♪ ♪ <i>Man: "Mother Angelica Live!"</i> <i>brought to you from the Eternal
Word Television Studios</i> <i>in Birmingham, Alabama.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>Mother: ...See in you, the love,
the compassion of Jesus.</i> <i>The most glorious work of all,
to praise God in His Kingdom.</i> <i>Anyone moved by the Spirit...</i> <i>Anyone who lives in love, lives
in God and God lives in Him.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>What a wonderful thing is our
Church.</i> <i>This whole network is built on
trust.</i> <i>The essence of evangelization is
to tell everybody,</i> <i>"Jesus loves you!"</i> <i>We're all called to be great
saints--</i> <i>don't miss the opportunity!</i> (applause) Well, I'm sitting down, as you can see, and the reason I'm sitting down is so many of you wrote and said, "We like what you're saying but we don't like that old board." And I thought, "Well, we'll just take the board away, that's all. That's no problem." If you don't like the board, we'll just do away with the board. So we're going to do something a little different. The lines are open for your questions now throughout the program. Your question doesn't have to be relevant to what I'm saying, but we're going to talk tonight about holiness. Would you like that? Do you all know you can be holy? Did you ever think that God called you to be holy? You did? Do you think God called you to be holy? Woman: Yes. Mother Angelica: You did! Well, good for you. You know, there are a lot of people who don't think that way. They say, "Me? That's for priests and nuns." Oh, if that's true today, we're in bad shape aren't we? (all chuckle) I can say that cause I'm one of them. (all laugh) So we want to know, first of all, what does it mean to be holy? Well, now forget the halo, okay. I want you to forget the halo because the halo comes after you're dead. It doesn't come while you're living. Did you ever see someone walking around with a halo? Anybody see anyone with a halo around their head? No, you don't see anyone like that. See, it's after you're dead and that's only a symbol of holiness. Now, do you think all the saints were faultless? Do you think they were faultless? Man: No. Mother Angelica: You don't think so. You're unusual. Most people think those saints that we have in our churches--and I believe in them. I'm a refuge for angels here and saints that nobody wants. So if you got a saint statue, you don't know what to do with it, send it to me. But anyway, we have a concept sometime that these saints were very holy--and they were--but they were without imperfections and that's not true, see. If I were to take all of you now and go put you in another room and then I was going to say, "Now, Lord, I want You to give me as many saints from Heaven as there are chairs here" and I would fill this entire room with saints from Heaven--from Heaven now, not saints on earth, but saints from Heaven--and they would look just about like you do. There'd be some skinny ones, some fat ones, there'd be some smart ones, some stupid ones, there'd be some real bright ones, there'd be some that would be griping about somebody, there'd some there, they're all alike. See, they would all look like you look and it wouldn't be any difference. And most people don't know what it means to live a holy life and it's very simple. Here, let me read you something from St. Paul. I've got it all marked up tonight. He says to the Corinthians, he called them; he was addressing them now--like me coming in tonight and saying, "Holy people!" I bet you would have dropped dead. You'd have looked at me and said, "Oh, is she naïve!" see. (audience chuckles) "She's dreaming." But that isn't what St. Paul said. He said, "This epistle is to the holy people of Jesus who are called to take their place among the saints." There it is in the Good Book. He's talking about you, you sinner! He's talking about you! Now, let me go and take another place here, put this one back. And he says, "You must live your whole life according to Jesus. "You must be rooted in Him and built on Him and held firm in faith." That's what we lack today. Oh, we believe and we have an intellectual assent to truth. We really do. We believe the doctrines of the Church--I hope you do-- and we do have this outward sign of being a Catholic. I mean, we really believe in all the doctrines and dogmas of the Church. But even there we don't think that I can be holy. See, now one of the signs-- and it's very simple and everybody of every state can do it. I went up to a man one time and I said to him, I was all enthused. You know, some days you get enthused about God. And I was all enthused and I said to Him, "Do you know you can be holy?" And he said, "Me?" I'm a lay person!" (audience laughs) And I thought, "You surprised me! "What does that mean, 'I'm a layperson'? Do you know Jesus?" He said, "yes." I said, "Well, do you love Jesus?" He said, "I think so." I said, "You don't think if you're in love." Did you ever, are you married? Woman: Yes. Mother Angelica: Did you think you loved your husband or did you? Woman: I did. Mother Angelica: You did! So you see, she didn't "think" so. You don't get married because... You don't go to somebody and say, "I think I love you. (audience chuckles) I think I do." You can't do things like that. You just can't think I do. You can't think you're a Christian, you can't think you're a Catholic. You either are or you're not. And the way you prove that you are a Christian is to do the Will of God. See? And most times my will and God's Will are clashing. You know, that "kckckck!", like two ends of a live wire. Did you ever put two ends of a live wire together? Anybody an electrician in here? Ohh! You don't even have to be an electrician to figure out what's going to happen, two ends of a live wire. God wants one thing and you want something else. So tonight I want you to test yourself. I want you to ask yourself, "Do I do the Will of God cheerfully?" Ohh! Why'd I say that? "Do I do the Will of God cheerfully?" See. You know, there's a wonderful little story--I wasn't going to tell you that. It wasn't in my plan here but I'll do it anyway. It's from St. Luke's Gospel. I'm going to show you tonight how to be holy. I'm not going to read all of it because it's too long. But we've got time. You know, what's the rush? You're not going anywhere (audience chuckles) and I'm not going anywhere for sure. Now, for just a little bit, we're going to look at two people who did the Will of God--one, as my Grandma would've said,<i> messa messa</i> , not too hot; and another one who did it perfectly. Now, a lot of people think that if you focus your mind on God, you get kind of weird. I don't know how anybody could say that today. Did you ever walk down the street, just walk down an ordinary street and you know that the weirdos that you're looking at and the way they got their hair--if they've got, boy do they have hair. You know, God blessed them with hair and some is purple, some is green and some is red and some is yellow and some is a combination of purple and yellow. And you look at them and you say, "Ah!" And they don't have their mind on Jesus. I mean, you don't have to have your mind on Jesus to be a weirdo. You just don't have to look like a freak. The people who have their mind on Jesus are the happiest people because goodness brings fulfillment and fulfillment brings happiness and happiness brings peace and peace shows. You can't go around with a peaceful face and a peaceful heart and not let it show. I mean, it's going to show! You can tell by a person's eyes whether he's angry or jealous. Oh boy, does jealousy show in the eyes! Oh, greed, they even say, there's an old saying, "She's got green eyes." They don't have green eyes but there's something about the eyes that shows anger, shows a lack of forgiveness, shows bitterness, it shows greed. Greed, do you know what greed is? It's when somebody comes up to you and maybe you went and bought yourself a hat or something and the first thing your husband says is, "How much is it?" He doesn't say, "It looks nice on you." He doesn't say, "Gee, I'm glad you bought that. You look beautiful in it." No! "How much is it?" What'd you think you bought? Did you buy your wife or something? You got to figure out how much it is. What's the difference how much it is? "So that's nice for you to say Mother, you're not paying the bills." (audience chuckles) Well, I'm not paying the bills but that's not--that's holiness. Now, I'm going to show you what holiness is. Maybe in your heart you're going, "Ew, not that cross", see. But in your mind and in your attitude, you're going to say something different. You're going to say, "Ah." You're not going to say, "I was waiting for you to buy a new hat. The other one you got was terrible." (audience chuckles) What you're going to say is, "Well, I'm glad you bought it. I'm glad you like it." You're going to say something encouraging; you're going to say something affirming. See, we live in the world. And the Lord said one day, He said, "You are living in the world, but you're not of the world." See? You're not a part of the world. You can't think the way the world thinks. You go buggy. You can't be watching all these soap operas. People say, "Oh, I don't have time to pray." Did you ever hear somebody say they I don't have time to pray? One time on television I suggested that everybody spend an hour in prayer. Did I get the letters! Ay-yi-yi-yi, did I get the letters! But I bet a nickel that if I were to ask all the people who wrote me those nasty letters, "Do you watch a soap opera?" I'll make a bet they all watch at least an hour a day, at least. "As The World Turns"--it's been turning since I was a kid. (audience chuckles) And everything you do is on a soap opera--you get married, you're unfaithful, you kill somebody or somebody kills you, you have a trial, after the trial you either get in jail or you take off the air, you drop dead or something. (audience chuckles) Then they start over with a whole new face, a whole new crew and they start over-- you get married, you're unfaithful.... It's the same thing over and over and over and over and over again. You see, we have to feed our memory with good food. You can't feed your memory constantly. Your mind is like a sponge and if you put a dry sponge in water, it soaks up. So your mind is like a sponge and it's either going to be filled with the enemy, it's going to be filled with the world, it's going to be filled with God or filled with yourself--one of the three, it's going to be filled with. And that's why the Will of God is a protection, see. I'm going to go through Zachary a minute and then I'm going to go through Our Lady, and I'm going to make it real short. Zachary, you know, his wife Elizabeth was childless. And so Zachary's getting old. I mean really old, okay, and his wife is really old. And so he takes his turn in the temple. He was a priest, a Levite. He takes his turn in the temple, and he's just kind of lost heart. You know, he's said these prayers all these years and nothing happened. So he's not even bothering anymore, see. Did you ever get that way? Yeah, do you get that way sometimes? You don't look like you get that way sometimes. You look like you're going to stick right with it. You get just kind of tired of saying the same prayer over and over. Now, I'm going to show you a holy person and a not too holy person. So he's in the temple and he's praying and everybody is just, you know, just waiting out there for him to come out. All of a sudden he sees an angel, a big angel and the angel says to him, "I'm Gabriel." And he should've known who Gabriel was because it was Gabriel who appeared to Daniel. And he knew from the Scriptures that you don't fool around with Gabriel. And he says, "Oh your wife Elizabeth is going to bear a son." And he said, "He's going to be your joy and your delight and he is going to be great in the sight of the Lord and he must drink no wine. "And even from his mother's womb he's going to be filled with the Holy Spirit." How many of you here have sons? You all have sons. Look at that, how many people have sons. Man: Grandsons, too. Mother Angelica: Grandsons, well wouldn't you have been tickled pink if an angel appeared to you before your wife had a son and told you this? Man: I don't think so. Mother Angelica: You don't think so! (audience laughs) You're kidding! You don't think you'd have been tickled pink? My God, here's another Zachary! (audience laughs) (Mother laughs) Well, I'm glad you were honest, anyway. Well, listen, you've got a buddy here. Man: Thank God. Mother: (laughs) Now, let me tell you what else he said. He said, "He'll bring many sons back to Israel and you'd become in the spirit and power of Elijah." I mean, what kind of son is this going to be! But do you know what Zachary said? Yeah, you know what Zachary said. He said, "How can I be sure of this?" (audience chuckles) Is that what you would have said? (Mother laughs) Your wife says "yes". (audience laughs) Man: I'd have probably said some more than that. Mother: He said, "Well, how can I be sure of this?" And let me tell you what else he said. "I'm an old man," as if everybody didn't know that, "and my wife is getting on in years," which means she's passed childbearing stage. And you know, it's so funny when a human being explains the facts of life to an angel. (audience laughs) You think that's funny, don't you? Well listen, the angel didn't think it was so funny. He didn't think it was funny at all. And the angel said, "I am Gabriel," he said--he already told him that--"who stands in God's presence and I have been sent to speak to you and bring you good news," you dummy. Now, that's my rendition. (audience chuckles) He didn't, it doesn't say that in the Scriptures, "you dummy". "Since you have not believed my words which will come true at the appointed time, you will be silenced and have no power of speech." I bet Elizabeth was happy. (audience chuckles) Now, here's someone who was a holy man and he didn't respond to the prophecy very well. Did that cease to make him a holy man? No, it made him very human and very faulty but it didn't cease to make him a holy man because he was disheartened. And if he was not a holy man the angel would not have appeared to him, the angel would not have chosen him among all the men in Israel to bear his wife, would bear the precursor. He was imperfect. But you can be an imperfect holy person. I'm imperfect. I strive for holiness but I'm very imperfect. You can talk to my sisters--- any one of them, from the very youngest to the oldest --and they'll be glad, more than happy to tell you my faults, weaknesses, imperfections, frailties and all the rest. (audience chuckles) You can also ask my crew on your way out, see. (audience chuckles) But we have this inner struggle. And this inner struggle is confusing sometimes. And we think because I have this inner struggle that I can't be holy. The struggle isn't what makes you not holy. It's not responding to a higher call at that moment. Now, we're going to look at Our Lady and the same angel appears to Our Lady. And he says, "Don't be afraid." She is Full of Grace now. Do you know what that means? She's full of God. Now, this is that Wonderful Woman. You know, all these feminists think they're going to deliver women. Our Lady did that centuries ago. You're behind times. You're before, you're B.C., not A.D.. And he says here, "The Lord will give him a throne of his ancestors and he'll rule a house of Jacob." And Our Lady says, "How can this be done? I am a Virgin." She's just asking a question. And he said, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the Spirit of the Most High shall overshadow you." Whew! I mean, that's a whole change of vocation, a different plan! And She said, "Fiat. "Be it done to Me according to Thy word." Oh, what a Woman! See the difference? Now, here was a Woman Full of God. Zachary was holy but he wasn't full of God, yet. He should've come out of there jumping up and down and saying, "An angel appeared to me and my wife's going to have a son!" But you see, he was imperfect. But he believed finally, as most of us do. We have question. There's somebody in our television audience has a question. And so I'm going to interrupt here and get that question. Hello. Man: Hi. Mother: And where are you from? Man: I'm from Florida, Jacksonville. Mother: And what is your question? Man: Well, I was born and raised a Catholic and I always was confused about God choosing. Mother: Yeah. Man: And I got into a 12-Step program and there's a saying there, "But for the grace of God," and I couldn't understand that. I felt that God preferred other people over me because "look at them in their lives". And then I had a little touch of God and I say, "Look how great I am. God loves me, too!" But them my third concept was, God has always chosen us, every single one of us. Is it the choosing that is important or--I don't know if my question makes sense-- or is it the response and how do we get the strength to respond you know? Mother: that's a very, very good question. Zachary, now, didn't respond very well, but he was chosen, wasn't he? He was chosen and he didn't respond readily. He didn't respond right off the bat, but he did respond later on. It took him time to respond. Our Lady's response was immediate. But, you know, She kind of had a head start, didn't She? Yeah, She was Immaculately Conceived and destined by God to be the Mother of God. However, every individual born--now, this is what's so exciting about God. It's hard to sit on your chair when you're talking about God. But the exciting thing about God is that He chose you before time began, see. Before time began He chose you and He chose you to be. He chose you to be born--no matter how you were born or under what circumstances, God chose you to be. He chose you out of a possible billions and billions of people who might never be and will never be. God chose you to be, that's number one. When He chose you to be, He gives you all the graces you need to know Him. Even if you were in a pygmy in Africa or an aborigine in the middle of South America, He gives you some kind of light to know that there is a Higher Being of greater intelligence. If you were born a Christian and you were born a Catholic Christian, you were specially chosen. Out of all the billions of people in the world--in our Church especially, there are 800 million people that are Catholic. That's a lot of people, isn't it? But that's a special choice. It is special. It's a special call. It's a special call to be Christian today, a special gift to be a Christian today because you can fight for your faith. You can enlighten people who have lost their faith. You can bring them back to Jesus. You can tell them how much God loves them. So you were specially chosen. Now, maybe you kind of, you talked to me a little bit about the 12 points, is that AA? Is that AA? Well, if that's AA, it means that somewhere along the line you goofed up. But that's okay! Well, it's not okay. I don't mean you can do it again. But what I'm saying is, that's not a hindrance to you being holy. That's not a hindrance. You can get right up again. There's a passage here in St. Paul, let's see if I can find it. The time that he said, he said, "There's nothing good living in me." This is St. Paul! Now, you know, if you go to Rome you see this big man. Oh, he must be 12 feet tall, St. Paul is. Somebody said he was a half a pint. (audience chuckles) That's what they call him in one of the epistles and he got mad. So he's obviously very short but this statue must be 12 feet tall and he's got this big pen in his hand. Well, let me read you about this man. He said, "I cannot understand my behavior. I failed to carry out the things I want to do and I find myself doing the very things I don't want to do." Do you ever do that? You're all like St. Paul then. "When I act against my own will, this means I have a self that acknowledge the law is good but sin lives in me. I know nothing good in me." This is St. Paul saying this. "Living in my unspiritual self." Boy, did he have a bad day! (audience chuckles) I mean, he was ready to fold up and fold up his tent. And he says, "Though the will to do, the will to do is in me, the performance is not." Ah ha ha. How do you like that one? Do you like that one? Does that make you feel good? Man: Sounds like me, too. Mother: Sounds like you? Well, you're really getting it tonight, aren't you? (audience chuckles) "With the result that instead of doing the good things I want to do I carry out the sinful things I don't want to do." This guy had a real hot temper, did you know that? Boy, and he was a very poor speaker. He kind of droned when he talked. He was a great letter writer but a poor speaker. Do you remember the boy who was sitting on a windowsill and he fell asleep, fell out the window and killed himself. All Paul did was get mad. He ran down the steps, looked at the kid sprawled all over the ground, interrupted his sermon and he said to him, "Get up!" (audience laughs) He went back up and droned some more. So you see, he had his faults. "When I act against my will, it is not my true self." Now, we get in the secret of this whole thing. "It's sin that lives in me," see. "In my innermost self I dearly love God's Will," but he had a hard time sometimes see. We all do. We have another call. Hello. Woman: Hi, Mother Angelica. It's so good to see you sitting down. You seem so relaxed. Mother: Thank you! Woman: Boy it's lovely and we're trying to help you with your deficit as much as we can this month. Mother: Thank you. And what is your question? Woman: My question is this; we have raised four grown children now--they're out of the house, they're married. But for some reason that we can't figure, it's been going on 12 years now, they have been estranged from us. We are not permitted to visit in their homes. We are not allowed to see our grandchildren. My husband has had open-heart surgery. I have had ovarian cancer. We have called them when we were ill or when my husband was ill. We got no response. They remain distant from us. They were raised cradle Catholics in Catholic education and have won honors in Catholic schools. Their father has been teaching in the Catholic School system for years. I don't understand this. How do we remain holy? We pray. I think of St. Monica. I'm asking you, would you give me some words of encouragement and help me please, Mother? Thank you. Mother: Yeah...yeah. I'm very sorry about that and I think our audience is sorry about that. I don't think there's a parent here that doesn't bleed for you. There's nothing worse today than the ungrateful child. Sometimes you may have given yourself the answer. You said, "They had a good education" and they were, I understood, at least I think I understood they were kind of smart, brilliant. Maybe that's the point. Oh, I'm not against intellectuals because they render a great service to the world. But when children do not keep the Commandments, it's a heartbreak that nobody can even begin to understand. Unrequited love is one of the worst things in the world. You love them; very obviously they don't love you. You've given them an education, you've given them everything they have and they've left. They don't want the responsibility of taking care of you or your husband. That kind of ingratitude makes even God cry. And I'm very sorry to hear that. But the best thing you can do is doing what the Gospels tell us to do. You can still, in the midst of your heartache love them and pray for them. It doesn't look like much but it's heroic virtue. And that's how you can be holy. You can be holy because it takes a holy person to pray for someone who is deliberately hurting them to that degree. It takes a holy person to say, "Lord, bless my children tonight" when they've done something so terrible that they won't let you see their children, won't let you see anything, anyone, won't come on a feast day, won't come on Christmas. It takes a holy person to say, "Lord, forgive them." It takes a holy person to wish them well. And I don't want you to, I don't want you to miss the opportunity of being holy right now, I really don't. And I know God doesn't. And He went through the same thing. He went through it. One day He sat on a hill looking down at the beauty of the Temple and He said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. If you only knew Who it is that has come to you!" And He talked about the hen gathering the chicks. But He said, "You would not. You would not." You need to pray; you need to pray from them! Why? Because you're the one being hurt. See, your prayers matter more than if I prayed for them. Your prayers are more important. They're more important because you're the one that has a heartache. You're the one they're offending. You're the one they're hurting so bad. So don't miss this wonderful opportunity to be holy as God is holy because that's what God does for us. We have a question in our audience. Deacon Bill: Mother, you were talking about holy people and so forth. But your definition of what you've been saying seems to say that there are degrees of holiness and that holiness is a process and that we're going to continue to proceed until we die. But yet many people think when you die, everybody just goes to Heaven as though there's no Purgatory. Mother: (laughs) Do I have news for them! (audience chuckles) Well, let me answer your first question. I just happen to have a Scripture open that's going to say that. This is what St. Paul says 2 Corinthians 3: 18. He says, "And we with our unveiled faces reflect like a mirror..." Now, think what a mirror is. You reflect, your face is only reflected in that mirror. "...reflect like a mirror the brightness of the Lord." Now, I want you to go home tonight and look at your mirror. Do you reflect the brightness of the Lord or is all you look at is wrinkles? (audience laughs) Do you reflect the brightness of the Lord--the love, the compassion, the goodness, the forgiveness, the mercy? This is what we have to radiate to our neighbor. I never, you know, some Christians you want to put a match under. They're so Sad Sack. Oh, my goodness. You know, I would never be attracted to Christianity the way some Christians act. And here's what he says, "We all grow brighter and brighter." Now, if you grow brighter and brighter, we're talking about growing in degrees. You just all of a sudden, it's not like getting a degree from a university-- now you've made it! Until you get a job and make a living, you haven't made anything. I talked to a girl who had a degree, a Masters Degree in Zoology. I said, "Are you a zoologist?" And she said, "Yes." I said, "Where do you work?" She said, "I'm a waitress." (audience laughs) I said, "Why are you a waitress? "I mean, your parents spent a lot of money to make you a zoologist." She says, "Well, I don't like it." See, I missed that point entirely. (audience chuckles) "...and as we are turned into the image we reflect." I'm going to read... This is my favorite verse. And one of the sisters said, "Mother, when you die what do you want on your, on your tombstone?" I said, I want this, "We with our unveiled faces reflect like a mirror the brightness of the Lord and we grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the image we reflect." And this is the work of the Spirit Who is Lord. Every day, every minute of the day, every second of the day, even while you sleep-- if you say before you go to bed, "Lord, I dedicate my sleep to You. "I unite my sleep with the sleep of Jesus," then I sleep holy. Why should I waste 8 hours of sleep? So I united--Jesus slept, He was Human. He slept in the boat. We know that. He scared the Apostles half to death. They were yelling and screaming cause they were gone down and Our Lord woke up, one eye at a time. And He said, "You men of little faith." You notice He never called women "little faith". You know, (audience chuckles and scattered applause) He, always the men that had little faith. I'm not a feminist either. (audience laughs) What we have to understand is we reflect Jesus. We're trying to be Jesus. We want to be Jesus but we merely reflect Jesus. And that image, that reflection, you know, if you have a mirror at home and it's all dirty, well you can look at it and you see yourself but you don't see yourself clearly. So if you take a rag and you wipe a little off, you see yourself better. You wipe some more off, you see yourself better. You know, in the Cleveland monastery, we were never allowed to have mirrors. And so you just kind of put your headwear on in the morning and hope for the best, you see. (audience chuckles) And I used to, we had a huge picture of Pope Leo XIII. I mean, it was huge! And I use to see a lot of sisters praying there, you know. (audience laughs) And I was a young sister and I thought they were, every time I'd turn a corner there was a sister praying before St. Leo XIII. (audience chuckles) But I found out they weren't praying at all! They were straightening out their headwear, you see. But the reflection in that, (Mother and audience laugh) nuns are also vain! (audience laughs) But the reflection in that mirror was not as clear as if they had a real mirror, was it? But it was a beginning, so they could see something in there. So that's what it means. We don't just get a clump of holiness all at one time. Every time you have a chance to be compassionate, every time you have a chance to be patient, every time you have a chance to answer somebody kindly--that makes that reflection brighter. So we have a call. Hello. Woman: Hello, Mother. Mother: Where are you from? Woman: Steubenville, Ohio. Mother: And what is your question? Woman: Well, actually, it's two parts. The first part is, I really have trouble listening to what God is telling me. My Catholic education and faith tells me that He's out there but I don't feel His presence in my life. And I was wondering if there are any special prayers or any wisdom you could give me on how to listen better to what He's telling me. And the second part of my question is, how does one remain holy and lead a holy life in workplace when it's full of gossip and malicious comments and, you know it's everywhere that I go and I can't just get up and leave because I have to be there for work? So I was wondering if you could give me any wisdom on what I can do for that. And thank you very much for your network. I watch you all the time and I love you! Mother: Thank you! First, let's know that the only way to listen is to shut up. (audience chuckles) I mean, you don't want to say that. I don't mean to be abrupt when I say that but in order to listen, you have to be quiet. See, you have to be quiet. As long as you're talking to God all the time--it's wonderful! I recommend talking to God about everything--finding a parking place, you know, trying to buy a hat, walking down the street, crossing the street, especially if you're in Italy. You might as well forget it. (audience chuckles) In Italy everything is a matter of utmost martyrdom. (audience chuckles) It isn't just holiness. You cross the street and you run the risk of becoming a martyr. (audience laughs) But anyway, we have to listen, sweetheart, you have to listen. Now, the trouble with listening to God is that you get bored. You just sit there and you're listening and there's nothing happening, see. You think there's nothing happening but the Lord is saying to you very clear, "Be quiet. Let the silence that you hear"--see, sometimes we hear silence and we don't like what we hear. "Let the silence of your thoughts"--no thought at all, you're just listening-- "let that be the stepping stone to the presence of the Lord, the presence of the Lord." That's what's so important. It's important that we are aware of the presence of the Lord. And if I were to tell everybody now in this room-- and I can't because I'm on television--but if I were to say to everybody, "I want everybody to be quiet and I want you to be listening to the awesome silence which is the presence of God!" See, you can almost feel it now, can't you? Yeah, you see, you hear that silence. And that silence is an awesomeness. It's not just a lack of noise. It's not just the lack of movement. I want you listen for just a half a second. Silence. Isn't that wonderful? See, that's the presence of the Lord speaking to your heart. Now, at that point, you respond by saying, "I love You, Jesus, I love You." Start with that. It's a very basic way to start contemplative prayer but it's there. It's there. Now, the next question, how to be holy in the marketplace. Well, you can't always put soap in people's mouth, although you'd like to. I think it's a good idea, myself, (audience chuckles) to carry a bar of soap and just go "psst!" And for some soap wouldn't be enough. They'd need lye or something like that. But you can make reparation in your heart to Jesus. Somebody tells a dirty joke, don't listen. But sometimes, though, I can't turn my ear off. But as they're talking, you interiorly talk to Jesus. Say, "Jesus, I'm so sorry they took Your Name in vain. "I'm so sorry, Lord, that they told this dirty joke. "I ask You to forgive them. "I ask You to have mercy on them. "I ask You to give them light, give them light." See, and if they know that this bothers you, they may go on and make it worse for a while but all of a sudden you'll see maybe when you walk in they'll be quiet. You see, you can't always change jobs. You wish you could--but you can do something about it. You can do a holy thing. We can wait upon God's time in other people's lives. And do you know, that's the hardest thing. You see, you can't say, for example, "When I want to live a holy life, they should live a holy life, too." Well, that's true! There's nothing more true than that. But you can't make people want to live a holy life. That's a gift from God. "Blessed are those who thirst for justice sake." That means those who thirst for holiness. You and I have free will. They have free will. And when you have free will, well, the grace is there. The grace to be holy is with every individual and most especially with a Christian and most, most especially with a Catholic because you have the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist! And don't you ever, ever, ever let anybody tell you that Jesus is not present in the Holy Eucharist. He's Body, Soul, He's Divinity, He's Humanity, all of Jesus' Body Blood, Soul and Divinity is in the Holy Eucharist. And anyone who tells you it's not is a liar. Don't you ever let anyone convince you by any kind of intellectual argument that He's not present; that He's only present for a little while; that He's not really there. Jesus is really and truly there! Our Lady is really and truly the Mother of God. These are the truths that build your faith. You got to have these things! You can't go through your life confused. Somebody said to me one time, "Are you confused?" I said, "No!" "Why not?" I said, "Because I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth," and I gave him the whole Creed. I don't have any confusion about anything because I believe in the truths that are given to me by the Roman Catholic Church. I believe that and that gives me the strength and the courage to believe the more important things also-- that God is present, that He loves me, that He loved me before time began, that He loved me in my mothers womb, that He... That's why abortion is so terrible. God is knitting together in a womb and somebody goes clunk! You see, that's very bad. Our Lady in Fatima made a-- this is kind of beside the subject but we're getting close to an end--and she said that Russia would be converted if there was enough rosaries said. Well, Russia's on the verge of that. It's not converted, yet. It's merely changed from Communism to democracy, some form of democracy. Well, pride is there. Pride is everywhere in the world. Pride is in our own heart. If there's one thing that will spoil Our Lady of Fatima's prediction it will be lack of prayer and pride. Pride is promoted by New Age; it's promoted by enneagrams. What it means is that "I am my own ruler. I am the ruler of my faith." You're a big fat zero! That's what you are, a great big fat zero because without God you couldn't get up in the morning, you wouldn't be able to breathe. When I had my asthma problems for two months and times I couldn't breathe, I realized what a wonderful thing it was to breathe, what a wonderful thing it was to be able to talk and not (gasp) take a breath every 5 seconds. What a wonderful thing God has given me all my life and I never appreciated it. You are God's gift to the world. Then be a gift--be a source of grace to your neighbor, a source of hope. But all of this comes from the One and Only True God. By yourself, unless we're all, all mankind grounded in humility and humor. Most of us take ourselves too seriously. Oh do we take our self seriously. Repent quickly! Make a big act of love and remember that God is Infinitely Merciful and we live in a time of mercy. None of us have been the recipients of God's justice. We live in a time of mercy. There was one more thing I wanted to read to you before we go. St. Paul says, "We are only earthenware jars", cracked pots, "fragile," that's what an earthen ware jar is, a cracked pot, "that hold a treasure." Why? We're talking about humility now. "...to hold a treasure, to make it clear that such an overwhelming power comes from God and not from us." Eat your heart out, you New Agers. "We are in difficulty on all sides but never cornered. "We say no answer to our problems but we never despair. "We're persecuted but never deserted. "We're knocked down but never killed. We're fragile." That which is fragile is precious to God. "I came for sinners, not for the virtuous." He came for you. He came for me. It's something that should just burn in our heart with a great joy. He cares for us. He nurtures us. He takes care of us. He forgives us. He loves us. What more do you want! He came and He died for us and He lives for us. There was a seminary not too far from here. The question was asked, "What would happen if you found the bones of Jesus?" Now, if that isn't the stupidest question I ever heard in my whole life of 68 years! Jesus is risen and He lives! --that's the basis of the Christian faith, the basis of the Christian faith. And day-by-day you and I, because of the Resurrection, because of the Eucharist, must reflect Jesus and we grow brighter and brighter and brighter and brighter. Don't look at your old face in a mirror. See Jesus in your eyes. When you look in the mirror and you go, "Ugh!" early in the morning, look in your eyes and say, "Good morning, Jesus" because He lives in you. Well, we've got to go. I'm sorry. I enjoyed it this evening. I hope you did. Bye. We'll see you tomorrow night. (applause) ♪ ♪
