[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,
the compassion of Jesus.</i> <i>The most glorious work of all,
to praise God in His Kingdom.</i> <i>Anyone moved by the Spirit...</i> <i>Anyone who lives in love,</i> <i>lives in God and
God lives in Him.</i> [music] <i>What a wonderful
thing is our Church.</i> <i>This whole network
is built on trust.</i> <i>The essence of evangelization
is to tell everybody,</i> <i>"Jesus loves you!"</i> <i>We're all called
to be great saints.</i> <i>Don't miss the opportunity!</i> (applause) Mother: Thank you. And we are going to talk about Jesus tonight, because He's the best One to talk about. I thought tonight we would talk how Our Dear Lord loved poor sinners. Now, we're all sinners. There are only two--Our Lady and Our Lord Himself who are not sinners. They came among us. Our Dear Lady was to be the Mother of God, so She was conceived Immaculate and Our Dear Lord was Divine and so He never sinned. He was like unto us in everything, except sin. So the rest of us are why He came. So, I want to talk particularly to all of you out there who have not been to Confession in a long time. I want to talk to you. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who have not been to Confession in a long time because they can't find a confessor. They go from city to city looking for someone who believes in sin and Hell. If you don't believe in sin and Hell, you're like a runaway horse--you're going to do what you please when you please But somewhere, you're going to stop, you're going to hit a wall and there's no place to go. You want to go back and there's not a place to go. That's where some of you tonight are listening to me. The reason you don't go to Confession is because you're afraid. You're afraid. Of what? Of what? If you're not afraid to sin before the very eyes of God, why are you afraid to go to Confession? I think some people think when they go to Confession, God heard it the first time. (All laugh) No, no, He saw it the first time. You're not telling Him anything He doesn't already know. He just wants you to be sorry. There's a big difference. I'm going to read a few passages here. I'm going to look at… It says, "While He was at dinner in the house in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors,.." Even today nobody likes a tax collector. Things haven't changed. I feel sorry for them. They can't help it. That's their job. Let me say a word to tax collectors. I can't help it. It's just a wonderful opportunity to say something to tax collectors. If you're not liked, let me tell you one reason why you're not liked. Sometimes you'll pick out somebody, some innocent old guy from a whole list of names and you'll investigate him, ask him where he put all this money, what he did with it and did he really give it to charity. And then you let abortion, doctors who work in abortion clinics who are paid cash, have you ever investigated them? I'll bet you haven't. Have you ever wondered how many people go in there at $400 each time and go out? Where is that money? Why don't you investigate then and leave these little people alone? They aren't doing anything-- working hard to make a living. Why don't you try it? But even you God loves. He loves you. And what else does He say here? It says, "He came to sit at the table with Jesus and His disciples and when the Pharisee saw this, he said, 'Why does Your Master eat with tax collectors and sinners?'" I thought it was interesting. They separated sinners from tax collectors. It gives me the impression… (group chuckles) Don't you think that was interesting? I thought they were sinners, too. It must be a special sin to be a tax collector. (all laugh) Oh, am I in trouble! (group chuckles) "When He heard this, Jesus replied, 'It's not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick.'" Oh, all you liberals out there listening to me, what would you do if I called all sinners sick? Oh, I can just feel it coming through the TV. But Jesus called sinners sick. He said, "Go and learn what the word says, that what I want is mercy, not sacrifice. "'Indeed I did not come to call the virtuous but sinners.'" Now, look there. Jesus is calling you tonight. Somebody there sitting in a living room right now with his feet propped up, drinking a beer; (group chuckles) I'd straighten up if I were you. (group chuckles) I would. The Lord's looking for you. Now, they couldn't understand why He could eat with sinners because sinners were outcasts. A sinner in those days who someone was not a Jew, he was a gentile or he didn't observe all the laws. But there were so many laws, you couldn't observe them; you couldn't even remember what they were. Now, it says here, he says, "I have come to call sinners." God calls you tonight. He calls you to trust Him, to trust in His mercy. We kind of fear God for the wrong reasons. A sinner will think "Well, my soul is so heavy with sin and God is so Holy." Both are true. God is Awesomely Holy, Majestically Holy and we are sinners, poor sinners. We have a hard time. You see, we have the impression--and it's the wrong impression--that I cannot get close to such a Holy Being. That's what keeps you from Confession, you see. It's a false humility. We use to call it humility with a hook. Do you know what that is, humility with a hook? You don't know? Let's see, let's say you did something very, you made a beautiful painting and you put it just at the right spot where everybody would see it. Somebody comes in and says, "Oh, that's beautiful." You say, "Nah, it's not beautiful." "Oh yeah, that's beautiful!" "No, I just kind of slopped it together." In the meantime, you're pulling it closer and closer, you see. Why is that with a hook? Because you want that person to say five times, "Oh, it's beautiful." So you come up with all this, "No, it's just a little thing I did while I was sleeping one night. (group chuckles) "It's really nothing. I could do it with one arm tied in back of me." All that is, it looks a little like humility but it's no good, no good. I think that's how we are with God sometimes, you see. We say, "Oh Lord, I'm not good enough to be holy. "I'm not good enough to be, to go to Confession and be forgiven. I mean, You don't really know me." Oh, listen, He knows you! I think I told you this before but it bears telling at this point. A man came to me and I said, "Oh, are you going to church?" And he said, "Nah." He said, "I don't go to Mass." He said, "I don't go there with all those hypocrites." I said, "One more won't hurt." (all chuckle) We excuse ourself, you see, and sometimes we're even angry over a big sinner who repents. I've told you that 100 times. We just want to see them. "Look at him up there going to Communion. I knew when he did this." We have an aversion for goodness. We even do ads now. People will put up Aspirin, Tylenol, Advil and they'll say, "All of these, you see all of these, they're no good. You've got to buy mine." That's, that's what I call dirty advertising. Why do you have to lower somebody to pull yourself up? And we do this with Confession. We'll see somebody or hear someone who really did a lot of things that were no good and suddenly they have a conversion. You'll hear people say, "Oh, that hypocrite." Why hypocrite? He knows he was wrong, he's saying he was wrong and he's repenting because he's wrong. Why is it you and I as Christian have a hard time accepting a conversion experience? Do you know what it means to save souls? It means that I love sinners, I know they're sinners, God knows they're sinners but God and I want to bring them back into His heart. What a wonder. That's something awesome! We get letters every day of whole families coming back to the Church. Somebody will say inevitably, "I was out of the Church 30 to 35 years but I saw you pointing your finger at me at one point of the shows and you said, 'Go to Confession!' and I went! Now, isn't that wonderful? You've got to scare people sometimes. There is a Hell. I read where the Episcopal Church just decided there was no Hell. (laughs) I hope they don't mind that hot stuff. (group chuckles) You cannot say there is no Hell when the Lord God talks about it all the time. You get the impression that even people in the Church don't want people to be converted. They don't want to be saved. They don't want anybody to go from an awfully evil life to an awesomely holy life. We read about St. Augustine-- "Oh, isn't that a wonderful story, how he got converted?" He did everything a man could possibly do that was wrong. Now, we rejoice over someone that gets converted in the 3rd century and we're angry over someone that gets converted in the 20th century. Isn't that kind of odd? I had a take off on David the other day at the lesson. The Son of David--Jesus was known as Son of David. A holy man. He wrote the most beautiful psalms and he was a holy man but he looked out the wrong window at the wrong time. (group chuckles) He should have turned around but he didn't. After that he connived, they get the poor woman's husband killed in battle. Was he through? No, he fell again. How? He took a census and the generals of the army went to him and said "Your Majesty, please don't take the census." "No, I'm going to take the census. "I want to see how many people I have." Whoa, well, he got greatly punished for that. Then when the poor man was old and he was lying there dying and he wanted to build a temple for the Lord and the Lord said to make Nathan, "No, he cannot build a temple for Me. He spilt too much blood." And yet he was beloved of God. Why? Because David knew when he sinned. He was awesomely repentant when he sinned. He took his penance like a man, with humility of heart and hope in his mind. And God the Father loved David. He loved David. Look at Moses. Moses was known in the Scriptures as the most gentle of men. Yet before he ran away from Egypt, he killed a slave who had killed another Jew. He was so angry when he saw the people reveling and sinning and worshiping a golden calf that he threw down the tablets that God made. He had to go all the way back up the mountain, fast another 40 days and 40 nights to get those Ten Commandments back again. Then as he went along, there can a time when the people were thirsty again and he, instead of hitting the rock once, he hit it twice. He said, "Am I supposed to break water out of this rock?" Whoa. He had already done that. He should have never questioned God's power. He was a holy man. But for a moment he lost it but he repented, sorry and the Lord said, "Because of this you shall not enter the Promised Land. You shall see it from afar but you shall not enter." And he took his chastisement like a man, in humble obedience. So you see, all these great men, like you and me, were sinners. Unlike the rest of us, they knew when they sinned, they said they sinned, they were awesomely repentant and they did their penance bravely. They went back loving the Lord with their whole hearts, mind and soul. What an example we have of deep repentance. You should never, never, never be discouraged. A lot of you out there have had one, two, three abortions, four--some as many as nine. I know you're afraid. Don't be afraid. Be brave. Kneel down and say, "Jesus, I am sorry, so sorry and I want to come back to You. "I want to serve You. I want to be holy." Go to Confession. Our Lord said one time, He said, "There is more joy in Heaven when one sinner repents." Oh, could you--some of you have a--the angels would have a ball! I can just see them up there saying, "Why don't we pick on that one? "We could have a feast for seven days if he would just repent." Our Dear Lord gave us an example one time of the prodigal son. Remember that one--you've heard it a thousand times. Most of us though put ourselves on the other son's side, the good one who never left home and worked hard all day long and always said yes to his dad. Wonderful. And this one went out and spent all his inheritance on debauchery and drinking. When he got to a place nobody wanted him or would even give him a husk from the swine, he decided to go home. All he wanted was to be a servant. He never asked to be a son again. But the Eternal Father gave you an example of Himself. He put a robe on him, He gave him a ring and he killed the fatted calf, had a big feast. Wouldn't you like that to happen tomorrow if you went to Confession? Not only will they rejoice in Heaven but you will rejoice because you're Home again! You're Home again. You don't know what that means because you've been out of the Father's House a long time. But you're Home now. What a wonderful thing to be Home. Some of you out in the cold a couple of weeks ago, thought you'd never get home. You went through ice and snow and you were shivering and cold. Finally, you saw that one house that's yours. Do you remember that feeling? Well, the one you're going to get if you go to Confession is much better than that one. I think we all need to look at the Eternal Father. I know when you read the Old Testament, you get the impression that the Eternal Father's kind of hard on everybody. Well, He had to be with the stiff neck people. He called them stiff neck, stubborn. (heavy sigh) But He did send His Son and He did so many wonderful things for them. For one thing, for you and I, He created us. It was the mind of the Eternal Father that decided you and I would be. Here we are in this studio looking at each other, enjoying the Lord. But it was the mind of the Eternal Father that before time began saw the possibility of you being born and said, "Yes, this one shall be." That's you. It's so bad to feel you're useless or to feel that you're not worth anything or to feel you've done all you can now and you're so useless. Because society does that to all of us. It used to be you retired at 72, then they made it 62, now they're pushing to the 55, as if, "Well, long enough for you buddy." You give 30 years to your company. You're about to retire-- pttth. We've come so far away from God. We're on the level of the survival of the fittest. Let me tell you in the eyes of God, it's the sick, the crippled, the blind, the deaf, those who cannot speak, those who have known nothing but poverty and suffering and pain their whole life--they are very special to God. And you can't write them off. Because we're not a repentant people, we have become hard. Now, I understand all the bishops in France--is that right--decided that condoms are okay. They're going to protect society from AIDS. What school did you graduate from? Kindergarten? Do you know what protects people from AIDS? Chastity! Are we afraid to say that? It's very disheartening when a whole group of bishops don't know that. Let me show you a little thing I read here. This is another on repentance here. I won't tell you where it's from. You might guess, though. Here's a new description of Eucharist. What is the Eucharist? No, not what--WHO? The Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus. "I will not leave you orphans." Well, let me show you what this bright young man said. "He was all tired and sweaty, pushing his homemade cart down the alley, stopping now and then. "I wanted to tell him about Eucharist but the look in his eyes was despair and hopelessness. So, I just said, 'Hi' and gave him Eucharist." Why didn't you buy him a hamburger? "Downtown is nice. "The lights change from red to green and back again, flashing blues and pinks. "I gulped them in and said, 'Thank you, Father' and made them Eucharist." Can you believe what you're hearing? "I laughed at myself and told myself, 'You with all your sin and all your selfishness, I forgive you, I accept you, I love you' and I gave myself Eucharist." (noise) "Eucharist is as simple as being on time, as profound as sympathy. "When I give you my supper, when I give you me, I give you Eucharist." If there was a lie for the year, this would make it. You need to go to Confession. Why? If you believe this, you have to admit "I have lost my faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist." (heavy sigh) If you believe this trash here, you don't even believe now. You're not a Catholic anymore. We have so many burdens on our back that we don't even know when we sin. So, you need to go to Confession and just pour out. You're talking to Jesus. You're not talking to a man. It is the Lord Who listens to you. What a wonderful Father we have that He would think of that. That's why you must think of the Eternal Father as the Most Merciful and the Most Generous of all fathers. Why? Because He gave you His Son, His Son Jesus. I don't know of anybody here or anybody anywhere that would give his only begotten son for people who are so ungrateful. And He suffered so much. We were listening at table today to the life of Padre Pio; a marvelous man, has suffered unbelievably, his whole life but so holy, that when you went to Confession, if you missed something, he'd say, "Did you forget something?" And you'd say, "No." "Oh, are you sure?" "Yes." "Then come back tomorrow." Wow! A woman went to him one time and he made her come back three times, and finally she said the third time, "I don't have anything else." And he said, "Oh, yes you do." He told her the day and the time she committed an abortion and showed her what that son was destined to be. Well, you could wish that you had somebody like that. Don't you wish you had somebody like that around that could tell you what you forgot? Because God knows it all. We have no reason to be afraid. Now, I'm going to open up for some phone calls because I think some of you have something you want to ask. Hello. Female Caller #1: Hi. Mother: Hey, where are you from? Caller #1: New York. Mother: And what is your question? Caller #1: I'd like to have your opinion, Mother. A priest in our parish has told me that we only need to go to Confession a few times a year. I'm used to going every week and I feel kind of confused because I have great respect for the priest and what I should do because I feel I'm lacking for Jesus. Mother: I go every week. Maybe you ought to tell him that. Say, "Mother Angelica goes every week." He might say, "Well, she needs to go every week." (all laugh) Oh well. And that's true. Let me tell you something about Confession. Confession, most people think you should only go to Confession if you have a mortal sin. Right now, if you see anybody going to Confession, you say, "Oh, I wonder what he did." (all laugh) You can't do that. You can't stigmatize somebody and say, "Well, now, nobody goes to Confession unless they have a biggie." No, you go to Confession, not only to erase the biggies but to erase venial sins. "Did you see that dirty movie?" "No." "I thought I saw you walking in there." "Not me." (group chuckles) You lied. What do you call that? Do you call it the truth? You can't call it the truth. It's a lie. This has to be, has to be clear all the time. Now, let me tell you something about Confession that's important for you to remember. Confession heals. If I cut myself, whether it's a deep cut and it needs stitches or a small tiny scratch, well, I'm sorry I did it, right? The cut's still there; the scratch is still there. I have to be healed. Confession begins to heal and heal and heal. It takes away the sin, but it's like having flu. Did you ever have flu and the doctor said, "Well, you're over it." You say, "I am?" He said, "Yes, no more germs." "Oh, you could fool me." What happens? You're tired. The flu, it's over with, it's forgotten, the doctor's on to another patient. You're tired, you're vulnerable. Confession gives you energy, strength, courage and heals. It heals so the next time that temptation comes to you or that occasion to lie, you're going to be stronger. You're going to say, "Yes, I did that." Confession is so important because it's a healing Sacrament. It's a healing. That's why some of you who have been away for so many years it feel so good. You notice that? You say, "I feel like there's a big weight off." You've been healed, spiritually healed. Your soul is lighter. So please, find another priest. I'd go every week if you could find somebody who understands the soul and the healing we need. We have another call. Hello. Female Caller #2: Yes, Mother. Mother: Where are you from? Caller #2: Minnesota. Mother: And what is your question? Caller #2: Yes, I just came from Mass and Communion and I need your help in prayers, Mother. I had an illness and I can't have children and I was supposed to be married. The man now doesn't want me and I'm just having trouble dealing with this. I pray to the Lord and the Holy Mother and all I really want to do is be married and have children and now I feel, I'm just all alone in the world, when all other friends are having children and married and family. I'm just so alone and I'm having a hard time dealing with it. I would ask for your prayers and your advice. Thank you, Mother. Mother: (heavy sigh) I feel sorry for that man. The essence of marriage is to have children but he should have loved you enough and that's what you really feel. It's not your fault that you cannot have children. But you can always adopt children. You could stop people from having abortions and these children, they come into the world and they're alone from day one. They've been designed by God from all eternity to be, even though the circumstance is not too good. So you can have children now by giving this pain and suffering for abused children, for aborted children, for children who will never see the light of day because their mothers didn't want them. Pray for them. Give this pain to them and save them. God will send you someone, sweetheart, that will love you for yourself. Then you'll find a baby somewhere that nobody wants and God will fulfill your heart. Right now you have to find your peace in the Permitting Will of God and we'll pray for you. We have another call. Hello. Female Caller #3: Hi, Mother Angelica. Mother: Hi, and where are you from? Caller 3: Pennsylvania. Mother: And what is your question? Caller #3: First of all, I love you dearly and I pray for all of you every day. Mother: Thank you. Caller #3: Second of all, I'm going to hopefully be confirmed at Easter Vigil. Mother: Wonderful! Caller #3: And I have decided to take the name Angelica. Mother: Yeah! (laughs) Thank you, thank you, thank you. Caller #3: And my third question, which is very important to me, I have not been able to take Communion now since I left the other religion and went into Catholicism till I'm confirmed. Mother: Now, now wait a minute, you don't need to wait till you're confirmed to go to Communion. You can go to Communion as soon as you're received into the Church. Have you been baptized? Caller #3: Yes. Mother: Okay, then just ask Father to let, allow you to make your First Holy Communion. Are you under instructions yet? Caller #3: Yes. Mother: Okay, well, he'll tell you the time, then. When those instructions are finished you should not have to wait for Communion before Confirmation. Sometimes they come together but sometimes... now, somehow I was confirmed before I had my First Communion. I think I was 5 ½ or 6 when I was confirmed. I think the priest looked in the audience and the congregation and said, "Oh, that's going to be a serious one over there. We better confirm her first." But that was an oddity. Then I got my Communion the year after. But now it should be that you have your First Holy Communion and then maybe a year later or six months, depending on when the bishop comes, you should be confirmed. So you go and ask Father. You've been baptized in the Church and there's no reason why--unless you have some impediment I don't know about--there's no reason why you can't go to Communion. We have to look at ourselves and all of us who do go to Communion every day, every day, every day, every day. In our Holy Father Francis' time, and Holy Mother St. Clare, they only went seven times a year. Ohh! And God bless Pius X, Pope Pius X, who allowed children 6 and 7 years old to make their First Communion. I think one of the problems that we have today is we have "no-sin-itis." Some of the catechesis people demand that the children have Holy Communion without Confession. Oh, no, no, no, no! Our wonderful Catechism says, "Every child must go to Confession before First Holy Communion." If you're going to treat sex education in first, 2nd grade, you better have those kids go to Confession. Everything's topsy-turvy today. We make young kids old before their time and then we say they have no sin. There's only one Immaculate Conception. We're born into the world. Many times, it's proud, arrogance, selfish. You say, "Oh, no. Well, it proves itself. If you have a child that's even one or two years old and you say, "Give me a bite." She wasn't trained to do that. I told you about the twins that came in, their mother came to see me and they had these all day suckers, these big things like that. They were licking them like crazy. This one came up to me and he went like this, "Want a lick?" It's all sticky. I didn't want to say "no". I said, "Oh, yeah," and I gave it back to him. The other one went like this. (group chuckles) No way was she going to give me a lick. They were not trained one to be generous and one not to be generous. There's jealousy in little children. There are just a lot of things we're born with. We call it concupiscent of the Original Sin everybody tells you doesn't exist. Oh, does it exist! That's why we need to be baptized. That's why we need, we need the Eucharist. You know, Don Bosco had this dream one night. It was a vision, but he called them dreams. He saw this big ship with the Holy Father at the wheel and a big hole in the ship. A lot of these little ships were going off the big ship and rowing around by themselves. Then the ship was in a terrible storm and all of a sudden out of the ocean came two pillars and on the top of one pillar was the Eucharist and the top of the other pillar, Our Lady. Then the ship began to straighten up. I think we're in those times right now. We have another call. Hello. Female Caller #4: Hi, Mother Angelica. Mother: Hi. Where are you from? Caller #4: My name is Joan. I'm from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, outside. Mother: What is your question? Caller #4: My question was about something you were speaking about earlier about Hell. I was wondering if you have any idea--and I'm sure that you do--of why do the priests not give sermons on Hell and Purgatory anymore when it's something that so many people have no idea about anymore these days. I'm young; I'm 30 and people my age just look at me like I'm crazy when I would even mention that "Oh, I have to go to Confession." I talk about Purgatory in a conversation. They say to me, "You really think that when you die that something like that's going to happen to you?" And I really have to say… Mother: Did you ever ask them what they think's going to happen to them? Caller #4: Well, I, I know that I've had a couple of conversations. I'm a teacher and I taught religion and I've had a couple of conversations with people about it. They would say, "Well, I think I'm going to Heaven." Mother: Just as they are, right? Caller #4: Uh-huh, that's right. Mother: (chuckles) Do I have news for them! No, we cannot go and see God as we are because we're so faulty and we're sinners,. When governments provide and promote abortions, when churches promote sin, when they promote error and not many people are not going to Purgatory. But to answer your question, the reason priests and ministers don't teach about Purgatory and Hell, they don't believe in them anymore. They're articles of faith. They're one of the things you must believe if you're a Catholic. Since they did away with sin, then you do away with Hell and you do away with Purgatory. If there was a time I believe the devil has charge of the world--the Lord called him the prince of the world--I think it's now, for this reason. Who is it that doesn't want you to believe in Hell? The father of lies doesn't want you to believe in Hell. He has deceived and seduced people into thinking God is so compassionate He does not put anyone in Hell. That's absolutely right-- but God does not put people in Hell. They go there on their own because they cannot stand holiness. They can't stand goodness. They can't stand forgiveness. They're bitter and hateful inside. And the sight of an All-Loving, All-Holy, All-Merciful God is a terror to them. So when people say there is no Hell, there is no Purgatory, there is no sin, they reduce mankind to that animal level. Animals will not do what men do today. They won't. (heavy sigh) They won't. When we do away with God, we reduce our will to feelings, we reduce our intellect to unreasonable things. As a result every time you open the paper, you see something more unreasonable. Was it reasonable for that man in Maine to go and kill two holy nuns and beat up two more? For what? Do they know? And you say there's no sin. Those women are martyrs in our age but you tell me there's no sin. I read an article in the Birmingham paper where little Dominique--I don't know whether she's 2 or 3 years old, maybe 4--has a 140 some wounds on her, a third degree burn, she had 18 slashes on her face. You're telling me there's no sin. You see children aborted in pieces and you tell me there's no sin! You see little children treating their grandparents as if they were nothings, old and useless. You say there's no sin. How can you say there is no sin? And if you say there is a sin or there is sin, St. John said, "He who says he does not sin is a liar." You can read it in his epistle. No liar goes to Heaven. I think these people never read the Scriptures, never read. If someone says, "There is no Eucharist, it's only a symbol, you're Eucharist, I'm Eucharist," it's a lie. If they say, "There's no original sin," that's a lie. If they say, "Our Lady was just a little illiterate young girl," that's a lie. There's only one who spreads lies, the father of lies. Be careful. Be watchful and yet have unbelievable hope. With all the mess that's in the world everywhere, God has it in His hands. He wants to give you peace and joy, unbelievable joy by doing a simple thing. Say, "I'm sorry," and go to Confession. Will you did that. Oh, you're going to feel… And go out and have yourself a big pizza (group chuckles) for me. And don't forget, please put us between your gas and electric bill. February's a hard month for us but we'll make it because of you. I don't know what we'd do without you. We wouldn't be. I'll see you tomorrow night with a very wonderful guest and together we shall love Jesus always. Bye now. (applause) [music]
