[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 there. We just got all kinds of wonderful family here. They're from Ohio, from Florida, from Mississippi, from everywhere. From everywhere in the whole country we get them coming all day long. It's wonderful to see you face-to-face. You kind of imagine what's behind that piece of glass I keep looking at. But when you come, it's really a consolation for all of us, for all the sisters and the priests. We see all of you who listen to the Word. Well, we have some wonderful news. The wonderful news is beginning June 14--that's the Feast of the Sacred Heart--EWTN will inaugurate a new network and we'll have Galaxy for all of America and Canada, and then we will have show called EWTN Espanol. So we're going to have 24 hours of Spanish-language service for all the people in Latin America. How do you like that? (applause) And you're going to get wonderful programming, wonderful programming-- programming to teach your children, beautiful cartoons to also teach your children. You'll get news and you'll get beautiful spiritualities, the kind that you like, and so I want you to pray, all of you. We're all in this together. Pray for our new family in all the countries in South America who have never seen, most of them, a Catholic television program. Isn't that great? And we're going to be there 24 hours every day until Gabriel blows that horn. (audience laughs) And we hope--the bishop called a couple weeks ago and said that we lose almost 9000 now of our Catholics a day. It's hard even to imagine such a vast number of people leaving the Church. They join all kinds of cults and churches and you can see how our Dear Lord and Our Lady must be so hurt when you leave Jesus and the Eucharist and all the beautiful Sacraments we have and run for New Age or Moonites or Lord knows what. You and I have to be a little more evangelistic. If you have something and you love it, you're going to talk about it and that's one of the problems we have as Catholics. We're so quiet about the treasure we possess. We're afraid! Well, who can you be afraid of? What can they do to you? Talk about you? When? Say nasty things about you? More when? What can they do, kill you? Well, you go straight to Heaven. So, what is so bad? (group chuckles) When you try to analyze why Catholics don't evangelize, you just come out with a big fat zero because there is really no reason. Now, if your life isn't what it should be, I would keep my mouth shut, definitely! But you got the treasure. You've got a diamond in your hand with many facets to it-- and we're selfish. We want to keep it to ourselves, and we can't do that. As long as there's an inch of this earth that does not know the Gospel, we cannot be happy or satisfied. When the worst happens-- last night we had a storm. Well, we've had--I'm 73, I've had a lot of storms in my life, but the lightning never stopped. I could have read a map by the lightning last night. In fact, I opened the window so I could see. (all laugh) The lights went out and I just opened the window and there was (makes noise). I thought, how wonderful, you know. There was green lightning and blue lightning and white lightning--none of which I've ever seen before. There's droughts everywhere. We want to be everywhere in the world when or if the worst happens. You can call it chastisement, you can call it punishment. I call it God's love for us, an opportunity for grace. I thought maybe we'd talk about that tonight. How about that? Did you ever wonder, as Job did, why so many terrible things happen to good people? Does that bug you? That bugs everybody, I think. You try your best, you break a leg. (audience laughs) I'm just making it and I break a leg. I want to really come off well in school and I barely make it. "I'm trying to be good. I keep all the Commandments,"--I hear this over and over--"and my house burned down." They never say they left the burners on. (audience laughs) "My house burned down." I've always felt that's kind of strange. And then people die and you don't know why. Do you know more and more people die and when they make an autopsy on them, they have, can't find a thing. They don't know why they died. This happened to what? Good people, good people. So we say--I think what we're trying to say is, the Old Testament says something like that. Most Christians, I think most Catholics would make great Old Testament Jews because you believe, really in your heart, you believe if you're good, God should be good to you and you should be healthy, wealthy and wise if you keep the Commandments and if you try to please the Lord. That isn't what this Little Book here or this Big Book says, does it? Uh-huh. If you look at Chapter 5 of the, of St. Matthew, you find what's called the beatitudes. You ought to read them some time. The reason good things, bad things happen to good people--and they happen to bad people. Did you ever see how dissipated somebody looks that's on drugs or alcohol? Their face gets hard. They get, they age, they age. They may be 20 and they look 50. You don't get away with anything. Why? We are temples of the Holy Spirit. Isn't that awesome to know that you and I carry around with us the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? You and I have been destined by God to be holy. When God allows us to suffer from the injustices of other people, our own forgetfulness, then whatever happens, if it happens, we have to find something good in it. On these trips I go on, inevitably someone will say to me, "Mother, why did God give you such a job and make you so crippled?" There was a grace for me, a sheer grace. Why? The Lord knows my temperament and He knows my nationality. Italians, oh boy. (audience laughs) So He knows I need a little breaker, I really do. Our Lord has blessed us in such phenomenal ways. I know, though, it's for you and for what's coming and we cannot be afraid. We must trust the Lord in everything we have to suffer. You cannot read this Book and not know that this is how the Father treated His Eternal Son. Why do we complain so much? Why do we complain? Sometime when you try very hard to forgive and forget, the person doesn't want you to forget and they don't want your forgiveness. Now, that's the hardest thing. Why is it? Because we're human and we suffer from each other's faults and weaknesses. Now, why? Why can't we all love each other? Most of all because many times we're all a pain in the neck to somebody! (audience chuckles) You get up in the morning and you don't feel good and everybody knows it, (audience chuckles) everybody--and you're nice and you say, "What's wrong?" "Why are you asking me what's wrong? Don't you know I'm sick?" Hey, wait a minute now, she was nice enough to say, "What's wrong?" But see, we, we turn things around, don't we, in our daily life? You say, "Good morning." "What's good about it?" (audience chuckles) Well, try and find out what's good about it. Even when you go to a funeral--oh, Dear Lord, we talked about that last week. You go to a funeral and they look so wonderful, wonderful. I've stood near a casket and just hear the people coming up and they'll say, "My, she looks beautiful." (audience chuckles) I heard one person come up and say, "Looks like she gained weight." (audience laughs) I mean, she's dead! I mean, she is dead! (audience laughs) And you say, "It looks like she gained weight." Now, they're putting glasses on them. (audience chuckles) We try so hard to get away from pain or punishment and if you've got bags under your eyes, you've got makeup for that, just change the bag, they're still there. Everybody sees them hanging there and you've got them all covered with powder, makeup, the whole bit but they're there. Even in death we want our people in beautiful caskets and looking beautiful and many of them do, many of them do because their souls are right with God. But the one who looks so emaciated suffered so much, we kind of skim over those people. We're all geared to being perfect. We kind of kid ourselves our entire lives. We can't take good and bad. God never wills evil. I read a little thing about some of these liberals--I just want to give them honorable mention tonight, (audience laughs) who now have organized, about 20 of them I guess, and they're going to send a little petition to every parish in the country for you to sign up. Well, you're going to sign up that you believe your conscience is your ultimate authority. If you thought you had trouble now, you should wait for that one. Women priests, married priests, everything that God doesn't want is on their agenda. Be careful if you get that in your parish that you don't sign up thinking you're signing up for something else, see. Never sign anything unless you read it. Read it. They approve abortion. Now, you wonder why does that happen? Because people make wrong decisions and you and I have to suffer from those bad decisions. But I have to give it to Jesus. Jesus showed us what to do here when He said that when we're poor in spirit, we have to remember something, the Kingdom of"--what does it say?--"Kingdom of Heaven is ours." I have here three people I think, or more, in wheelchairs. How blessed they are by God. Why? Because they're special. Our minds are so mixed up by society. We kill them before we're born and we kill them before they're ready to die. We've lost the beauty and dignity of our human nature. We've lost that. We don't want to be bothered. But those people are special to God because when the Father sees them, He sees His Son in a special way. Those of you that suffer from the problems and the changes or the lack of understanding of the beauty of the Church and you feel… I talked to a man today on the phone, he felt like everything was leaving and he felt so alone. They took out the kneelers and he's broken hearted. He said, "What do I do?" I give that broken heart to Jesus. He's brokenhearted, too. When I have an opportunity to be like Jesus, I can be sure I am when I'm in pain and suffering and I grieve over someone. I have someone, a child, a son, a daughter who has left the Church, hasn't been to Mass or we don't know where they are--that is a real punishment. But it's not your fault. It's not your fault. You don't know what goes on in a mind. Some people who act the worst really don't want to act that way, they don't. They don't know. They have no idea and you and I have to suffer for it. So you say, "Well, what's the use of that?" The use of that is that I can change, I can change. I can use the worst that happens to me and give it to the Lord like incense, and I say, "Jesus, I feel bad. "I'm very hurt. This is an unjust situation but I know You're giving it to me so that I can be more like You." What an awesome gift that is. We should never be disheartened by any kind of pain or suffering. Some of you have chronic illness; it's not going to go away--but you know how many souls you can save? Oh wow! A person in any kind of pain, it can be spiritual pain, mental pain, physical pain, when you pray, God listens with an attentive ear. Your prayers are powerful, and your pain and your disappointment, whatever it is, is there and given to you by God so you can take your will and say, "Lord, I'm suffering for this and I don't particularly it but I love You and I want to imitate You." These beatitudes are so contrary to what the world teaches today especially. It says that, "If we're gentle, we'll have the earth." Well, I don't know. Who wants it today? (audience chuckles) I saw that on a bumper sticker. It said, "Be gentle and you shall inherit the earth-- but who wants it?" (audience laughs) "Happy those who mourn…" What does that mean? Does it mean you cry at a funeral? Yes, at least you're sympathetic, you have empathy. It means do you mourn over your sins? Do you really feel bad when you offend the Lord? Why? 'Cause He's your Father. He created you out of nothing. You get the impression some people think they created themselves-- but you didn't. There was a time you were not but there will never be a time you are not. Oh, well. Where are you going? Some of you out there tonight are listening to me and you're alcoholics, you're drug addicts, you watch pornography and you watch me because you're guilty and I want to make you more guilty. (audience chuckles) I want to be a thorn in your side. I want you to remember my face every time you're going to turn away from God. Why? Because I want you to go to Heaven. You see, that's another thing. The Lord said, "The Father wants everybody to go to Heaven." You've really got to work hard not to go to Heaven. He said that, "Those who hunger and thirst," what? "for what is right." Do you do that? No, we like what's right because I think it's right. This is the new theology, "You've got to follow your conscience." But your conscience is not enlightened if you oppose God. So you can't go by your conscience. Some people don't want to know the Will of God. Why? Well, you just don't want to be culpable. "Happy are those who are merciful." Ooh, merciful, that's a good one. Why do we want to be merciful? Right away we go back to what we started with-- that's an opportunity, an opportunity to forgive like Jesus. If you're a faithful Catholic today, you suffer a lot of ridicule, sometimes from your pastor, sometimes for your parishioners, sometimes from your friends, your workplace. They think you're nuts and that hurts. But He said they would work. Look at that, "Blessed are you when you're persecuted," St. Luke said, "We should dance for joy." Have you ever danced for joy because somebody thinks you're a nut? (audience chuckles) Huh? No. You try to change the subject. You wonder sometimes if there was a real big persecution what we'd do cause we're so afraid to admit we love Jesus. I follow the Magisterium and I think the Holy Father is infallible and is the Vicar of Christ. Now, if you think all that and you say it, you're bound to make some people unhappy. Well, they need to be unhappy. You have to be brave today. You have to not only accept your own pain and suffering but the pain and suffering of others and the pain and suffering inflicted on you because you follow the Lord. Well, it says some other nice things here. It says, "Happy the pure in heart, they shall see God." Well, to be pure in heart also means not to rash judge your neighbor. We always rash judge. A woman I know some years ago had a bad toothache and it was all swollen. She had an abscess. She came home from the doctor and a friend of hers passed her across the street and waved at her. She didn't see her. She went home. You know, there was a feud in those two families for two years. Now, isn't that something silly? Ask yourself, who is the one you're mad at the most and the longest? I bet they're dead. (group chuckles) I bet they died. You're still angry, you still hate them. Now, let's pretend that you die and who sees you at the gate but the one you hated all your life down here, and he's up there, "Hi! (audience laughs) I made it." "I don't believe you made it." (audience laughs) Are you going to stand there before Jesus and say, "Hey, why is he here? (audience laughs) "He tormented me. Why is he here?" Are you going to say that to Him? No. Why are you saying it now? Are you going to look at the Crucified Jesus and say, "Why did You make me suffer? "Why did everything go wrong for me? Why did I fail?" How in the world can you face the Lord God, Son of God, and say, "Why did You make me fail?" How are you going to, how's he going to answer you? If you talk about failure, His failure was our redemption. Do you see how powerful suffering is? He didn't have to do that. He could have just boom down to earth and say, "I forgive you, miserable wretches." That would have been enough. No. He sends His Son. Those He came for did not know Him. They did not want Him. When they knew Him, they tried to get rid of Him, and they did. Have you suffered that? We cannot go to Heaven and face God and say, "Why, Lord?" Not after this. He is Our Model, He is Our Model. When Peter tried... Peter didn't want the idea that Our Dear Lord was going to Jerusalem and then suffer so much. Sad, so what did he do? He said, "Well, don't go, Lord." And the Lord said, "Get thee behind Me, satan. I don't want to see you." Oh boy. He just gave him the keys to the Kingdom and a couple of days later He calls him satan. Why? He didn't want Jesus to suffer. He wanted that nice, beautiful life He was living, an Apostle of the Master, the Messiah-Lord. He knew somehow in his heart he was going to change, and what happened? Well, you see, he tried to dissuade the Lord from that terrible Agony and Death. The Lord corrected him. You and I have to get the right idea of pain. It is not a punishment. It's an opportunity to be like Jesus. St. Paul said one time, he said, "This is a wicked generation; your lives must redeem it," you see. If God has blessed you with any cross and even though some time you think, "Well, I haven't done too good with my children. "I prayed for them. "They're not in the Church. They seem to get worse every minute." You don't know that. You may be in the Kingdom before they change; but no prayer, no matter what it is, goes unheard or unanswered in Heaven. We may not get what we want. I heard somebody say the other day, "This would have been the anniversary of my marriage." I said, "Well, obviously, you didn't get married." She said, "No, thank God." (audience laughs) After a while she found out the one she was going to marry wasn't too hot. Now, all that time people will rave and rant and cry, "Oh, he left me! "Oh, he left me. I'm going to die." No, you're not. Just shut up and you'll feel better. (audience laughs) And then--this is what's funny about our human nature--and then three or four years later you say, "Phew! Boy am I glad I didn't marry her or him." What does that bring? Wouldn't that tell us something? Shouldn't that tell us something? If I pray for anything and I don't get it, then I should say, "Thank You, Lord." He knows it's either not time, it's not good for me or not good for my neighbor, my family, not good for the whole Church, the whole Kingdom--and go away in peace. I had a man tell me one time, he said, "I, I don't know if I can live with my wife anymore." I said, "Why?" He said, "Well, we were eating breakfast and I was reading the newspaper. She threw her fist through it." (audience chuckles) I said, "What did you do?" He said, "Nothing. It's something I did 20 years ago and she just thought of it." (audience laughs) That shows you that you have lived all those years, you have nourished something very bad, very bad. When you don't accept whatever God sends us in the present moment--good, bad, indifferent. I'm going to tell you this one little thing and we'll go for calls. I went to a convention one time of communicators. They asked me how we started and how are we going to keep this thing going and one said to me, "What happens if you fail?" I said, "I'm not afraid to fail. "I'll tell you what I'm afraid of--I'm afraid of success, but I must succeed-- because sometimes success changes people. "Success and pain change people but I must succeed. "But I'll tell you what I'm afraid of, I'm afraid of dying and have the Lord said to me, 'Angelica, this is what you might have done had you trusted more.' I'm afraid of that, very afraid." Don't be afraid to fail. Don't be afraid to suffer. All these people committing suicide cause they don't want to suffer. They're going from the frying pan into the fire and a lot of people will tell you, "God understands" and I know He does. You can't stop a life and you can't take a life, you can't. It's not yours to do. You don't have a choice. That's a lie. You do not have a choice. You didn't call yourself into existence and the only one who can bring you to existence and out of existence is God Almighty. And because you have an immortal soul, you're under the illusion--and people say out of compassion… Oh God, what kind of compassion that wants to put you in hellfire? What is that compassion? What are you talking about? That's not compassion. That's stupidity, stupidity. It's like saying, "Your one hand is cut off, now I'm going to cut off the other one, make you feel good." That's stupid. So today, don't listen to the world. It has nothing to offer you, nothing. The creation that God made, the sun and the moon and the stars and the beauty of everything is. This country has been very affluent in everything. We've had crops galore, some we've buried and some we've thrown in the ocean. Now, we have drought or floods. 50% of all the crops in Texas are gone. Wait till Fall and all the prices go up. You say, "Oh, that's scary." Sin is more scary. Throwing your life away is scary--not that you have to eat less. That's not scary. Sin is scary. Seeing a beautiful young man with great intelligence, talent, a drug addict-- that's what's sad. No, famine is not sad, poverty is not sad, pain is not sad. Only sin is sad. It gives you a kind of veneer of happiness. Don't fall for it, 'cause it's going to come up hard on you one day. Change now. Change now. And all of you in pain and suffering, rejoice. Why? Well, some of you have been stopped from a sinful life because you got cancer. You say, "Is that good?" I think it is. If it stopped you from drinking, it stopped you from drugs, it stopped you from lust, it's the best thing that ever happened to you! At least, you keep your mind on God and get ready for the Kingdom. So look around. Look at what the Church teaches about pain and suffering. It gives you hope. It says that those who are chronically ill, those that are crippled and deaf and blind and all the rest are special people. If we knew that, we would be more solicitous and kinder to them. They're like monstrances carrying Jesus. So let's not say, "Why, Lord? I've been so good, why am I so troubled?" No. Say, "Thank You, Lord. "Thank You. "You give me pain to get me ready to have eternal glory, eternal glory." What a gift from God. We have a call. Hello. Hi. <i>Female Caller #1: Hi,</i> <i>Mother.</i> Mother: Where are you from? Where? <i>Caller: Mother?</i> Mother: Yeah. Hi. <i>Caller: Oh, hi Mother.</i> <i>This is Janice.</i> <i>I'm from Monroe, Michigan.</i> Mother: Uh-huh. <i>Caller: And I read the book</i> <i>on Our Lady of Fatima.</i> <i>After I read that, I said to</i> <i>Jesus, "I would be willing</i> <i>to suffer like the children</i> <i>suffered."</i> <i>Shortly thereafter, I had</i> <i>an accident and I'm now a</i> <i>quadriplegic.</i> <i>I don't feel bad</i> <i>about it, no.</i> <i>I just feel like I'm doing</i> <i>something for the world and</i> <i>for Jesus Himself to…</i> Mother: You are. <i>Caller: …for the</i> <i>sins of the world.</i> Mother: And many souls will be saved because of you. When you get to Heaven, you'll see all these people coming towards you-- radiant, beautiful, grateful. You, you won't understand! They will come up to you one by one and say, "Thank you. Thank you, you saved my soul. "God gave me grace to repent because of you. "God gave me grace to turn my life around because of you. God gave me grace to come back to the Sacraments because of you." Rejoice, all of you that are in paid and suffering. You save thousands of souls, otherwise may not be saved. I know I'm right because Our Lady of Fatima--since you mentioned Her--said that. "Many souls are lost because there is no one to pray for them," much less suffer for them. So I'm glad, and I thank God that you got such wonderful light to see you have a calling from God to save souls. We have another call. Hello. <i>Female Caller #2: Yes,</i> <i>Mother.</i> Mother: Where are you from? <i>Caller: I'm from Florida.</i> <i>You talked about when you</i> <i>have health problems to</i> <i>offer them up to the Lord.</i> Mother: Yeah. <i>Caller: And I do that but</i> <i>I don't know what I'm</i> <i>supposed to do after that.</i> <i>I have another question,</i> <i>also.</i> <i>I'm an alcoholic and you had</i> <i>a show on last week that</i> <i>really touched me.</i> <i>I was able to quit drinking</i> <i>for two days.</i> <i>I do attend Mass every day</i> <i>of the week and I pray</i> <i>about this problem.</i> <i>I just don't know why</i> <i>I keep doing it.</i> <i>How am I supposed to</i> <i>give it up?</i> <i>I've been to two treatment</i> <i>centers.</i> Mother: Well, honey, I think it's because you're not really sure God loves you, or perhaps you're not sure if there is a Heaven. If I'm sure there's a Heaven --and you must be sure. He came, He lived, He died. He rose and He said, "I go to prepare a place for you; if it were not so, I would tell you." Jesus cannot lie. You're trapped by alcohol because you're either trying to escape something or maybe it's in your blood now and it cries out. Maybe it makes you feel good, makes you have more confidence in yourself, but that's all a lie. If you can stop, and you can --just give it to Jesus. I'm going to pray right now that you stop drinking and maybe offer for other alcoholics that they, especially teenagers. Oh my, we've got a lot of teenager alcoholics. We go for feelings so much and you've got to get dried out. You've got to stop. I'm going to pray for you right now. "Lord Jesus, put Your hand on this woman, Lord, and take away that desire for alcohol, for it makes her displeasing to Thee and makes her displeasing to herself. "Lord, she is a child of Yours and You love her and You die for her, You came for her, You suffered for her Lord. "Let her know that. "Let her desire Heaven more than any cross on earth. "No cross is too much for us to bear, Lord, when we see the glory that is coming. "So give her true repentance and take away that desire, in the name of Jesus and Mary. Amen." I think when we say we offer something up, it means really that I'm going to give this to Jesus for some poor sinner, for the world, for priests, bishops, religious, those tempted to suicide. However, we want to do something else besides that. We say, "Lord, I unite my pain to Yours." I think alcoholics must in general feel exceptionally lonely, and I think that's what you need to offer to Jesus. You try to get away from yourself, from others, whatever. Jesus always prayed. He prayed and you must pray, you must pray. We can't overcome any fault without the Lord. Go to Our Lady and strengthen your will. You can do it. The very will that makes you drink can stop you drinking. Alcoholism is the only disease I know that's stopped by the will. You can't take a pill for it. It stops by the will. "I shall not, I will not drink." We have another call. Hello. <i>Male Caller #1: Good</i> <i>evening, Mother.</i> <i>Mother: Good evening.</i> <i>What's your question?</i> <i>Caller: Mother, I have</i> <i>actually two questions.</i> <i>The first one is, I know</i> <i>about Sanctifying Grace</i> <i>but I'd like to know what</i> <i>other graces there are.</i> <i>And also, what is the</i> <i>difference between a plenary</i> <i>and a partial indulgence?</i> Mother: Well, I'll give you a funny example. Sanctifying Grace is if I never had asthma anymore and partial is I still got it and I have it once in awhile. (coughs) This will help me, I hope. We have two kinds of grace. Actual grace is what I get moment by moment. What does that mean? That means two things-- number 1, I have the power given to me by God in this moment to overcome myself, to be better, to change my ways, to stop drinking. That's a power. When the woman touched Our Lord's garment, she said, "I know if I touch His garment, I shall be healed," and she was. But what happened? Jesus said power went off of Him. Oh wow. Grace, see, grace left Him, touched this woman and she was healed. Something comes up and you want to blow your cool. At that moment the grace is there to be gentle. You may want to sock somebody but you don't. That's grace. It's a power of God in you and it is a part of God in you. Grace is not a thing. Grace is a presence, the presence of Jesus. We call that Actual Grace. Now, if I stay away from mortal sin, then I'm in a state of Sanctifying Grace which means now, even though I'm weak or imperfect and I must confess my venial sins often, I am in a state now of possessing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit all day, all night. What a grace? What a gift. Grace means gift. So you have the gift of overcoming yourself no matter what happens. If you do it and you keep the Commandments and you're trying to be holy, you're in the state of sanctifying, what? It makes you holy. Every opportunity we get to be like Jesus makes me holy. Now, what's a plenary indulgence? We have to understand that the Church is like a bank, a big spiritual bank. It doesn't have money in it. It has opportunities, it has grace, it has indulgences which means some of the pain and suffering that I might have in Purgatory is gone out of the gratuity of the Heart of Jesus--but it's not totally gone, even for myself. But a plenary indulgence means that I have repented of my sins, number 1, and I am sorry for offending God-- not because I will have to be punished for it, not because I'm afraid of God, not because I don't want to go to Hell and not because of any other reason--except I offended God. He is My Father. I would take any punishment. I acknowledge I have sinned but I'm so sorry because I offended My Father. That is a greater need for us than just only to be repentant. We must always be repentant. We must go to Confession. But if I loved God so much that I would be willing to suffer anything, that my suffering is not the pain of having to make up for my faults and sins but the pain I afflicted, I offended such a Loving Father. That's what would bother me. If I had to do that, that's called plenary indulgence. Why? It means I love God with a pure love. You can go straight to Heaven on one of those. Think about it while I blow my nose. (audience laughs) I had somebody write to me not too long ago that said, "Mother, I love it when you blow your nose." So I thought, "Well, I hope you enjoy this one." (audience laughs) We have another call. Hello. <i>Male Caller #2: Hello.</i> <i>Hi, Mother--or shall I</i> <i>say God bless you and</i> <i>I love you.</i> Mother: Thank you. <i>Caller: I dropped out of</i> <i>high school about two</i> <i>years ago.</i> <i>I was in a gang.</i> Mother: You what? <i>Caller: I was in a gang</i> <i>about 2 years ago and I</i> <i>dropped out of high school.</i> <i>After I was converted, I</i> <i>felt that God was calling me</i> <i>to either become a priest</i> <i>or a lay brother, especially</i> <i>in the Franciscans.</i> <i>So I went back to high</i> <i>school and I'm now in high</i> <i>school completion program.</i> Mother: Wonderful. <i>Caller: And, but there's</i> <i>just one thing stopping me.</i> <i>In the way is a math test,</i> <i>it's a California math</i> <i>exam to pass and get my</i> <i>high school diploma.</i> <i>I failed it four times and I</i> <i>pray and I study, but I don't</i> <i>know, I always keep failing.</i> <i>Sometimes it discourages</i> <i>me but I know that God,</i> <i>anything is possible if</i> <i>I cooperate with Him.</i> <i>I just wanted to ask for</i> <i>your prayers, dear Mother.</i> Mother: Sweetheart, you haven't failed; you have succeeded. Why? It takes a real man to keep going when he doesn't make out too well. The Lord is training your will to go out. You'll pass. We'll pray for you, but you haven't failed. People fail only when failure overcomes them and they lose hope. You have not failed. You have succeeded in overcoming yourself and overcoming a great obstacle. Let me tell you, one of the greatest saints we have in the Church, failed almost every test he had--the Curé of Ars. You ought to get his book and read it. I'll tell you what he did-- he converted 250,000 people by hearing Confessions 15 hours a day. Maybe he didn't have a lot of smarts but he had the one most necessary--to want to please God and to love Him. So you go on. If you can't be a priest, come over here and we'll make you a brother. (audience applauds) God seeks holiness from each one of us. He doesn't ask for degrees. He doesn't ask for great accomplishments. He asks for our love. You love Him and that's all that's important. Well, I hate to say, we have to leave you. Seems like Tuesday nights just kind of fly by. I enjoy being with you. And now that we're in South America, all you Spanish listening, give. (audience laughs) It costs lots of money to beam to South America. So be generous--and you are generous, all of you are. We just have to be a little bit more generous, especially those of you that have never given. Shame, shame, shame. Our Dear Lord loves us. Let us be glad we can evangelize and please, try to say, "Jesus loves you," to somebody, even if it's your husband. 'Bye now. (applause) [music]
