[music] Man: "Mother Angelica Live!" brought to you from the Eternal Word Television Studios in Birmingham, Alabama. [music] <i>Mother: See in you, the love,</i> <i>the compassion of Jesus.</i> <i>The most glorious work of all,</i> <i>to praise God in His Kingdom.</i> <i>Anyone moved by the Spirit...</i> <i>Anyone who lives in love,</i> <i>lives in God</i> <i>and God lives in Him.</i> [music] <i>What a wonderful thing</i> <i>is our Church.</i> <i>This whole network</i> <i>is built on trust.</i> <i>The essence of evangelization</i> <i>is to tell everybody,</i> <i>"Jesus loves you!"</i> <i>We're all called</i> <i>to be great saints.</i> <i>Don't miss the opportunity!</i> (applause) Mother: Well, hi! We've got a great group here tonight. We're talking about Lenten, Lenten Observation and Penance and Mortification. (heavy sigh) You know, when there are big penances we don't think about a lot of them. In our daily life there is a penance for everything. It's a penance to get out of bed in the morning. Did you ever notice that, huh? Sometimes you just get to that sleep and that alarm clock, that horrible alarm clock and I always say, "God, forgive the man who invented this thing." (audience chuckles) Don't you do that sometimes? You want to throw it out the window or something? Well, that's a penance just to say, "Oh, praise You Jesus, my alarm went off." How's that? Or just to thank God that you're awake, that you have a brand new day. And I know that some of you are not too happy about your brand new day. This is a mustache cup. They use to have that in my Grandpa's day. They use to drink beer in the, well it was very uncomfortable for them to drink beer in a mustache cup. (audience chuckles) Oh, you're saying, "Now, how does she know about beer in a mustache cup?" Is that what you're wondering? Yeah. Well, my Grandpa had a saloon, old fashion saloon like you see on TV with the brass spittoons everywhere. They use to practice to see who would spit and the furthest won. Way over there. I thought it was funny but my Grandmother didn't. (audience chuckles) She used to kick them and then they'd have to go further, you know. But they were happy drinking beer and eating bologna sandwiches, see. And those we say were "the good ol' days". I mean, what was good about them? Sometimes I think that people didn't have anything else to do, we may get there again but they could talk to each other, you know. I remember when we went to my Grandma's on Christmas, it was one of those six-hour Italian meals. You say, "I don't believe that, six hours." Oh yeah, we can eat for six hours. Anybody Italian here? Yeah, you know you can eat for six hours, easy. At one point in between something we'd go for a walk. But you know, we stayed there all day talking to each other. It was the only day we had really, my mother and I did. We went otherwise. But all we did was talk. There was no TV, no telephones. If people did come over they just came to say, "Hi! Have a Merry Christmas!" And we didn't have a tree. We never had a tree. I never saw a Christmas tree till I got in the monastery and they, they, they let me go in first and I was so shocked because I'd seen a Christmas tree in pictures but I had never had one. In fact, we didn't give gifts at Christmas. I don't remember when we did, but it wasn't Christmas. But even then, without that, we were okay. We were okay. And so that was a penance. We didn't know it was. And mortification is wonderful for the soul. Why? It strengthens the will. It makes you and I stronger so that we can say "no" when we need to say "no". So penance and mortification is, is good for you. It's physically good and spiritually good. And what are you doing for Lent? And all of you that got dead drunk during Mardi Gras, you ought to do real penance! (audience chuckles) Stay away from that booze you stuffed yourself with during Mardi Gras. What do you do that for? I think it's the dumbest thing I ever heard of. You're trying to tell God you're sorry but you're so drunk you don't even know you're sorry! (audience chuckles) I don't get that. Do you get it? I don't get it. I always want to know what do you do the day after Mardi Gras, which is Ash Wednesday? Now, what do you do when you get, you get up in the morning, you got a headache, your mouth tastes like a sewer? What do you do? I wonder what do you do? You say, "I'm sorry Lord." You can't be sorry. You've been drinking up to midnight, counting every minute you could take another slug of something. Why do you do that? "That's a custom." Well, a lot of people down there with a custom, (audience chuckles) a lot of people. Why are you telling me it's a custom to get drunk? You know, I think somebody could make a lot of money taking pictures of all these drunks at Mardi Gras, then let them see themselves. Give it to them free. You say, why? Well, because it's going to be worth it to see when they look at their picture. Their eyes are droopy. Their hair's all disheveled. Their lower part of their lip's hanging over. They can't speak. I mean, they are just in terrible shape and they call that "celebration". You're out of it! You don't even know what time it is. Now, tell me that's your preparation for Lent. (makes a noise) You're out of it for at least three days. I bet it's the first Sunday of Lent before you wake up. And then you say, "Oh." And you know what's so bad? They start preparing for the next Lent as soon as you wake up. Everybody's throwing these little quarters, looks like quarters but it's all fakey things, you know. You throw that at everybody, tra la la. (heavy sigh) Well, I'm only saying, you ought to do a real penance now because you gave great scandal to young people. And that's what penance is for. Penance is to repair for what you've done that creates scandal. Oh, Our Lord was very hard on scandals. "Woe to the man..." He forgot the women, (audience chuckles) but He said, "Woe to the man!" Our Lord was very easy on women. "Woe to the man by whom scandal comes. It's better for him," He said, "that a stone be put around his neck and dropped into the sea." Oh, boy. That's for scandal. Why don't you ask yourself, how much scandal have you given in your life? Do you lie and cheat about somebody? You cause somebody to lose their business or you do something that's not right and you cause scandal, huh? Do you ever do that, huh? Did you ever do that? Did you ever do penance for that? You could pick a penance sometime for yourself. You could say three Hail Mary's. That's good. But the penance is not to be nasty anymore, not to be angry anymore, not to be rash judging anymore, not to, not to try and do somebody in. That's real penance, to hold your temper. Oh, now that's a good one, huh? Isn't that a good one? To want to say something and you don't. Why? Because it's not something nice you're going to say. Sometimes you bite your tongue. Count to 10, not bad. Why don't you put 10 pennies in a jar every time you want to lose your temper? Don't take them out, either. Give it to the poor. That's a nice penance. Don't eat all those sweets that you want to eat. Oh, I do that every Lent. Yeah, but then for Easter you eat three bunnies, (audience chuckles) all that chocolate. See, I don't know why we have to make up for what we gave up. (audience laughs) Do you know? I see that every Lent. Every Easter it's like you're diving off of a swimming board, you know, (makes noise) into chocolate. We do strange things. And we wanted to look here just a minute on how Our Dear Lord--you say, "He did penance?" Yeah, I think He did. I think Our Dear Lord did a lot of penance. I'm going to read you a little bit here--and He didn't need to do it. He was honest and holy and He did it for you and me cause we don't do it. "On His return," I'm going to go to Mark 5. The reason I like Mark is he has more details. He'll tell you that there was tall grass and I like this one because he's got it in for doctors. (audience chuckles) He does. He said, "When Jesus crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him and He stayed by the lakeside." Now, you say, "Well, what's penitential about that?" He was tired. He was tired. He just came from the other side where there was a great crowd, a great crowd. And He came on that side just for some peace and quiet and they were there. Have you ever been so tired that you just could hardly put one foot in front of another and then you get out of this boat or you stay in it and there's 5000 people waiting for you? That's a big penance. Have you ever been so tired that you really wanted to go to bed and then the bell rings and there's some company? What do you do? "What do you want? Don't you know it's 9:00?" You wouldn't do that. No, you would welcome them but you'd be very tired. But, see, that's a penance, to welcome your friend who comes in too late and you're very tired. You want to go to bed, to welcome them with great joy. That's a penance! And that's what Our Dear Lord did. Now, He was going to cure Jairus' daughter and he said, "There was a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for 12 years." I like Mark, "After long (chuckles) and painful treatment, under various doctors." Can't you just see him? He had about 5 doctors in mind and he wanted to describe how miserable she was and what they did to her. "...And she had spent all she had. (laughs) You know, you got to give $20 to your doctor before he sees you. That's a law now. Did you know that? That's a law? You walk in the office, clunk, $20. At least, it's a law in Alabama--and you say, "Hey, I didn't get anything yet." "Well, you're not if you don't put up that $20." Now, "She spent all she had and she wasn't any better for it. "In fact," he said, "she was worse." (chuckles) Oh, good St. Mark. I have a feeling good St. Luke just became a member of the crowd and he was mad over. "She heard about Jesus and she came up behind Him and she said to herself." Now, you have to realize a big crowd. I've been in those crowds, and you just go because they're behind you, in front of you, on the side of you. And all they wanted to do is touch Jesus. And that's all she wanted to do, touch Jesus. "And she said to herself, 'If I could touch His clothes, I'd be well again.'" Wow! Wow! "And when she did," she took a chance you see. In another translation they touched the hem of His garment. Now, imagine there are 5000 people, you're right behind Jesus. You know, you could be walked all over. I mean, people just push and shove, and they don't mean anything, but they could have walked all over her. And she leaned down just to touch the hem of His garment and the source of bleeding dried up instantly and she was healed. And Jesus said something. He said, "Who touched Me? Who touched Me?" (heavy sigh) Well, poor Peter, you know, he, he didn't understand. He said, "Master, You see how the crowd is pressing around You. "Why do You say, 'Who touched Me?' "And Jesus said, 'I felt power leave Me.'" Power left Jesus because this woman touched Him. Can you imagine that, huh? This woman had a penance she had in mind. She wanted to be healed but she knew the only way she could be is to touch Jesus. Have you ever touched Jesus? Have you ever leaned over to your neighbor and pat him on the shoulder and say, "Hey, it's going to be okay? "It's going to be okay. "The Lord will take care of you, see." You would feel power leave you cause something inside has to come out and be given to your neighbor. That's a penance. You lose something and yet you gain it back. If you get a cup of cold water in His name, you get a great reward. Well, Jesus said, "No, I felt power go out of Me." Isn't that amazing that Jesus knew her and He knew her name? The woman came forward frightened and trembling. She thought maybe she did something wrong. He looked at her. Can you even imagine looking into the eyes of Jesus? Can you imagine doing that? Awesome! She certainly, she certainly would have not seen such eyes. But He loved her--and you don't know, really. I think you look into the eyes of Jesus when you go to Confession and you hear Jesus say, "Thy sins are forgiven." That's what it means to look into the eyes of Jesus, to absorb the mercy of God. But it takes a penance, doesn't it? It takes a humiliation to kneel there and tell Father all your sins and weaknesses and imperfections. But the result is awesome. (chuckles) You feel like a bird. And Our Lord said, "My daughter, your faith has restored you to health. "Go in peace and be free of your complaint." (heavy sigh) Now, I want you to see how Jesus suffered so much real penance for us. Humiliation, here's one. "And while He was speaking, some people arrived from the house of the synagogue official and said, 'Your daughter is dead. "'Don't put the master to anymore trouble.' (laughs) "And Jesus overheard their remark and said to the official, 'Don't be afraid. Have faith.'" Now, what would we do, huh, if your daughter was found dead and this great Man comes along and you know she's dead? And He says, "'Don't be afraid. Only have faith.' "And He took Peter, James and John and He went to His house and He saw all kind of commotion." They use to hire people to cry and make all kind noise and bang around. And He said, "What's all this commotion and crying?" Isn't that a shame that He was, the Lord was right in our own cities, our own and we laugh at Him? We do that today, don't we? We don't believe in miracles, most people don't. I had some somebody call or write the other day and said, "Are you still walking?" (all chuckle) Yeah, here are both feet and there are brand new shoes on them. What do you think God does? He doesn't play games. Well, there they were. And, you know, "The people were weeping and wailing, unrestrainedly." Well, they were paid to do that. "The child is not dead. She's asleep." Now, what did He mean by that? She was dead, dead, dead! You know, the only time Jesus said dead meaning <i>dead</i> was when someone lost their soul. "Let the dead bury the dead." Oh! But to Jesus, when you were saved and you were good, you were asleep. We know that about Lazarus. Poor Martha had to enlighten the Lord as to what happened four days after somebody died. Imagine enlightening God about somebody who died for four days! She said, "Don't bother," and this is my rendition now. You're not going to find it in here. (audience chuckles) She sees Him coming and she said, "Now He comes. "He's dead four days, why didn't He come before?" Mary's so mad She doesn't come out at all. Martha has to go, "The Master's talking, waiting for you. He's mentioning your name." "Ah, four days He waits." Martha goes out. She's not finished. Our Lord has to endure all this stupidity from a woman, two women! (heavy sigh) "Lord, where were You? You could have helped him." "I'll raise him up." "Yeah, I know, on the last day we're all going to be raised. "What did you do for Him? "He loved you so. "You knew. Why didn't you come?" "He's asleep." "Yeah, I know." "I will raise him up." "Oh yeah? He stinks! (audience chuckles) "He's been there four days waiting for You. "By now he stinks, Lord. "Please don't open up that crypt. We'll all die!" (heavy sigh) Our Lord said, "Believe." "Yeah, yeah, believe." All of a sudden the Lord's had enough of her--that's my own impression--and He says, "Lazarus come forth!" Ooh! (laughs) Oh, can you see that little thing coming out of there? He's all bound up, I mean, bound up like a pickle in a sandwich, you know, just oh. And he looks like something from outer space because he's all bound up. You can't see a thing. I bet you Martha, oh, I wonder if she fainted or something. I wonder if there really was the stench she expected. Maybe roses came out, a whole big bouquet of roses. I think an angel stuck it in her nose. (audience chuckles) I can't prove that. It's not in here. I'm telling you, it's not in here! (audience laughs) But I bet some angel couldn't wait and said, "Lord, let me give it to her, just once, will You, Lord?" And the Lord said, "Go ahead!" Roses! Well, she was petrified because He looked horrible. And the Lord had to say, "Loosen him!" I can just see him walking, (makes noise) like Frankenstein. (audience chuckles) I can imagine those people going very gingerly with that piece of cloth, (makes noise) and then watching to say, "Oh, He's going to smell so bad." But he didn't. His skin was new and fresh and beautiful and soft. What a surprise! But Our Dear Lord had to suffer the humiliation of disbelief of His dearest friends. You all have that sometimes. The Apostles had to have it from Thomas all the time because Thomas was a disbeliever. So you and I have to practice our faith because Jesus here, when He went in and He looked at this child that was dead He said, "<i>Talitha cumi</i>", which means "Get up." And she walked out and He said to her parents, "Give her something to eat." You and I have all kinds of problems every day and you have the same thing Jesus had. There are a lot of things you say people don't believe. They don't believe! If you go up to someone and you said, "Did you know Our Lady appeared to so and so last week?" They look at you like, "Huh, are you crazy or something? How do you know?" Don't you feel humiliated when you got some good news and you tell somebody and they look at you like, "Well, so what?" Ah, that's humiliating. We all have that. You go to someone and say, "Oh, isn't it a beautiful day?" "What's beautiful about it? "It's going to rain tonight. Going down to 20." "Well, the sun's out now." "Yeah, wait an hour, you'll see the temperature go down." I mean, no matter what you say, it's wrong. You all know somebody like that. You may live with them. (audience chuckles) You say, "Well, I don't know. What do you do?" You get angry but see, if you didn't get angry you'd say, "Well, that's the way they are. What are you going to do?" My uncle was that way, one of my uncles. I'd say, "Oh, Uncle Nick, isn't it a beautiful day?" He said, "What's the matter? Are you crazy? There's a big cloud there!" I said, "But it's a beautiful day, Uncle Nick!" "What are you talking about? It's going to rain." "Where is it going to rain? "One cloud and it's going to rain?" "What do you know? "Somebody your age, you don't have any experience, you dummy." "All I said was it's going to be a beautiful day. "Is there something wrong with that?" And we all meet people like that. Isn't that true? Oh, it's terrible, but that's a penance! See, you can offer it. Say, "Dear Jesus, I offer this penance just for You. "I do it for you like You did it for me." You know that. There's always somebody in a crowd that's some kind of a crepe hanger. That's what we use to call them, crepe hanger. There has to be something wrong all the time. Well, if you could just understand that and know well, "That's how they feel about it." Enjoy the sunshine. Don't worry about those who are always looking for the rain. Those are practical ideas for penance. They're not big. They're constant, though, they're constant. They're everywhere. All of you that came here by bus, by car, did you ever notice that everybody's going through that green light except when you come to it, it turns red. I mean, some people have a real grace from God or the angels or somebody that regulates green lights. We get the red ones. It used to distress me because, "How come I get all the red lights, they get all the green lights? And tonight I thought, "Well now, this is a time to pray for all the people who went through the yellow lights." (audience chuckles) They do it, huh. I bet you some of you are here, forever going through yellow lights. Well, maybe the Lord wants me to pray for somebody. Take it easy. When I first came to Birmingham, this wonderful Italian lady wanted to take me to Cullman, Alabama where they have a beautiful shrine of all the different places in the world and they're miniature. And if you're ever around, I'd go there. It's very nice. Well, this nice little old Italian lady, she wanted to get there in a hurry. And so she's talking to her son-in-law and she was saying, (heavy Italian accent) "Come on, hurry up. "We're not going to get there till midnight." So he goes, I mean, 120. I mean, it was all the way down. I couldn't even open up a window. I thought I'd be blown out. So, I'm watching cars go like (makes noise). All of a sudden here comes a car and I could see a priest in that car and he's trying to keep up with us and he goes... (audience laughs) I was never so scared in my life. I was already scared. You know, the breeze was coming in the window, even though it was shut and we got to that place in 35 minutes. It should have taken an hour and 10 minutes. I didn't hardly see cars going. On the way back, I said, "Could you slow down a little bit?" And the grandma said to me, (heavy Italian accent) "Whassamatter? You scared?" I said, "Yeah, slightly." I said, "Did you see that priest blessing us?" (heavy accent) "Oh, that's nice. You think it's nice?" I said, "No, it wasn't nice. (all chuckle) He's giving us the Last Sacraments, fast! (audience laughs) I was never so scared in my life! Anyway I don't know why I said that. It just came to my head. (all chuckle) We have a call. Hello? Female Caller #1: Hello, Mother. Mother: Yeah, where are you from? Female Caller #1: I'm from Florida. Mother: Good! Female Caller #1: Thank you for taking my call. Mother: Oh, you're welcome. Female Caller #1: I love you. I'm calling because every Lent, I experience tremendous sorrow and grieving and heartache, knowing what Our Lord suffered for my sins. Mother: Right. Female Caller #1: And I cried all through Lent, even watching some of the EWTN programs, anything that reminds me of what Our Lord went through. I also had a true vocation and I didn't follow through with it. And I wonder if this is a penance for me since I didn't follow through with that? I am now a third order Carmelite but the suffering is absolutely tremendous. I sob throughout the whole Mass. Confession, I'm cry my eyes out and I just believe that it's because of what I've done to Our Lord. Mother: I don't think Our Lord is punishing you, honey. I don't know why punishment always comes to our mind first. I think it's a gift for you. In some of the spiritual books, they call it the gift of tears. If we have enough compassion for Jesus that we can cry over His pain--not our own but His pain--that's a grace from God, a grace, a grace you need to thank Him for. See, a lot of people commit grievous sins, during Lent and they don't know what they're doing. And she can become more holy, you can become more holy every Lent, then, because you have deep sorrow for Our Dear Lord. You feel what He felt. There are many people in the world who have that gift. Some have it always like Theresa Newman and Padre Pio. But you know, it's a great grace for him. His temperature was so high at times they had to use the temperature for a horse because he'd get way up, way up, 105, 108 and we can't imagine such a temperature and be able to walk around. During every Mass he experienced the Passion of Jesus to give us the reality what Jesus went through, you see. Now, if Our Dear Lord gives you that gift, consider it a gift. Please don't look at it as a punishment. That's a gift. And thank Our Dear Lord that you have that gift, even just for Lent. We have another call. Hello? Female Caller #2: Yes. Mother: Where are you from? Female Caller #2: Baton Rouge. Mother: Well, good, and what's your question? Female Caller #2: How do you become more holy during Lent, especially during Lent? Mother: Okay. Female Caller #2: And how do you overcome the temptations? Mother: Well, Lent is a special time during the year when you get special graces--you have to understand that, first of all. So you get almost double the grace, double the mercy, double everything during Lent because it's a preparation for the Holy Days, Holy Week. And the reason the Church gives those special graces is because we have the privilege of thinking and meditating on the Passion. That's why I wear this cross. This cross is made in Germany and it's a profession cross. We get these when we make our vows. And this profession cross is a constant reminder to each sister of the Passion of Jesus. It's not a decoration. It's not a piece of jewelry. It's a, think painful. Well, because of that, you can become holier during Lent because the Church gives many, many, many graces to everybody. Mortification is a wonderful time, not to just give up something but to give it up for a reason, for Jesus. Do you remember, now the Church says, you can't eat meat on Friday during Lent. You shouldn't eat meat any time on Friday during Lent. You say, "Well, that's been done away with." Oh, I don't know. I don't see it written anywhere. Give me a piece of paper that says, "You may eat meat on Friday." (heavy sigh) The way some of you live on a weekend, I'd do without a few things on a Friday. You know, so, just give up meat on Friday. That's nothing. Fish is good. I don't know where the penance is, unless you don't like fish. But, you see, there are a lot of things you can give to Jesus. I don't like to say, "Give it up." Well, you're going to take it back. You know that, but give it to Jesus for Lent. And be sure that you are cheerful! I'd rather you eat three eggs and be cheerful than not to eat any eggs and be a grouch. (audience chuckles) Some people get very grouchy when they're hungry. I mean, they're just not livable. Well, go and eat something, for goodness sakes. You know, who wants to live with you? Because you say, "I'm hungry, I'm grouchy." Well then, eat. Doing without food is not your penance--it gives everybody else a penance. (audience laughs) And nobody said we are supposed to give other people a penance during Lent. So this man said to me one time, "Oh, I gave away cigarettes during Lent." I said, "Yeah, I heard about it." He said, "What do you mean you heard about it?" I said, "Your kids have called, your wife has called. "They can't live with you. "If you're that stupid, you want to fill your lungs with the beginning of cancer, go, smoke!" He said, "I don't like the way you said that." Well, I said, "That's tough! "But if you're going to be so nasty to everybody, go on and smoke." See, if you're going to do penance, do it cheerfully, cheerfully. Our Lord said that, "When you do penance, wipe your face, put oil on you head and don't let anybody know. Don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing." The whole world has to know. I had a man come to me one time and in about 20 minutes he was talking to me he told me five times he was fasting, five times! The last time he said it, "You know, I've been fasting for 10 days!" I said, "John, you've been fed." "What do you mean? I haven't eaten anything!" I said, "Ah yeah, you've told the whole world you're fasting." I said, "You've been fed. Now, either shut up or go and eat something." He never came back, either. (audience chuckles) But see, if you fast, be cheerful. If you haven't done something nice for somebody, you're grouchy or irritable, I would think about your penance because it's not the purpose of a penance. Why don't you just be nice to people the rest of Lent? Some of you have a hard time being nice, being kind, being loving, being compassionate, coming home tired and not letting everybody know it, giving something to some poor beggar and having to tell the whole world what you did. Those are real penances. And that's how you can be holy for Lent We have another call. Hello? Child Caller #1: Hi! Mother: Hey! Child Caller #1: Um, I'm sorry, I'm a little nervous but... Mother: You're rather, how old are you, sweetheart? Child Caller #1: Yeah, well... Mother Angelica: How old? Child Caller #1: Well, um, what shouldn't you do after penance and what should you do? Mother: Are you asking about my sins or what I do after them? Child Caller #1: What I do after them? Mother: Okay. Are you saying you committed a sin or you did something not nice and you did your penance? Child Caller #1: Not yet. Mother: Ah! (audience chuckles) Now we're getting to the bottom of everything. (all laugh) Okay, can I give you an example? Oh he's gone. I'll give you an example. You mother said, "I baked cookies for tomorrow's lunch. Don't take one!" And she puts a cover on them, and you can't stand even the odor. And so you look around, and nobody's around and you look out the door and your mother's way across the street talking to a neighbor. I'm making this up, now-- don't get excited! So you run to the kitchen and you take the jar, that cap off and you take two cookies and you stuff them in your mouth and you eat and eat and eat and chew and chew and chew and you go like this, get it down as fast as possible, take some water. Bingo! There your mother comes in the door. And she walks up to you and she smells cookies. (sniffs) "Did you have a cookie?" "Huh?" "Did you have a cookie?" "What did you say, mom?" "You know what I said." She lifts up the jar and there's two big cookies missing. (heavy sigh) She said, "Okay, you took two cookies." "Okay, okay! I took two cookies." Now, what happens to you? If you're a good, a good son or daughter you should say, "I'm sorry, Mom. (heavy sigh) "Give me a penance. "I didn't mean it. "I didn't mean to hurt you. "I didn't mean to be disobedient." That's what you should do. Now, the thing you should not do is to deny it. "Wasn't me! It was the dog!" "The dog. "He climbed up the counter, he opened the door, he took off the lid and he ate two cookies. "Is that what you're telling me?" "Yeah, mom, that happened. I saw it myself." Now, you not only stole two cookies, you lied. Oh, that's not too good. Yeah. See, there are two things you can do after you do something that's wrong. Well, you shouldn't see. You just, now you really hurt your mother because she knows you're lying. So that's what you should do. If you do and you got caught, be honest and truthful, truthful. "I did it, I'm sorry." (heavy sigh) "Okay, you can't go out tonight or tomorrow night." "That's okay, I deserve it." Oh, wouldn't that be nice if you not only accepted the fact you deserve the penance you got? That's what you should do. And then--ah, here comes the hard part--no more cookie swiping. That's the last time you're going to do that cause now you know your mother is offended. Not from the cookies--she's going to give you all you want tomorrow--but because you lied or she's very happy over the fact that you told her the truth and you weren't afraid of the penance. See? I think some of you parents need to give your young children a little penance like go and say a Hail Mary before the statue of Our Lady and tell Her you're sorry. You see, sometimes our children have no concept of sin. They don't even believe it exists. And in today's world they do so pretty heavy stuff they shouldn't do. And think, "Oh, my child's only in the 3rd, 4th Grade." You watch them there. Some are on drugs already and you're naive. So you don't live in the world we used to live in. Not be suspicious, no, but you must be prudent and careful--and that's a penance for you parents. You can no longer relax and think your children are safe. They're not! They're not! And sometimes the things they're taught in school they shouldn't be taught. You say, "Well, I can't do anything about it." You're just chicken, that's all. You can do something about it. You're a parent. The Holy Father told all parents, "It's your responsibility to teach your children." "I don't want to get in trouble." Well, you're going to get in more trouble if you don't. This world is no place for Catholic chickens. (audience chuckles) You've got enough grace --one Eucharist is enough to give you grace enough to fight the good fight, define and defend the faith and protect your children. That's what your obligation is. If not and if you don't take it in your hands, you're going to be sorry, then you'll strike your breast, "What did I do? What did I do?" It's what you didn't do. It's not what you did--it's what you didn't do. Well, I love you and God loves you. Never forget that! He loved you enough to suffer just for you, as if no one else existed. If you remember that, you'll wake up cheerful. Bye now. (applause) [music]
