wastes his curiosity in other people for just as death entered the world through sin so it enters the mind through these windows francis also particularly warns us against starting down the path of sexual curiosity whether married or single as it could easily lead to sexual obsession and enslavement in a pornographic and modest culture such as the one in which we live this advice is extremely important citing saint jerome francis cautions single people not to be deceived by the devil who magnifies the delight and pleasure of imagined sex so as to tempt them violently to abandon chastity the devil tries to present these pleasures as infinitely more pleasurable and delightful than they actually are francis's advice is to turn away from such thoughts immediately and not be drawn into sexual curiosity another area where uh we could be attached is that of our reputation so francis is uh telling us what do you do when somebody is saying bad things about you should you try to repair your reputation should you say that's a lie he says in moderation this is he basically says you have a responsibility to preserve your reputation in a moderate way if somebody is saying on something untrue about you uh your ability to minister to to be listened to to be effective in your mission uh it does depend on a good reputation but if moderate attempts to restore your reputation and refute the lies that are being said about you don't work don't get bent out of shape don't launch a crusade don't let your life center around restoring your reputation but accept the humiliation and grow in humility and the lord will vindicate you at the proper time so that's his advice about how to handle a tax on a reputation now this next area i ended up talking about a little bit during the advent mission because i made the mistake of mentioning it and people demand it in the chats that i talk about it and that's the area about our health so the last area i'd like to talk about about detachment is about our health what is francis desales says about this he says if you get sick try to get better it's absolutely natural and good to want to be well so he says go to the doctor try to get better pay attention to what doctor tells you to do then he says if you don't get better don't waste your suffering united with the sufferings of christ and turn it into prayer intercession offered as reparation for sin for the conversion of sinners like mary asked us to do at fatima and then she then he says don't get attached to what kind of illness you would like to have and what kind of illness you don't like to have he says some are more embarrassing than others but accept what's coming from the hand of the lord he says one man has a cancer in his arm and another on his face the first has only the disease while the other suffers contempt disgrace and objection along with the disease this is page 238. therefore i hold that we must not only love the disease which is the duty of patience but we must also embrace the objection abjection and this is done by the virtual humility so he says if i should have some disagreeable infection in my face i will try to have it cured although not with an intention to forget the humiliation i received from it and the humility received from it now teresa of avila has a lot to say about this she hardly had a day in her adult life a year or two after entering the convent about the age of 21 or so she hardly had a day where she didn't have physical discomfort she had tinnitus ringing in her ear she had continual nausea uh she she had various various kinds of problems she had headaches quite quite frequently so she had a lot of problems and the nuns in her condiment were also having a lot of problems and this is what she says about the months she says you are complaining more than married women complain married women don't have the luxury to complain like you're complaining they've got stuff they've just got to do whether they're feeling well or not so this is what she says about the nuns in our comment hardly does our head begin to ache then we stop going to community prayer which won't kill us either we stay away one day because our head ached another because it was just now aching and three more so that hey might ache again oh god help me this complaining among nuns for if the devil begins to frighten us about losing our health we'll never do anything that's on page 239. then she says if we do not determine once and for all to swallow death and the lack of health we will never do anything strive not to fear them abandon yourselves totally to god come what may so what if we die if our body has mocked us so often shouldn't we mock it at least once now we're going to die all of us are going to die it's the punishment for our rebellion against god our corporate rebellion against god and our first parents but for a christian death is really something not the fear for a christian death is really entering into our inheritance entering into paradise or the anteroom of paradise which may be purgatory so as jesus says don't fear those who can kill the body but fear the death of the body and soul in hell so we need to ask the lord to deliver us from the fear of help from the fear of death deliver us from the fear of illness if the lord permits illness to come into our life he's got a plan to bring good out of it nothing happens in our life without the promise of god um now bernardo clairvaux also is really concerned about his monks uh getting too attached to uh their physical health but i actually want to share a little personal thing before i finish with that i was drifting into an over concern for how i was feeling a number of years ago if i had a headache or didn't get enough sleep or had an upset stomach i could say well i guess i won't pray so much today i'll wait till tomorrow till i'm feeling better and when i read this thing from saint teresa of avila many years ago i just felt so convicted i felt like i'm like a nun in her convent god help me and i i felt at the same moment i was getting the grace to be delivered from an excessive concern about how i was feeling and ever since that time it's been really different i've had some more significant kind of illnesses and i just have not been afraid like i would have been before i've had some things where you know who knows i could die i might not die you know this could be cured it might not be cured and i i tell you i the lord delivered me from the fear of death and he wants to deliver us from the fear of death the book of hebrews says the devil used the fear of death to keep us slaves our whole life long jesus came to destroy the work of the devil and he uses the fear of death so as we approach easter as we approach the resurrection we've got to remember what jesus says i am the resurrection and the life and even if you die you will not die but you'll live forever that's the promise we have as christians that's the promise of the resurrection bernard of clairvaux was really concerned about longsuna's monastery being over concerned about health and this is one of the monks he quotes this is one of the monks is saying something to burn it's page 240. beans he says produce flatulency cheese causes dyspepsia milk gives me headache water is bad for my heart cabbages make me feel depressed i feel irritable after eating onions fish from the pond or from muddy waters does not agree with my constitution so now bernard says to the monkenis monastery are you not actually saying that food to your taste is not available in all the rivers the fields the gardens and the cellars i earnestly request that you remember you are a monk and not a physician that you'll be judged not on the quality of your constitution but on your fidelity to your vows so our our souls have a tendency to wrap themselves around things of the world but the things of the world are not god and it's only god who can satisfy us so the lesson tonight is that the lord wants to deliver us from these attachments we're not talking about sin here we're talking about imperfections we're talking about attachments but attachments can seriously block our union with the lord and slow down the process of transformation so let's ask the lord tonight to give us the grace to recognize things that we're too attached to and to let go of them and then have the lord kind of help us live in that that love that cast out all fear i'd like to end tonight by reading something that another priest sent me just a couple days ago just yesterday yep yesterday saturday march 13th this is another priest in our stl program he's an indian priest he's from the south of india he's a cyril malachara a priest he's a wonderful young man and he's right now living in switzerland and he's serving in a parish there and this is what he said in his homily for the first sunday of lent the fourth sunday of life which is tomorrow this is it's a homily he's giving this weekend how can we experience the love of god when we feel completely broken how do we know that god really loves us when our life is filled with suffering and other challenges in my second santiago pilgrimage that's the way of compostela in northern spain uh hiking to the feast to the cathedral of saint james i met a 72 year old japanese man he belongs to the buddhist religion has undertaken several pilgrimages in japan and in europe i had the opportunity to walk with him for two days in the conversation he explained to me about a famous art known as kingsuji meaning golden repair it is a rare and famous japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold silver or platinum the finished product is more beautiful and valuable than the first because it has been repaired with something more precious instead of hiding the flaws the artist highlights them with a new design to the original piece i was very much enlightened by this idea and realized that this can happen in my life also when i feel that i am broken and may not be useful i must allow god to repair me in fact during the lenten season when jesus fills our brokenness with his love we may look better and complete than before rather than remaining in our brokenness we should allow god to transform us into a kingsuji creation in his hands any repair work if it is undertaken by god is a golden repair brothers and sisters we're so aware sometimes of our weakness we're so aware of our failures we're so aware of our wounds and faults let god repair them let them be more beautiful as they're transformed by the lord's grace than they were even before so i told you i'm going to tell you how to get peter herbeck's free booklet it's called fear god and give him glory and all you have to do is go to renewalministries.net and click on send me the free booklet normally we reserve this for people who are responding to our television program we're starting our new series of the choices we face this month and this is what we're offering as a free gift to those who respond to the tv program so it's available to you and it's free again the the discount on this book is uh available for one more week it's good till the day after next sunday 20 discount go to renewalministries.net uh and that's about it uh god bless you and uh keep you and i look forward to the fourth and last week of our latin series we're going to be talking about what these dark knights are and how we can navigate them now uh i don't know if there's any questions or answers questions i mean i guess i should give the answers if i have them but do we have any questions so elizabeth we just have two okay i know last week there was a request that you repeat the question so it's easier okay one is how do you recommend practicing relying on god versus self-reliance well i think it helps every day to get up and to pray praying means that we're not relying on ourself i mean you can you know weird things can happen how we can twist prayer to be something we're doing rather than something that we're offering to god but praying is acknowledging our dependency praying is acknowledging our need praying is acknowledging that we can't do this by ourself but we need the lord and so prayer really is a tremendously important way of not not getting into self-reliance also before we do anything ask the lord bless us ask the lord's blessing before we have to carry out our work this is what what the morning offering is all about offering our day to the lord uh just expressing to him many times during the day lord i need you uh or just expressing to him our praise our gratitude our love for him [Music] all right one more um are we at times as christians a little too glib about death at funerals we sometimes hear he's in the arms of god now or at least he's not suffering anymore etc yeah no this is this is a big problem right now uh almost every funeral these days are semi-canonization ceremonies like he's in a better place or he's an angel or she's an angel now or uh you know they're in heaven you know and they're not suffering anymore but you know that that's just not true you know there really is a heaven but this is also really a hell and it our eternal destiny depends on how we're responding to the grace of god in this life you know if if we hear the voice of the lord and reject it we're rejecting life forever with him and so it's so important when we hear the voice of the lord that we we respond to it that we not ignore it that we're not rationalizing that we not cover over and it's really terrible when funerals are canonization ceremonies because even the holiest people we know we don't know what what purification they might still be needing in their life and so the purpose of a funeral mass is to pray for the deceased and we should never not pray for the deceased because we don't know what their eternal destiny only god can judge the eternal destiny of a person and our prayers may be very very important for that person and it's terrible to rob them of those prayers by prematurely declaring them in heaven we hope they're in heaven but we don't know we'll just do one more and it's a softball any uh what's the chapter for next week yes that's a good question it's going to be the chapter on deeper purification and i'll tell you what chapter that is a chapter 14. but i want to warn you it's a it's a challenging chapter and uh you're gonna want me to uh explain some things for you next week so it's gonna be on chapter 14 deep purification we're kind of jumping way ahead into the process of purification but you need to know what's there and also you need to know what's on the other side of the purification the incredible joy the incredible freedom the incredible love on the other side of purification so we'll be talking about dark knights okay until next week god be with you [Music] amen you

Channel: Renewal Ministries

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

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Length: 56min 49sec (3409 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 15 2021