[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, here we are and we have a wonderful group of our family here tonight. We're not too sure what we're going to talk about tonight. We're going to touch on Hope. But we've had an awful lot of calls before we began our program tonight and we've had a lot of letters asking about deaconesses. It doesn't even sound right, does it? (audience laughs) Deaconess? Anyway, the question that's being asked--does the Canon Law Society have the authority to create deaconesses? No, N-O, no, no, no, in every language, "nyet" and no. (audience laughs) So in every language, it's no. Now, in the early Church we used to call them deaconesses first because they were wives of deacons. So,they would call them deaconess. Now, the function was to take care of, help women who were going to be baptized, help the dead, help the body of a woman so that it was not exposed to the eyes of men. Now, it says here in the council of--one of these councils--okay, "In the Early Church there was a deaconess not for being a priest or being ordained, nor any kind of work of administration but for the sake of dignity for the female sex, either in the time of baptism or examining the sick or the suffering or preparing female bodies for burials." They were never, never to administer the rites of the Eucharist or whatever. So the Council of Trent taught there were 3 sacred orders--bishops, priests and deacons. Now, tomorrow night we're going to have a good program on deaconess--why you can't have a deaconess, the same way you can't have a priestess, a woman priest. Our liberal brothers are always taking a little stab here, a little stab there and they want to go up one little notch at a time. But there's always a danger in that, a big danger because sometimes people will say or the Holy Father will say, "You cannot do this." They do it anyway. Doing it anyway does not make it right. It is illicit and it is a wrong thing to do is to be so disobedient to the laws of God and the Church. As the Holy Father said, not even he could ordain a woman a priest. Why? Because the priest, Jesus is Bridegroom and for a bridegroom has a bride and a bride has a bridegroom. You can't have 2 bridegrooms and you don't have 2 brides. So a priest has to be a male. Now, I know you're talking about being so heartbroken. Oh, don't go be heartbroken about something important-- not this silly stuff that you want to be what God has not made you to be. Even if someone had the audacity to say all the prayers and you prostrated yourself and they said the litany, it wouldn't make you a priest. Why? Because it is not the Will of God. I'm not too sure what you would be but you wouldn't be a priest. You and I have to understand there's a lot of a thing in life we cannot change. That's why abortion is so bad-because you change something God has ordained and it's always a disaster. Now, there are many things you can't change. It's like--I like to use the red light because I seem to get them all. So I've been meditating on the usefulness of a red light in traffic. (audience laughs) The red light is a wonderful thing. It tells you to stop. You could never say, "Well, I don't want to stop at a red light; I'm going to stop at a green light." Now, you have the choice, but you're going to get bumped back, front and sides and you couldn't complain about that. There are some things you can't change. I got a letter from someone the other day--or it was an article, I think, that was written. It said, there used to be 2 things you don't talk about--religion and taxes, and now there's 3--religion, taxes and Mother Angelica. (all laugh, applaud) I thought that was kind of clever. I really enjoyed that. One of the sisters said to me, "I don't think you're supposed to enjoy that, Mother." (audience laughs) And I thought, well I thought it was kind of cute, myself, to be associated with death and taxes or religion and taxes--not too bad. But we live in a very serious world and instead of worrying about being a priest and something you can't be, why don't we worry about important things, like the death of Rabin? We don't know why a Jew would kill another Jew. That's very serious because a house divides is going to fall. That's why it's so important in your families--if you don't get along in your families, then your family is divided. You need to take care that we're not divided. We don't need to agree to be loved by God or to be loved by each other. We need to pray for each other, as we need to pray for all our world leaders and all those who are in such danger. In a day and age where people are getting further away from God, you get further away from goodness. Only God is Good. Do you remember what Our Lord said one day, "Why do you call Me Good?" He said. "Only God is Good, only God." So we find that this world lacks hope. In an awesome way it lacks hope. There's a natural hope and supernatural hope. Natural hope is negative. Did you ever say, "Well, I hope he does this"? You're driving in a car and you told your husband to cut the grass and you're and you say to your neighbor or to somebody driving, "I hope he did it." What does that mean? You're almost sure he didn't. (audience laughs) In fact, you drive in the driveway, you say, "See, I knew he wouldn't." (audience laughs) But you just got through saying, "I hope..." You didn't hope at all. I don't know what you did. You must have said, "I suspect my husband did not mow the grass today." That would be closer to the truth. Hope is something that is so negative today. Did you ever go to a dentist --you hope he's not going to hurt. (audience laughs) I went not too long ago. I have to go this week again. And I'm always amazed at dentists. You go there hoping you're going to walk out of there with your teeth perfect. Well, by the time they give you shots--first they give you something to deaden the shot but it doesn't. (audience laughs) You say to yourself, "I hope it works." It tastes terrible. It's some kind of hot stuff. They stick it right in here. (audience laughs) Then he says, "I'm going to do this so it doesn't hurt," but he already hurts. (audience laughs) It already hurts. So it doesn't take. "Are you numb?" No, (audience laughs) "not yet." (makes noise) "Did that hurt?" "Ah-ha." (audience laughs) Then they put you almost horizontal and then the dentist is on one side and the assistant on the other. It's amazing. All these tools are in your mouth--something to put the water in and something to suck it back out again. (audience laughs) In the meantime he has 2 tools in your mouth and he says strange words to his assistant that you can't hear. He mumbles something, (makes noise) and you're wondering, "What's going to happen?" She comes with another drill and you say, (makes noise) "It's a drill." (audience laughs) Then he comes back again and says, (makes noise) and she says, "Okay." I didn't know what he said. So she comes back with another tool that looks bigger than your mouth. (audience laughs) So you say to yourself, (makes noise) means a bigger drill and, (makes noise) means something in your mouth bigger than your mouth. (audience laughs) Then he comes again and he's working here and she's working and your mouth is open, your jaw's hurting and they say, "Ah-ha." "What's the matter?" "Oh, you've got a big hole there." (audience laughs) "A hole?" (makes noise) Now we've got a whole new problem. But all the time, there is absolutely no hope in a dental chair (audience laughs) because you don't know what's coming and you can't hope for anything. All you want is a good tooth. (audience laughs) All you want to be able to do is be able to chew and what do you get? You can't talk. You came in pretty good. You walk out, (audience laughs) "What'd they do? " "I don't know." (audience laughs) Isn't that funny? Now, everybody goes through that or you wouldn't be laughing. (audience laughs) There are some places that have little hope. Now, they keep telling me I'm going to look beautiful. I hope. (audience laughs) So that's hope in the world. It is very, very negative. Of course, when you go to a doctor, the only thing is not negative, the only thing you knew was coming and the only thing you lost your hope for, over was the bill. 2 phone calls, $50. All you got was a, (makes noise) "Yes." So we're losing hope very quickly because everywhere we go there is something we are suspicious of. You buy a new car and you look at the salesman and he's telling you these glorious things and you know only about 3 or 4 of them are rightly, really true. "How long do you think this car will last?" "20 years if you take care of it." (audience laughs) It will rot sitting there in 20 years. (audience laughs) Everywhere we go, I don't care what it is. You buy a suit, it's on sale --it was $500 and now it's $150. Oh wow! You bring it home; you find a 2nd, mistakes everywhere. You bring it back and you say, "I thought this was a $500 suit!" "The original was." The original was. "This is not the original?" "No." So, you're stuck. This is true of everything. Ads--you know there's not any ads that come out with a product. I hate these ads that say, "Aspirin, Advil, all of these things, but ours is the best." Well, if yours is the best, why do you got to knock down everybody else? We never used to have ads that way. You don't realize how these kind of daily digestion of antagonistic things, critical things, critical things. If you've got a product, sell it. Why do you have to knock everybody else down to get yours forward? That to me is a bad sign. I wouldn't buy that product if it was the last aspirin in the world. There has to be something wrong with it. So everywhere in our daily life, in our workplace, there is a total lack of hope--that's human hope, the kind we should have that gives people courage. Yeah, you're a sinner and you've done some pretty bad things but you can change. What makes AA work? In most cases they give you hope. "You can do it." What makes any man successful? Most of the time it's a woman saying, "You can do it. Don't give up." If we were to change everything and be honest-- ads, would you imagine the refreshment in your heart over an honest ad? "Look, you've got all of these products, they're all good. I think ours is better but I think they're all good and ours is good, too." I'd buy all that I could of that one thing. Why? Because it's honest. It didn't knock down anybody else's product. We have to be honest with each other. "I know you're a sinner. I know you've done some pretty bad stuff but look, we can work it out." It's not a false thing. Natural hope is not a lie. People tell lies thinking they're raising your hope-- "You're beautiful." If you look in the mirror, you're not beautiful. (audience laughs) You know that. Now, it wouldn't be nice if they said, you're ugly. (audience laughs) Just don't say anything. "You're cute." You can be cute ugly or cute beautiful, (audience laughs) but give hope. If there's nothing nice you can say, then I wouldn't say anything. At least you give hope by keeping your mouth shut. Hope is what children need today. A lot of children have committed suicide 'cause they could not come up to their parents' expectations in school. If we put false hope into people--"I'll do this for you if you do that"--it takes away from us loving each other as we are. God does not look at only our exterior. He looks at our interior. St. Paul says some beautiful things about hope, if I can find it. He talks about that we've groan inwardly as we wait. That's hope. We don't need to be discouraged. If I try, it failed--try, try harder next time. If you were to give your family hope just, just for the sake of love, if I give hope to someone, I love them. Did you know that? How many times have people wanted to go to Confession and somebody would say or you think in your own heart, "I can't go. I just did too many terrible things." You lose hope. A lot of people zap the hope of their life from themselves. I remember the woman who called some years ago, said she had had 3 abortions, and she cried and cried. She said, "Is there any hope for me?" I said, "Oh yeah, there is hope, there's forgiveness, there's mercy." Hope never cuts anyone off. You can't always agree with people and what they're doing. You can never, never condone sin but you can always give them hope. They can be better, they can overcome sin, they can live a new life. But in the world today everything is either slander or calumny. We either say something nobody knew about something that's not too good or we say a lie. It's everywhere. Now, this next year we're going--don't we have elections next year? Oh, God help us. (audience laughs) God help all of us. Why? Because you're going to hear the worst scandal about every single person. Now, wouldn't you think--is a man competent today? Is he competent? Look what Peter did. Our Lord didn't even reprove him. He said, "Do you love Me," 3 times? See, we just, we read this Gospel and we all, most of us, go to church. We go to church but we do not practice what we hear or practice what we preach. Now, that's natural hope. It's always in our minds a little negative. Now, supernatural hope is something different. Oh, that's wonderful. It's something you received at Baptism. Now, our poor liberal brother, he doesn't know all that. He says it's initiation into this great big club. Not true. You are not initiated. You are made a child of God. Now, that's vastly different. If I go down and I join some kind of a club, that's different than made a child of the owner of the club. There's a big difference. Supernatural hope is given to me at Baptism. It has to do with my relationship with God. Do you believe everything in this Awesome Book that we call the Scriptures? Do we? Do we believe everything in this Book? Do we believe about faith? Do we believe about hope? Do we believe that I was given at baptism the very love of God? Oh, wow! Everybody thinks when you're born Christian or born a Catholic that faith, you're just born with it. It's a special gift. Do you ever wonder why some people don't have any faith? Some people really want it. Some people want to believe and they can't. You need to pray for them. I've said to the sisters 3 or 4 times, "I wonder who's responsible for my vocation? Was it some little old lady in New York apartment house praying for vocations? Was it somebody in Timbuktu? Was it my mother? Who prayed for me for a vocation?" We don't know. Someone somewhere prayed for me. Our Lord looked down and said, "Well, that looks like a miserable kid down there. (audience laughs) I think I'll give it to her, (audience laughs) "cause if I don't she'll be a holy terror-- (audience laughs) a terror anyway." (audience laughs) But see, there's everything we've gotten from the Lord somebody prayed for somewhere and that puts hope in my heart, that the Good God is looking after me. He has made all kinds of promises in Here. In St. John's Gospel He says, that, "If I live in Him and He lives in me, the Trinity will make their home in me." Now, I can bank on that promise. We're so mundane and we're always looking in this veneer. We're looking at this veneer and we don't see beyond a person's soul. So we judge by veneers but we can't. Faith makes me see God in the present moment. Hope, supernatural hope makes me understand there is something good in the worst tragedy. Love allows me in a tragedy to trust in God's providence. So what are we supposed to do? We're supposed to rise above. I have to do good to my enemy. I like St. Paul. He was a good hot-tempered old guy. He said one day, "I will be good to this person and therefore I shall heap coals on his head." Well, he wanted to heap coals on the poor man's head but he thought if he's good to him instead of nasty, he'd heap more coals on his head. But it's true, isn't it? You expect somebody to be angry and they're real nice, you don't know what to do. You don't even know what to say. You go home and you did something, "My dad's going to kill me." He sits down, doesn't say a word. You're all ready for it, nothing happens. "Son, I hear you put a big knock in the car today." Here it comes--I mean, here it comes. "Oh God, what do I do now?" "Well, we'll get it fixed." "Huh?" (audience laughs) I mean, you're almost disappointed. Did you ever do that? I mean, you just think, "This can't be true. I'm all ready for it." Nothing happens. That's why the Lord said, "Do not let the sun go down on your anger." Summertime, you have an extra hour of light. (audience laughs) When we lose hope, then the sun does go down on our anger and dawn and the sun sets and the dawn and the sun sets for days and months. Our Lord never said that if you want hope, everything in your life has to be fair and square. Wouldn't life be dull if everything went your way? What would you do if everything went your way? You'd say, "I'd be very happy." No you wouldn't, because what's wrong with you is here, not here. The reason why you don't get along in one job, you quit and you have the same problem in that job is because you brought yourself from this job to that job and you're the problem. But if you knew you were the problem, you'd lose hope. "Well, where am I going to go? I carry me everywhere." (audience laughs) Who else are you going to carry? Did you ever notice people when they find fault with other people and you're listening to them and you say, "By golly, they got the same thing." (audience laughs) I mean, they do exactly what they're finding fault with somebody else. Did you ever notice that? You do that, too. I don't like people that are impatient. (audience laughs) It makes me so mad, you get to the gasoline station and he's, "How many, how many, how many?" You put that thing in there and you get your gasoline and he writes it down like, "Well, why are you here for?" Hey, I'm buying gas from you. (audience laughs) He won't wipe your…. "I don't have time to do your windshield. I don't have time for this and I don't have time." You get so mad. Do you know--what makes me really mad is when somebody toots their horn behind me. (audience laughs) We follow the law; 65, and he's tooting his horn. (audience laughs) Is it 65 isn't it? (audience laughs) No? (audience laughs) Oh... (audience laughs) well, 55, is that it? (all laugh) Oh well! You know, that reminds me of a time I came to Birmingham. This was oh, 30-some years ago. This woman, nice Italian woman, wanted us to go to Cullman, Alabama, to see the Grotto. They have, oh, all the beautiful buildings in the world and miniature and it's a beautiful place. So I said, okay. So Sister and I went in this car and Grandma was in the back, I was on the side. She kept saying to her son-in-law, "Hurry up, hurry up, we're never going to get there." So he keeps going 50, 60, 70, 80, 90--d I couldn't see the road passing by. (audience laughs) It was like, (makes noise) and I looked outside. I couldn't see curves, I couldn't see, I saw green, (audience laughs) and I saw gray. And I thought, "Ah!" So she said, "Hurry up, hurry up." Hurry up?! We're going almost 100 miles an hour. I'm looking at that thing and the wind; I tried to open the window. It was like an airplane, (makes noise) you know, like that. (audience laughs) It's the worse thing that ever happened to me. I don't know, I think this person in back started tooting their horn, you know and I thought, "Ohh!" So they begin to pass, which meant they must have been going 110 to pass. It turned out to be a priest. (audience laughs) He's holding onto the steering wheel with one hand and he goes like this (audience laughs) and I went, 105. Then he pulls back 'cause he wanted us to know that you're going to need absolution if you don't stop. I couldn't do about it. But I remember, I thought to myself, when I get, I thought, "Now, if I were not impatient, I wouldn't recognize it." Did you ever notice you go and buy a car, you decide you're going to buy a Jeep and you're going down the road and you see 100 jeeps you never saw before. Did you ever notice that? You buy a dress and by golly your neighbor comes home with the same dress. (audience laughs) So all of these things make you impatient. Do you know why? We don't have hope. In other words, if I had that supernatural hope, I wouldn't care about these little things. So, okay, what was I going to do? I wasn't driving, I didn't know how to drive and I'm at the mercy of this driver? Or somebody toots, Well, go ahead. They're going to wait for the same red light you are just down the road. We take things very seriously when we lose both supernatural hope and natural hope. So try to think of that, see. Why are you impatient things? Why? Now, we have serious thing but it's rather than be angry, especially over these deaconesses. You see how they're crawling up? Doesn't that make you angry? Oh, it starts at my toes, see, starts at my toe, my big toe and works itself up so fast. What are they going to have next? It's so subtle and it's not of a true. Now, those are serious things but impatience is not going to do anything with it. We're going to have to pray, all of us. We have to pray very hard that this deaconess thing does not happen because then they won't be happy with a deaconess and they can't be anyway. We'll see the Church getting smaller but stronger, stronger. We have a call. Hello. Female Caller 1: Hello, Mother Angelica. Mother: Hey, where are you from? Caller : I'm from Westchester, New York. My name is Janet. Mother: And what is your question? Caller: I don't really have a question. I just wanted to say that I think you are the absolute cutest thing. (all laugh) I love to listen to you. Mother: What did I hear? (laughs) (audience laughs) Caller: And I have so much, I love to listen to you. Mother: Thank you. Caller: And you have fed me so many evenings. Mother: Thank you. Caller: I did want to make a suggestion, and that suggestion is that I have taken a commitment on my own in prayer on a daily basis to pray for priests. I have a suggestion that others take that same commitment on a daily basis because do you know what, Mother Angelica? When you pray for priests, you are doing something even greater than striving to become a priest. Mother: Oh yeah. Caller: And believe it or not, you really get a lot of, a lot of hardships from the evil one cause he does not want us to pray for priests. Mother: True. Caller: So it's a very difficult task. Mother: Oh yeah. Caller: And it's a very rewarding one. I love them. I love them with all my heart and soul. Mother: We need to pray for priests, that they have courage and strength to be faithful. You see, when they start with this deaconess stuff, you just say, "Well, they need a lot of prayer, a lot of prayer." Pray for bishops who have whole dioceses under them and they're responsible for every one. Religious who teach-- we should pray for them. Cardinals, our Holy Father, our families, our neighbors --everybody who has a hard time living the truth or preaching the truth. We all need that extra strength of prayer. We have another call. Hello. Female Caller 2: Hi, Mother Angelica. Mother: Yes, where are you from? Caller: I am from Illinois. Mother: And what is your question? Caller: My question is; about a year ago I started praying for a miracle for a person that I care about very much. I came across a book called "Miracles Do Happen" by Sr. Briege McKenna and I read her book. I truly believe in miracles. My question is, I've been praying for about a year now and I was wondering if you can tell me how to keep hope when you're praying for a miracle and it just seems like it such a hopeless case? Mother: Well, we don't want to pray with natural hope because sometimes natural hope can get presumptuous. We want to pray with supernatural hope, and that's how we should always pray. That means that I pray and I believe with all my heart that if what I'm praying for is of God and for my good, He will perform a miracle. There's a lot of, oh, I don't know, cynicism, I guess today. There are so many people having visions and so many people God's talking to and so many and you think, "Oh, if I get one more!" But that's, we have to watch, you see because God does speak to some and we have to discern. We have to discern. But when we talk about a miracle or you read a book where so and so and this one and that one had a miracle, well, we praise God for that. But we cannot pray for a miracle with presumption and say, "It's going to happen." Faith is not a quarter that you put in some machine and get what you want. Faith is a total trust in God, childlike, that says, "I will pray for this and even if it takes a miracle, God will do it if it is for my good." St. John says that. We can be sure that God will answer our prayers if it is for our good. That's where hope. That way if you don't get it, you're not disheartened. Your hope is still high because then I say, "Well, my Jesus knows it's not good for me." Haven't you all, can't you think right now with something you prayed for and prayed and prayed and it never happened? Aren't you glad it didn't? Aren't you glad it didn't? Well, that's the attitude we have to have all the time. "Lord, I want this." I'll tell you how I pray. I won't tell you all how I pray, but if I want something from the Lord, I will talk it over with Him. I give Him all the pros and the cons. I know He knows it but I want to tell Him (audience laughs) and He wants me to tell Him. Then I say, "Okay, Lord, if this is for my good and the good of this community, the good of the Church, I know You'll do it." Then I forget it. I erase that tape. Why? He hears me the first time. Now, you say, "Well, now, He said you should ask, seek and knock." There are times we have to do that and the Spirit will put it on your heart when you should do that. But on this daily thing, daily basis, daily basis, I don't know if God wants me to have that or not. I think He does. I have an inclination He does. I have to talk it over with Him, tell Him everything about it, drop it. It's miraculous how He answers your prayer. All of a sudden out of nowhere there it is. So when we pray, pray with hope but leave it to God. God has performed so many miracles here. If we wrote them all, you wouldn't believe it. You would not believe it. God does miracles for us everyday, every single day. So pray with hope, with a free heart, "I'd like it Lord if You want me to have it." That's pure love also. We have another call. Hello. Female Caller 3: Hello. Mother: Where are you from? Caller: Deland, Florida. Mother: And what is your question? Caller: I was brought up never being in a church before and I was confirmed 4 years ago in the Catholic Church and I love it. I've tried all the churches out around the area. I have 4 children. I found out after I became Catholic that, about the birth control and I had my tubes tied. Now, should I have with things the way they are nowadays, should I get my tubes untied? I could have 6 more if I wanted, but I'm 43 years old and I don't mind having more children. But when I had to have them tied it was a family thing between my husband and I. I don't know what to do. I love the Catholic faith. I just don't know what to do in this situation. I've asked a few priests. Mother: And what do they tell you? Caller: They say leave it to the Lord. I don't have health insurance or anything but I would I would do it in a minute. Mother: What does your heart tell you? Caller: That the Lord performs miracles and I keep thinking in the back of my mind if He wanted me to have another child, He would let it happen regardless. With Elizabeth in her old age and… Mother: Is it reversible by, by surgery? Caller: I've been told it is reversible. I don't know but if, if I could have it done, I would do it in a minute. Mother: Well, I suppose it's not always successful. I would suppose if you talk it over with your husband and this is how you feel-- you don't want to go your whole life with some kind of scrupulosity or guilt. I would ask the doctor if it's possible. If he does it and it's not successful, then I would think on that level you'll be free. Now, I know all these liberals out there are hoping and skipping in their rooms, but (audience laughs) you just hop and skip, sweetheart. (audience laughs) Because you're dealing here with an individual who knows she did wrong and feels bad about it. I think you need to try. Now, if it's not successful, then you know for sure it's God's Will and you can go the rest of your life in peace. These free choicers, they're funny people. They're all free choice as long as you make your choices their choice. But now, you do have free choice. You don't go to any Planned Parenthood or free choicers and say, "Oh yeah, yeah, go on, maybe you can have a child." Oh no, 'cause they've been trying to destroy the earth for years. A good way to destroy it is don't let people be born. I mean, that's the most perfect way to make it small in a hurry. You have a conscience. It's yours and this is something between you and God. If you know you've done wrong, then see if it can be remedied. You say you're 40 years old. Oh, they'll tell you all the terrible thing that can happen to you. Good thing St. Anne and Sarah didn't have a doctor around. (audience laughs) They would have said, "What is your husband, some kind of old nut? What does he know? You can't have any children." We keep telling God what He can do all the time and we can't do that. Now, I think you need to follow your conscience. What you just said now was, "If it could be done, I'd do it tomorrow." Well, tomorrow is the Feast of Duns Scotus, the great Franciscan theologian who was the champion of the Immaculate Conception. He's the one that proved it was truly true. Well, why don't you call and ask you doctor? Pray to Duns Scotus and see what God does. Don't ever tell God He can't perform a miracle. I'd never do that. We get them here all the time. There's a difference between Jesus and the world today. Jesus never lost hope--not that He could because He was so Perfect. That's why He could forgive on the cross, just like you must forgive. He knew, He said one day, "Woe to those by which scandals come. They will come," He said, "But woe to those by which they come because it's better for them if they had a millstone around their neck and they were drowned into the sea"--strong words. We have to always look at Jesus in tragedies. You can't look at anyone else and that's what you do in these occasions. Jesus forgave; you must forgive. Jesus appeared to His apostles with great hope. He said, "Do not be frightened. Why are you so agitated?" And He sent these men who were cowards, sent them the Holy Spirit to make them strong and it went on for centuries. You cannot lose hope. Today we need to pray to Jesus and Mary and say, "Come, Lord Jesus." You have to do something to make it right. Now, we have all kind of politicians coming. I never saw so many people. Every Tom, Dick and Harry's going to run for president. All of a sudden you look in the paper and this one's running and you say, "Who's he?" There are just lots of confusion. We need to pray to our Dear Lord that He gives us a good holy leader. Nobody prays to God. We look at all kinds of political party. What are they going to give you? Now, we got new ones coming up, then we have the first independent and then we've got the 2nd independent and then we've got a... (makes noise) Is anybody praying that Our Dear Lord will come and give us a good leader? Is anyone in this whole country saying, "Lord!" Is anyone pleading with the Lord, "Send us a good leader. Send us a strong leader?" We must improve our country and we must improve our hope. St. John of the Cross was a great Carmelite mystic. He said--and it's hard to understand--he said, "If the whole world should fall apart, it should not interfere with your union with God." Well, I haven't reached it, I can tell you that. But still there is a demand, even of God. When He was in the boat and the apostles thought they were drowning, what did Jesus say? "Why, why do you have no faith?" no faith, no faith! I think drowning in a boat's pretty scary. (audience laughs) He didn't. "Why is it," He said, "you have no faith?" We have to have singleness of purpose, have one thing in mind--to know, to love, to serve God and to arrive in His Kingdom and to help everybody else arrive in His Kingdom. Now, whether things go my way or not, whether I like them or not, whether I understand them or not is irrelevant. He's in charge. You may think the world's gone to pot; God is in charge. We have to have faith and hope and love. Remember what Fr. Pavich said one time when he was here. "In Yugoslavia we see our churches bombed and crushed to the ground and we shall build them up again." In America they're destroyed with a smiling face and you do nothing. So remember, in spite of all that, you can be sure of one thing--the Holy Catholic Universal Apostolic Church will be here when Gabriel blows his horn. I don't know where the rest will be. I hope they're there, too. I hope their guardian angels take them by the ears and push them there. I've got 5 seconds and please be generous 'cause we're going in a hole again. Bye. (laughs) (applause) [music]
