[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 and</i> <i>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</i> <i>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</i> <i>opportunity!</i> (applause) Thank you. Thank you! Well, welcome to you and welcome to all of our wonderful family that are here from all kinds of states. We have some great guests here from Houston and we have them from Maine, we have them from everywhere. And I just want you to know it's so good for us to be here with all of you and to see our family. You know, when you're talking to a camera you just have to kind of imagine. But when people come here, we know, we know for sure the people we speak to and the Lord speaks to through the programs on EWTN. Well, two weeks ago we went through the "Our Father". Last week we went through the "Act of Contrition". We're going to continue going through some basic prayers. Why? Because I think most people either forgot them or the children are not learning these basic prayers. I think that's a shame, huh. This is <i>Anima Christi</i>, Soul of Christ. And we say this prayer many times after Communion or before Communion, and the sisters sing it very often, "Soul of Christ." I'd like to go through it with you because many times when we say a prayer, we don't think of the words. As a result, we don't have it in the heart, only the mind. Sometimes that's true of the rosary. We say the prayers, and then we're distracted and you wonder. "I wonder if my husband's going to be grouchy when he comes home tonight. "'Hail Mary, Full of Grace, (audience laughs) the Lord is with Thee...' "I wish he weren't so grouchy. "'Hail Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee...'" And we go through the whole rosary. But you and I as we struggle and struggle in our daily life to try to be holy and to be like Jesus, things sometimes are hard. So we're going to take this beautiful prayer, <i>Anima</i> <i>Christi</i> and we're going to go through it and just see what it means to us, what it can mean to us. Now, what we say, number 1, is, "Soul of Christ." Wow! Just, just think, huh, think for a moment that the Eternal Word... You know, let me read a little bit out of St. John's Gospel here. It's an amazing thing. I'll just read you few paragraphs or sentences. It says, "In the beginning was the Word,..." This is the Prologue of St. John's Gospel. "In the beginning was the Word," the Word, Jesus. "...the Word was with God and the Word was God." Now down here, it says, "...and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." What does that mean? It means that, that Our Lord's human nature had a soul; that His Godhead, His Godhead never left Him. He was always Son of God in the beginning with the Father and nothing was made, nothing--not a blade of grass, not an animal, not a mountain, not a tree-- without Him. The Word was spoken, "'Let there be light,' and there was light." Now, so the human soul of the Divine Son of God, see, that's amazing, isn't it now? I have a soul and He took upon Himself a soul like mine. It said, "Sanctify me." The soul of God, the God head Himself, Eternal--that kind of hurts your head when you think about it. You know, if you look at astronomy and you think the distance and the stars and what proportions they are. They just boggle your mind. The soul of Jesus, His Body, Blood--you know what the Eucharist is, huh? Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. And I receive that Soul of Christ every time I receive Communion and it sanctifies me. How does it do that, huh, in the Eucharist? Well, St. Peter says that the grace is a participation in the very nature of God. Jesus took on our nature. He never ceased, though, to be God, God/Man. Well, I have human nature, you have a human nature and our human nature is part spiritual and part animal. You don't want to think of that, you know, but on our animal level we are the dumbest. I mean, we're really mentally way down. You say, "What do you mean by that? "I have an intellect and I..." Okay, let's look at the animal part of you. You can't fly like an eagle. You can't climb like a squirrel. When you're born, you're absolutely totally helpless. (Mother chuckles) You can't do a thing for yourself! We used to raise sheep. The odor discouraged us, (all chuckle) mostly discouraged the neighbors. (all chuckle) And so we were rather forced to get rid of our sheep. But when a sheep, when a lamb was born, he knew just where to go, struggling, ah, on his little feet but he knew where to go and he was blind. You didn't know what to do. (Mother chuckles) You just laid there. If your mother didn't feed you, you would have died. So we're, we're way up there before we can make our own living, our own food. I saw a little baby mouse, that big, going for a piece of bread. It wasn't even near him. We don't have the strength of a lion. On an animal level, we could never survive on our own. On a spiritual level, since part of me is spirit--how do I know that? Because I can think. I have a memory made to the image of the Father because I can create, I can do things. I have an intellect made to the image of Jesus. I can discern. And I have a will made to the image of the spirit, strong. I can decide what I want to do and then do it! An animal goes by instinct. If you feed an animal he knows that he can go to you. So I am part spirit and part animal. Together it makes human nature. Well, God sent His Son Jesus to become human. What a--Ah! What a humiliation that was --bound by the laws of man that He created. He depended on Our Lady for everything. He had to wait until He grew up. Now, He had the mind of God. And so when you receive Holy Communion, you receive a part of God. That's why we have to do so with such reverence. We have to have reverence-- and I'm gonna have an accident if I don't blow my nose. (audience chuckles) This is the only program you can do that on. But see; when we receive Communion we participate in the very nature of God. It's not a symbol like you've been told. It's His Body, His Soul, His Divinity, His Blood, all of Him! And so as I absorb through that Communion this Divine Nature, I am always a creature, I never become God like these women goddesses running around the world. That's the dumbest thing I ever saw in my life! (audience chuckles) You're getting wrinkled, you got gray hair, you're old and you're a goddess! Whew! Jesus and Mary and Joseph! You're not a goddess; you're a nothing. You're a human being on your way out. You got to make up your mind, sweetheart, which way you're going. (audience laughs) You can forget this goddess business. So we do not become God but we can be filled with His very nature. And what? I can become more and more and more like Jesus, see, Christ-like. Everybody has one time in their life met somebody that was Christ-like. You say, "Well, I met so and so and they were so Christ-like." That person has to have a lot of Jesus inside because you can see that the animal part of us and the spiritual part of us on its own is not capable of great heroic virtue. And so we ask this Communion, this Eucharist to make me holy. So we look at the soul of Christ, then we look at the Body of Christ. You know, in Lourdes the people kind of line up in there on stretched on and wheelchairs and everything. And the priest comes and he blesses everybody with the Blessed Sacrament, the Body of Jesus--the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus-- and many of them get healed. But what kind of healing are we asking for? Sometimes, you know, our physical healing is for our good. Why? Because it keeps me close to Jesus. I feel--and I've said this before--that next to my vocation, I think the greatest gift next to that is the pain I have to endure every day. Why? Because it forces me, see, to cling to Jesus. And so when we receive Communion, we ask Our Dear Lord to heal me in the way I need healing, see. Many of us need bodily healing but I always wondered if that's the most important thing. I think spiritual healing is more important. Why? Because I can go straight to Heaven with crippled legs and back and blind or deaf; I can't go there if I'm hateful, unforgiving. And so we have to ask Our Dear Lord to heal me, to heal you of an unforgiving spirit, of an addiction to drugs, alcohol, sex; some commit crime, murder. We've never lived in an age when children murdered children. What have we created in this world when we were created by God to have a very high dignity on earth and in His kingdom? We were created by God; redeemed by His Son; given the Eucharist. Why? So we could be raised to the very level of having within me the very Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. I will share in the very nature of God. Can you, can you realize that? You see, when so many of our good priests and religious women, especially, when they teach your children that there is no Eucharist, do you see what they deprive you of? What a crime! What a sin to lead people astray. But see, little children whose hearts are open to, to faith in Jesus, and when we don't tell them the truth when we lie, what do you have, huh? Then it says, "Blood of Christ, cover me." One word is "drench me." Well, some people get drenched in a flood and you get drenched in the rain. We want the Blood of Jesus to cover me. Why? Because we're sinners. The Blood of Jesus shed on the cross healed all our wounds. It doesn't mean by that... A lot of people say, "Well, I can do what I want. "I can commit any sin. Jesus saved me." (heavy sigh) That doesn't make any sense. You can't be presumptuous. God, All-Holy God cannot allow you to sin or give you the right to sin by dying for you. That doesn't make any sense! When we say that we want the Blood of Jesus to cover me, it's that protection to keep me away from sin, to forgive me when I sin, when I go against His Will. It's the most awesome thing you can say--awesome! Why? Only the Son of God could come and live and suffer among us and die so that we may live, see and only then can we be covered with that Precious Blood, see. The word cover and drenched means to, to be "soaked in" that Awesome Redeeming Precious Blood. We use to have a whole month --do you all remember that, all of you over 60? Nobody wants to admit they're over 60 (audience chuckles) but we used to have the whole month of July in memory of the Precious Blood. Well, they took that away, and we'll get it back. The next part of this beautiful prayer says, "Water from the side of Christ wash me," wash me. You know, when we look at the cross on Good Friday, I don't think we meditate at all. When Our Dear Lord pronounced His Seven Last Words, when He said, "Father," in a very loud voice, "Father, into Thy Hands I commend My Spirit," every drop of His Blood had been shed. And when Longinus hit His Heart with a lance, a spear, water and blood came out. Only a heart that ruptures can have water and blood come out. There was nothing left. Every drop of it--do you realize the miracle it took for Jesus to say in a loud voice those seven words? If anyone lost half their blood, they'd be unconscious! They couldn't talk! At the moment there wasn't a drop left, He said, "Into Thy Hands I commend My Spirit." Isn't that amazing, huh? See, we, we don't realize that the Holy Spirit gave Our Dear Lord's human nature special strength, special grace. The Father sent His Son, the Son came for you and the Spirit gave Him special grace, special strength to be able to suffer all that so every drop of His Blood could be shed and still speak. See, we are all, every time you go to confession you are washed, made clean in the Blood of Jesus and this is not Baptism. Baptism is a Sacrament. This is a prayer! And the Sacrament is that I am cleansed totally by Baptism. But when I say this prayer, I am asking that I am cleansed over and over. We're all sinners. You know what Our Lord said today in the Mass. Peter said to Our Lord one day, he was feeling kind of holy, you know, and he said, "Master, should I forgive my brother seven times?" Well, the Jewish law said you should forgive your brother three times, and Peter said, "Oh well, (chuckles) I can beat that one. "I'll make it 7. I feel generous today." (audience chuckles) He probably had Thomas in mind. I think he had Thomas in mind. Thomas just didn't become a doubter. I think he was that throughout those three years. I can imagine the Apostles coming home one day and healing so many people and Peter coming up and saying, "Lord, this man was born blind and I healed him!" And Thomas says, "How do you know he was born blind? Were you there? (audience chuckles) I mean, were you there when he was born?" (audience chuckles) I can imagine Thomas saying every so often, "Well, are you sure?" Oh, don't you want to just sock somebody like that, huh? Ah! They never believe anything you say. You come in all enthused about something and they go, "Oh really." (audience chuckles) Do you know, that's hard to take. I know, I know Peter had Thomas in mind. I bet he was looking straight at him, you know. Our Dear Lord, oh, the answer He gave. "No," He said, "70 times seven times a day." Whew! Any mathematicians around here? That's over 400 times a day! I don't think I've ever forgiven anybody 400 or more than 400 times a day. I don't think I could! With my Italian temperament, no way! No way. At some point maybe 25 or 30. I might make it 25, 26. I'd say, "Get lost, will you!" But Jesus, no, no. Jesus said, "70 times seven," which, what does it mean? It means as many times as your neighbor offends you, you must forgive him. Now, the next part of this marvelous prayer is, "Passion of Christ, strengthen me." My friends, do you ever pray for strength, huh? Strength against temptations, they're everywhere today. (heavy sigh) I try to watch about 10 minutes of the news --the rest isn't worth watching. You can just see so many football games and the scores are up and down and you don't know who's going where. And I think--if you pardon my grossness--but I think football is a dumb game. (audience chuckles) A poor guy goes and he finally catches this ball and somebody tackles him and 20 men fall on top of him--as if he's going anywhere. (audience chuckles) Where can he go? (audience chuckles) Are you trying to cripple him (audience chuckles) just because he happened to catch the ball? Did you ever understand that? Anybody here understand why everybody piles on top of him? (audience chuckles) I bet there's not a man here can tell me why 10 men fall on top of one. How he gets up, I don't know. (audience chuckles) He gets up and he shakes himself. I'd be crushed bones. (audience chuckles) And so today, there are so many distractions in the world, so many things that should've never happened in this world and in the Church. Oh My Jesus! A woman called me up the other day and said that these sisters someplace, I won't mention took away the tabernacle and put some female goddess in its place. And when they have the Winter Solstice, they have some kind a diabolical thing and they have with incense. And, you know, you just get sick way down deep in your stomach, to think that we could fall so far from grace. We need to pray for strength! There is coming out--I think, it was made in England, it's going to air in Los Angeles this week and I suppose it'll flood the country--a very bad anti-Catholic, anti priest movie called <i><u>Priest</u></i>. That's all. The three priests involved in this movie are the very worst, according to the movie. And if you notice, there's Catholic-bashing everywhere you go, everywhere! They'll have a whole program about nuns who have gone astray. They're hungering for freedom. What freedom? I got more freedom than all you have. I belong to the Lord God! I'm a spouse of Christ! What can you give me? A car? Keep it. (audience chuckles) I don't mind Brick Cheese but...(laughs) I ought to qualify that, you know. But really, (heavy sigh) don't go to those kind of movies. If you're a Catholic, why do you want to watch your Church being criticized and ridiculed and made everything evil? Why do you want to do that, huh? Why? You need strength, you need strength. And you have to pray for fortitude--that's what strength is, fortitude, fourth gift of the Spirit, fortitude. Courage to stand up and be Christian and stand up and be a real Catholic, not a divided Catholic, not one who lives by half-truths or preaches lies! Follow the Church! Follow the Magisterium! We have a Holy Pontiff, follow him, you can't go wrong. Follow this Book here. Now the next part of this prayer says, "Good Jesus, hear me." You can say that that many times a day, huh, "Good Jesus, hear me. Good Jesus." Our Holy Mother St. Clare, 7-800 years ago, she used to say over and over all day long, "Poor Jesus. Poor Jesus." When you see all these terrible things going around in the Church, under the guise of "new," "new," new theology, new this and new that, there is no new truth. There are new half-truths. If you look at the history of the Church, it might be well for you to read one. You'll see that every 400 years another schism, another heresy came along. Today they have taken them all and put them in all this generation, because you never read the history of the Church. You think it's "new!" The only thing new about the heresies in the Church and the schisms in the Church today is it's mixed with satanic worship. That's the difference. Henry VIII and Luther and Zwingli and Welsh and all of them, they began to water down, water down, water down, water down but they all maintained their love for God and they maintained their love for Jesus and they maybe got mixed up or cease to believe in this doctrine or that one but they clung to the Lord as they do today. We in the Church have gone from enneagrams to centering prayer to solstice worship, to goddesses! (heavy sigh) Ah! And then you buy it, hook, line and sinker! Hook, line and sinker! You buy it as something new! It's as old as satan himself. It comes from the very bowels of Hell and you buy it. (heavy sigh) The next sentence is very important for you today, and for me. "In Your Wounds, shelter me." Oh! When you are tempted to something very bad, very sinful, very evil, why don't you say this little prayer, "In Your Wounds shelter me, hold me, keep me safe." That's what you need to do today. This little <i>Anima Christi</i> Prayer I think is one of the most important prayers we need today. It has everything in it we need! "From turning away, keep me." From turning away from You, Lord, hold me, keep me! Don't let me turn. Save me from turning away from You. "From the evil one, protect me." Wow, we need that one huh? Do you know what I think would be good? With all the Catholic bashing and this evil movie, every night before we go to bed, we need to say a prayer for all the priests, bishops, religious who have gone astray. They have awesome responsibilities, awesome! (heavy sigh) If they don't make it'll be equally awesome eternal pain. Jesus died for all of us. Every man and woman and child born--whether they know it or not or even like it or not--they were saved and will be saved by Jesus and His Precious Blood. There is an evil one you need to be protected from. If you don't believe that one, he's really got you. Why? Because that's what he wants. I wonder sometimes if our good religious even believe in Heaven or a judgment. So when Our Dear Lord, in this prayer, Our Dear Lord says, you know, we must protect ourselves. He said to the Apostles, "Pray. "Spend an hour with Me and pray that you are not put to the test." We're all put to the test today, aren't we, in everything you do, everywhere you go, you drive down the street; you got to turn your head away from billboards. I saw these beautiful young girls in bathing suits. Well I don't know what you call them. They weren't bathing suits. They were something. I wasn't sure where it was, let alone what it was. Ah! You know, I have never in my 71 years seen women, so many feminists who want to be equal and so many women degraded, absolutely degrading themselves. I've never see anything... It doesn't make any sense to me that you want to be a priest, you want to be this, you want to be that, you want to be equal and yet, the media degrades you, degrades your nature, your beauty as a woman, your goodness. These poor kids, some are college students and some are just high school students (heavy sigh) and throwing beer all over each other and half naked on the beach. What are you doing to your soul, huh? What are you doing? Do you know what you're doing? I hope you don't. You're taking a beautiful body, a beautiful soul and you're degrading it into the dust. And some of you parents, don't let your children do that. Let us pray that some point Our Dear Lord touches their hearts. The next part of this prayer says, "The hour of death, call me." Wouldn't that be wonderful if you were dying and you heard a voice say, "Mary!" Wouldn't that be wonderful, huh or "John." I told you this little thing before. Some of you haven't heard it, there was during Mass, a man would just pop in at the consecration and he'd leave and the pastor always thought he was not being so nice, you know. And he kind of rash-judged the poor man. And so he caught him one day and he said, "What are you doing?" And he said, "Well, Father," he said, "I am a trainman," and he said, "I only have a minute, so I just run in and say, 'Hi, Jesus, it's John' and that's all the time I have." So some time later there was a train accident and this man was in the hospital dying, and Father went to see him and he gave him the Last Sacraments. And suddenly he heard the voice of Jesus and He said, "Hello, John. This is Jesus." Wouldn't that be awesome, huh? If we were so faithful to Him that one day, as you lie there dying--and you will and so will I--well, if He would mention your name and say, "Come. "Come with Me into My Kingdom." Well, the last part of this prayer says, "Into Your Presence lead me." Doesn't that make you excited hah? All of our guests that are here, our wonderful family here, they're going to have that experience tomorrow and the next day. They're going to be right in His Presence in the Eucharist, high on a throne, a 5 ft. 2 monstrance. Somebody said, "Why have you got it so big?" I said, "Because I couldn't find one bigger." (audience chuckles) "In your presence leads me to praise You with all Your saints forever and ever. Amen." Isn't that a beautiful prayer, huh? If you want it, I'll send it to you. I don't know where I'll get it. I'll print it for you. We've got a printing press. But see, we had, last week we had "Contrition", the week before the "Our Father", today the "Anima Christi"--simple, Catholic prayers. Oh, aren't they beautiful, huh? We need to bring Him back. You know, let me read the whole thing to you. I've got it in here. "Soul of Christ, sanctify me." I'm asking for holiness, see. "Body of Christ, heal me. "Blood of Christ, drench me, cover me. "Water from the side of Christ, wash me." We need to be cleansed so badly. "Passion of Christ, strengthen me. Good Jesus, hear me." I like that. Instead of getting angry when something happens, instead of blowing your top, say, "Oh Good Jesus, hear me." "In Your wounds shelter me. "From turning away, keep me. "From the evil one, protect me. "At the hour of death, call me. "Into Your presence, lead me. "To praise You with all your saints forever and ever." Wow! Do we have any calls? Nope. Yeah, we do. You know, I get so excited about these prayers that I forget about the phone calls. Hi. Caller 1 (male): Good evening. Mother Angelica: Where are you from? Caller 1: New York. Mother Angelica: And what is your question? Caller 1: Mother, I'm going to be Confirmed next month. Mother Angelica: Oh you are!? Caller 1: Yes, I am! Mother Angelica: How wonderful! Caller 1: Thank you. And I'm going to be having my First Confession, and I'm a 41 year-old man that's been in the military for 24 years. I'm a little bit afraid of my first Confession. I'm just wondering should I go in and say, well start with, "Thou shalt not," and go down the list or...? (all laugh) Mother Angelica: Well, sweetheart, if you've done them all.... (all laugh) I think I would. No, I would be, I'd just be very honest and say in your own words what you, what you... Don't be scared. I know it's more a little pride on our part. We just don't want everybody to know but look, they know. Unless you embezzled $5 million, right, you know, they may not know that but they know everything else. And I don't think you did that. But just go in because you're going to come out feeling like an eagle, just feeling like an eagle. This <i>Anima Christi</i> prayer is good for those of you who have been away from the Church for a long time and I just want to say, "Welcome Home! Welcome Home!" And get a good priest who acknowledges you did commit a sin! Don't go to somebody that talks you out of it. (audience chuckles) "Oh, that wasn't so bad" or "You're just being human." No, you weren't being human; you were being a sinner! Have some priest that loves you enough and is holy enough to say, "Ooh, boy, that's pretty bad. (audience chuckles) "But God forgives you. Welcome Home!" Don't go to somebody who doesn't know one sin from another. Pick some old priest that hasn't learned the new ways (audience chuckles) and say, "Father, I have sinned against God, against Heaven and I have done all of these things and I'm very sorry." And if he's a wise, holy man, he will cry with you because you're free! For the first time in all these years, this heavy burden--you're going to feel it lifting away from you. After every sin is confessed, you're going to feel it just lifting up. You're going to feel wonderful! Have that in mind when you go. And also remember, you haven't done one thing he hasn't heard 100 times. You can't surprise a priest, not a good one. He stands there in the place of the Good Shepherd ready to hold you in his arms and forgive you. That's what the Good Shepherd would do. So don't be afraid, and welcome home, and we'll pray for you. We have another call. Hello? Caller 2 (female): Hi, Sister! Mother Angelica: Hi! Where are you from? Caller 2: Rhode Island, the smallest state in the union. (all chuckle) We love you, Sister. Mother Angelica: Thank you. And what is your question? Caller 2: When I went on my pilgrimage from Medjugorje, well, we had Fr. Slavko with the question and answering and I asked him about praying, that when we pray, why is it that we get so messed up? And you can start with a nice Hail Mary and you end up saying an Our Father and you're all thrown off and you don't know what's happening. And you say, "I'm trying to pray." And he says that the devil is at work, and that's when we need to pray even harder. Mother Angelica: Well, I don't mean to disagree with Father, but I'm going to. (audience chuckles) It isn't always the devil. It's our human nature. You know, we can't help thinking about the stove we left on when we're in church or something like that. What I do when I'm distracted, I give my distraction to Jesus. I say, "Oh, Jesus, there I am thinking of this person or that person. "You take them. "I put them in Your Sacred Heart," and go on. Be gentle with yourself. Our Lord is looking for your heart, not your head, not your words. If you love someone very deeply you can always talk or speak, huh. So don't worry. When you're conscious of a distraction, just raise it up to Jesus and keep going, keep going. Jesus, the Scripture says that the Spirit knows your heart and He knows how to speak with you and through you to the Father. Why? Because God sees your desires. It's obvious from your voice tonight you really want to pray. Don't be distracted by distractions! We're human. Somebody went to Holy Father Francis one day and he said, "I can pray without distraction." And our Holy Father said, "Really?" He said, "Yes." He said, "Well, that's hard to believe, but would you say a Hail Mary without distraction?" And he said, "If you can say a Hail Mary without distraction, I'll give you my horse." And the man said, " Okay. 'Hail Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee, blessed..., can I have the saddle?" (all laugh) I would have just said, "Lord, forgive me. You take the saddle." (audience chuckles) Look, just pray to Jesus. He is Your Brother and Your Savior. Don't worry about it. God bless you and see you tomorrow night. (applause) [music]
