Mother Miriam Live - 3/1/21

station of the cross proclaiming the fullness of truth with clarity and charity heard around the world on your android and apple mobile devices welcome to mother miriam live on the station of the cross catholic radio network with live video streaming brought to you by lifesite news and the station of the cross call mother with your questions at 1-877-511-5483 or email her at mother at the stationofthecross.com you can view the live stream on facebook at mother miriam live now here's mother miriam [Music] good morning beloved hello dear family how are you i do pray that you're well always always always always and um i'm thrilled to be with you every time a new week starts and i can be with you i'm more thrilled than ever i know i sound a little hoarse i'm not sick what can i tell you my voice says its own thing but i'm fine so what i thought we would do today there's so much going on in the world and i know that you're somewhat keeping up on it um the devil would have you focused on it he would have you depressed he'd have you concerned he'd have you troubled about the times do not be curl up in jesus deep into his heart deep into under our mother's mantle and just thank god for your faith be grateful for the faith we have in the catholic church that christ established that will never be defeated against which the gates of hell will not uh come so they will come but they won't destroy it and so we've been reading for lent victory over vice because that's what we all need we're trying to stay with our commitment to fasting and doing without things during lent more importantly than that we can give up coffee we can give up chocolate we can give up a lot of things but what we need to give up are our vices and take one at a time if you wish and the best book so far that i've come across is archbishop fulton sheen victory over vice published by sophia press sophia institute press and since bishop sheen writes that it is the seven deadly sins that put our lord jesus on the cross bishop sheen has attached one deadly sin to each of our lord's seven last words on the cross seven deadly sins and the first one we read was the first word from the cross father forgive them for they know not what they do to which archbishop sheen has attached the sin of anger the second word from the cross this day thou shalt be with me in paradise to which father archbishop rather fulton sheen has attached the vice of envy it's deadly it's deadly um and that's it just it was a very powerful chapter and we read through it the third word um woman behold thy son and then son behold thy mother bishop sheen has attached lust to that and i'm guessing on the part of those who would have heard our lord we started it last week but so much time has passed i'll read from the beginning of the chapter again on the vice of lust and the virtue that should be nurtured bishop sheen writes lust is an an inordinate love of the pleasures of the flesh the important word here is inordinate for it was almighty god himself who associated pleasure with the flesh he attached pleasure to eating in order that we might not be remiss in nourishing and preserving our individual lives he associated pleasure with the marital act in order that husband and wife might not be remiss in their social obligations to propagate mankind and raise children for the kingdom of god the pleasure becomes sinful at that point where instead of using it as a means we begin to use it as an end to eat for the sake of eating is a sin because eating is a means to an end which is health lust in like manner is selfishness or perverted love it looks not so much to the good of the other as to the pleasure of self it breaks the glass that holds the wine it breaks the loot to snare the music it subordinates the other to self for the sake of pleasure denying the quality of otherness it seeks to make the other person care for us but not to make us care for the other person do you hear that young women if a man says and you're not married to him if you loved me you would do this you would be intimate you would let me love you in an intimate way he's completely selfish he seeks to make you care for him but not to make but he doesn't care for you because someone who loves you wants god's best for you and someone who wants god's best for you would never lure you in to an intimate relationship outside of marriage never never never never never that's not love that is selfish uh desire from a man or a woman who cannot control himself or herself self pure selfishness it's not a means to give yourself totally the other one and propagate it is a means to satisfy your own fleshly desire in what you think is love but it is not love love doesn't want to satisfy its flesh love wants to lay down its life for the others for the other i'll continue with bishop sheen archbishop sheen we are living today in white what might probably be called an error of carnality as the appeal to the spiritual relaxes the demands of the flesh increase living less for god human nature begins to live only for self for no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will sustain the one and despise the other peculiar to this error of carnality is the tendency to equate the perpetuity of marriage with the fleshly pleasure so that when the pleasure ends the bond is presumed to be automatically dissolved that's why marriages break up they don't understand love they don't understand commitment as soon as the pleasure is gone as soon as we need to live for the other it breaks up because we don't know how to live for the other we don't know how to lay down our lives we don't know what commitment means in america for example i'm sorry that was my comment in america for example archbishop continues there is more than one divorce for every two marriages an indication of how much we have ceased to be a christian nation and how much we have forgotten the words of our lord quote what therefore god hath joined together let no man put asunder end quote the regrettable aspect of it all is that with this increased sin there is a decrease sense of sin as our sin increases we grow numb to it souls sin more but think less about it like the sick who are so moribund that they have no desire to be better sinners become so calloused that they have no yearning for redemption having lost their eyes they no longer want to see the only pleasure left to them is the end the only pleasure left to them in the end is to mock and sneer at those who do it is never the pure who say that chastity is impossible but only the impure we judge others by ourselves and attribute to others the vices from which we ourself refuse to abstain some reparation had to be made for the sin of lust that in the old testament times became so hideous to god that he would have withheld the destruction of the cities of sodom and gomorrah could but ten just men have been found within their gates [Music] our lord began making reparation for it at the first moment of the incarnation for he chose to be born of a virgin why did he choose to transcend the laws of nature the answer is very simple original sin has been propagated to every human being from adam to this very hour with the exception of our lady the prolongation of this taint in human nature takes place through the carnal act of which man is the active principle for man was the head of the human race every time there is generation of one human being by another through the union of man and woman there is the propagation of original sin the problem confronting the second person of the blessed trinity is becoming man i'm sorry the prop the problem of confront i'll start that again the problem confronting the second person of the blessed trinity in becoming man was how to become man without at the same time becoming sinful man that is man infected by the sin to which all flesh is air how to become man without inheriting original sin he had to be a true man in order to suffer for man but he could not be a sinful man if he were to redeem man from sin how could he be both man and yet sinless he could be man by being born of a woman he could be sinless man without original sin by dispensing with man as the active principle of generation in other words by being born of a virgin thus it was that when the angel gabriel appeared to mary and told her that she was to conceive the messiah whose name would be called jesus she answered how can this be done because i know not man she had made the vow of virginity and she intended to keep it and she did keep it beloved and we'll continue with this right after the break you are welcome dear ones to call in with anything on your heart at any time toll free 1-877-511-5483 or email at mother at the stationofthecross.com we'll be right back [Music] lifesitenews is an international news agency devoted to defending life and family and restoring christian culture we aim to educate and activate our readers with the information they need to fight the most crucial battles of our day in their churches workplaces and families our motto is karitas love in truth we firmly believe that promoting the truth is an act of love however hard it is to hear over the last 20 years we have built a reputation for uncompromising reporting no matter the cost lifesite news is by far the most popular pro-life website on the internet with over 40 million unique users every year and growing check us out at lifesitenews.com [Music] hello beloved this is mother miriam how would you like to wake up each morning to inspiring sermons from knowledgeable and faith-filled priests you can tune in to sermons for everyday living every day at six a.m eastern on the station of the cross you can listen on the station of the cross dot com or anytime on the free i catholic radio mobile app god bless you we offer several ways to view our programming grid including at our website the station thus stationofthecross.com and on our icatholic radio app just click the menu icon in the top left portion of our app and select the link to our programming grid that's at the stationofthecross.com and on our free i catholic radio app for android and apple mobile devices [Music] welcome to mother miriam live on the station of the cross catholic radio network with live video streaming brought to you by lifesite news and the station of the cross call mother with your questions at 1-877-511-548 or email her at mother at the station of the cross dot com welcome back beloved family to mother miriam live we are reading through archbishop fulton sheen's victory over vice by archbishop fulton sheen and published by sophia institute press and we are on the third word from the cross which is woman behold thy son and son behold thy mother john chapter 19 to which archbishop sheen has attached one of the seven deadly sins of lust and that might have been from the hearts of those who heard our lord and just backing up on this last paragraph how could christ become fully man without be without transmitting or having original sin transmitted to him and archbishop sheen says he could be manned by being born of a woman he could be sinless man without original sin by dispensing with man as the active principle of generation in other words by being born of a virgin thus it was that when the angel gabriel appeared to mary and told her that she was to conceive the messiah whose name would be called jesus she answered how can this be done because i know not man she had made the vow of virginity and she intended to keep it the angel answered that the conception of the son of man would take place without man through the power of the holy spirit who would overshadow her being assured of her continued virginity she accepted the motherhood of god incarnate be it done unto me according to thy word so it was that reparation for sins of the flesh began the first moment of the incarnation through the virgin birth that same love he manifested for virginity in the beginning he re-echoed at the first sermon of his public life quote best blessed are the clean of heart for they shall see god end quote later on when some scribes and pharisees sought to malign his good name he challenged them to find anything impure in his life which of you shall convince me of sin the final atonement and reparation is made on calvary wherein reparation for all the impure desires and thoughts of men our lord is crowned with thorns we're in reparation for all the sins of shame he is stripped of his garments where in reparation for all the lusts of the flesh he is almost disposed of his flesh for according to sacred scripture the very bones of his body could be numbered we are so used to looking upon artistic crucifixes of ivory and the beautiful images in our prayer books that we think of our blessed lord as being a whole on the cross the fact is that he made such reparation for sins of the flesh that his body was torn his blood poured forth and scripture refers to him on the cross as a leper as one struck by god and afflicted so that there is no beauty in him nor comelyness that we should be desirous of him our lord chose to go even further in reparation for the sins of lust by dispossessing himself of the two most legitimate claims of the flesh if there was ever a pure and legitimate claim in the realm of the flesh it is the claim to love of one's own mother if there is any honest title to affection in the universe of the flesh it is the bonds of love that attach one to a fellow man but the flesh was so misused by man and so perverted that our divine savior renounced even these legitimate bonds of the flesh in order to atone for the illegitimate he became totally unfleshed in order to atone for the abuse of the flesh by giving away his mother and his best friend so too his own mother so to his own mother he looks and bids farewell woman behold thy son and to his best friend he looks and bids farewell again behold thy mother how different from the world a mother will deprive her son of an advanced education in a foreign land saying i cannot give up my son or a wife will deprive her husband of good material advancement through a short absence saying i cannot give up my husband these are not the cries of noble love but are of attachment our lord did not say i cannot give up my mother he gave her up he loved her enough to give her away for her life's plan and destiny namely to be our mother here was a love that was strong enough to forget itself in order that others might never want for love he made the sacrifice of his mother so that we might have her he wounded himself like the pelican so that we might be nourished by her motherhood mary accepted the poor exchange to carry out her son's redemptive work and at that moment when jesus surrendered even the legitimate claims of his flesh and gave us his mother mary and his best friend john selfishness died its death two lessons are to be learned from this third word from the cross that the only real escape from the demands of the flesh is to find something more than the flesh to love and that mary is the refuge of sinners if we could ever find anything we loved more than the flesh the demands of the flesh would be less imperative this is the escape a mother offers her boy when she says don't do anything of which your mother would ever be ashamed if there is that higher love of his mother the boy will always have a consecrated sense of affection something for which he will be willing to make sacrifices when a mother makes such an appeal to her son she is merely echoing the lesson of the savior who in giving his mother to us as our mother equivalently said my children never do anything of which your mother would be ashamed let a soul but love that mother and he will love her divine son jesus who in order to make satisfaction for the unlawful pleasure of the flesh surrendered to his last and lawful attachment his mother the psychology of this enthusiasm for a higher love of jesus and mary is an escape from the unlawful attachments of the flesh is this let me read that again the psychology of this enthusiasm for a higher love of jesus and mary as an escape from the unlawful attachments of the flesh pardon me is this by it we avoid undue consecration concentration on lower loves and their explosions think about your mouth for five minutes and you will have an undue concentration of saliva think about your heart for five minutes and you will believe you have heart trouble although the chances are nine out of ten that you have not stand on a stage and think about your hands and they will begin to feel as big as hams the balance and equilibrium of the whole system is disturbed when an organ is isolated from the function in the whole organism or divorce from its higher purpose people who are always talking reading and thinking about sex are like singers who think more about their larynx then about singing they make that which is subordinate to a higher purpose to all important so all-important that the harmony of life is upset but suppose that instead of consecra concentrating on an organ one fitted that organ into a pattern of living then all the uneasiness would end the skilled orator never finds his hands are awkward because being enthroned pardon me being enthused about his speech he makes his hands subordinate to their higher purpose our lord practically said the same thing be not solicitous what you shall eat so it is with the flesh cultivate a higher love a purpose of living a goal of existence a desire to correspond to all that god wants us to be and the lower passion will be absorbed by it the church applies this psychology to the vow of chastity the church asks her priests and nuns to surrender even to the law even to lawful pleasures of the flesh not because she does not want them to love but because she wants them to love better she knows that their love for souls will be greater as their love for the flesh is less just as our lord died on the cross for men because he loved his own life less nor must it be thought that the vow of chastity is a burden thompson has called it a passionless passion a wild trans tranquility and so it is a new passion is born with the vow of chest chastity the passion for the love of god it is the consolation of that higher love which makes the surrender of the lower love so easy and only when that higher love is lost does the vow begin to be a burden just as honesty becomes a burden only to those who have lost the sense of others rights you see beloved if in marriage um the higher love of god is lost the vow to chastity becomes a burden we are all bound to chastity our entire lives we're not bound to celibacy to abstinence religious are but married couples are not but they have the same chastity as religious do that is to be faithful to their profession so to a married couple you must be chaste the wife of one woman wives the wife i mean the husband of one woman excuse me the husband of one woman wives the wife of one man chaste not to have eyes for any other if you look on a woman to lust for her men and you're married you've committed adultery in your heart same thing women if you look on a man to lust for him you have committed adultery in your heart if you're already married and if you're not then you've committed fornication in your heart in either case you have not been chased if you are chase and you are chased for heaven's sake you will find it easy to never break that chastity to keep true to your wedding vows to keep true to the one man to the one woman that you are vowed to it will not be a problem for you at all so there's the music for our second break dear ones we'll come back right after this break and you're welcome to call in with anything on your heart um toll free five 1-877-511 one five four eight three or email mother at the station of the cross dot com [Music] prayer and time of affliction blessed o lord be thy name forever who has permitted this affliction to come upon us we cannot escape it but must of necessity fly to thee to help us and turn it to our good lord we are now in affliction our souls are ill at ease for we are much troubled with this present suffering let it please the o lord to deliver us for poor wretches that we are what can we do without thee thy mighty hand can do all things give us patience o lord and strength and peace help us o god and we will not fear no matter how grievously we may be afflicted o lord thy will be done welcome be the will of god sacred heart of jesus we place our trust in thee amen stand at a crossroads in history we can stand up for life family in a christian culture or we can stand idly by while the fabric of society becomes fundamentally anti-life anti-family and anti-christian slowly leading to its own demise lifesite news is the leading defender of life family in christian culture through our news reporting we seek to educate readers with information and zeal they need to fight the most crucial battles of our day and we need your help to continue that mission you can support lifesitenews by following our social media pages on facebook twitter and instagram another way to support lifesite is to prayerfully consider becoming a sustained life monthly donor to help us continue to save lives in the culture to donate visit give.lifesitenews.com forward slash sustain life our staff of over 40 and millions of future generations thank you for helping to save the culture welcome to mother miriam live on the station of the cross catholic radio network with live video streaming brought to you by lifesite news and the station of the cross call mother with your questions at 1-877-511-5483 welcome back beloved to mother miriam live i'm so thrilled to be with you this is our half hour together so feel free to call in uh toll free with anything on your heart it's 1-877-511-5483 or email it mother at the station of the cross dot com and i'm reminded to remind you of the life funder that lifesite news has so graciously set up for us we're at 32 of the need and i think 20 something days to go i don't have it up i don't know how much but um the email address is lifefunder.com l-i-f-e-f-u-n-d or all small letters lifefunder.com forward slash and then all caps the name of our community uh d for david d-o-m-m-o-i-h daughters of mary mother of israel's hope and um you can contribute to that if you wish i think it's 27 days left i've i'm i'm not counting or i lost count so um god bless all of you i give you a big hug uh who are contributed to that i think there's over 500 donors already and again we're um over 30 percent there we've got a ways to go and i just love you all who are contributing to that for our new home again we did close on a house but we're already out of the wall so it's going to become our guest house and we're looking for a much bigger house that we could take in more women while we are making plans to build a little monastery here in beloit so you got the whole story now so um i just bless all of you and thank you for partnering with us for being a part of this um enormous venture to help restore god's design for the family and reach out for the salvation of every single soul so let's see now we have a text from tony who wrote it and said in 1986 1993 and 2002 pope john paul ii organized the world days of prayer for peace in assisi italy it is my understanding that catholics are not supposed to participate in prayer events with other religions i've heard a lot of criticism of the pope for doing that can you please explain the church teachings about these and communal prayer events i will do that dear tony i i won't comment on what pope john paul ii did because um he's not alive to speak for himself and i don't know if he has um written about that uh event or or defended why it was done that way but i'm reading an article now uh by a dominican father thomas creed christendom awake who says and i agree this article seeks to offer a theological reflection on a not unknown feature of the contemporary christian world namely public divine worship performed jointly by catholics and non-catholics and he says i shall consider first by way of a historical background the traditional teaching of theologians um on communicatio in sacrifice secondly the references to communication and sacrifice and to common prayer at sacred communication communion and common prayer in vatican ii's degree decree on ecumenism and in some subsequent documents finally where the certain current practices of common prayer are theologically defensible i shall not consider the reception by catholics of sacraments and so forth we're talking just prayer here and he goes on to say the traditional teaching of catholic theology on whether catholics may participate in non-catholic religious services is summed up by saint alphonsus in his theologica theologia morales this doctor of the church writes quote it is not permitted to be present at the sacred rites of infidels and heretics in such a way that you would be judged to be in communion with them end quote and he goes on to say the reason for this teaching is clear religious commitments are naturally manifested by outward acts and to perform an outward act expressive of a false religious commitment is a sin against the true faith this is true even if the man in question retains the true faith in his heart so to take the classic example christians in the roman empire realized that they must not throw incense before a statue of the emperor even if they had no belief at all in his divinity for the act was of itself in their context expressive of such a belief and hence sinful um i'll go on one more paragraph he writes this teaching so that would say clearly that would speak clearly against what um pope emeritus saint john paul ii had done he goes on to say this teaching does not imply that the simple presence of a catholic at a non-catholic religious service is a sin not the presence thus moral theologians prior to vatican ii followed the lead of saint alphonse acknowledge that there may be a good reason for a catholic to attend such a service as when friendship leads one to attend a non-catholic wedding this is called by some theologian passive communication in zachary's passive it is an act of participation in a non-catholic religious service which is forbidden by the traditional teaching on communicatio and sacrifice for example joining in with psalms and hymns in the course of a lutheran so-called eucharist the following examples they give i won't go on with the example so can one be present at a non-catholic event uh yes but to join in with them in their prayers and in other activities is to support their belief which which a catholic cannot so tony that's my answer to your question if you ask me why saint john paul ii did what he did i cannot answer you um i believe he was a very great man but um i cannot give you the reasons why he thought it best to do that we have an email from janet who writes is there a single experience or revelation that you had in re that really solidified your belief in god for example have you ever seen any apparitions or had any once in a lifetime experiences like that thank you mother i pray for you daily and love your show thank you dear janet i've never had an apparition in my life no i have not had anybody come to me angels the blessed mother jesus saints no no no no um i've had um i could say three moments in my life that are once in a lifetime experience there are three of them and they're not um extraordinary apparent they're not apparitions or anything like that i'll tell you what the three are once when i was jewish many of you have heard this when i've shared my testimony in my jewish background i was 19 and i knew there were two people in the world jews and non-jews never knew a thing about those who weren't jewish never had a bad word nothing but the news came out when i was 19 in the middle of the miniskirt era in new york that nuns had permission to shorten their habits in the length i didn't even know the word habit but the news ripped through me an electric bolt went through me and it was my personal deep and immediate loss personally it paralyzed me for a second and a half it was my loss it had nothing to do with me i lost what wasn't mine it was an electric experience that's the end of that story but i never forgot it 26 years later listening to who i call a troublemaker called scott hahn who said that the one who will who will look into the claims of and i had been at that point an evangelical protestant for 18 years trying to save catholics he said for the one who will look into the claims of the catholic church 26 years of um i'd rather 2000 years of church teaching the church fathers and such scott said to that one will come his words a holy shock and a glorious amazement to find out that what he had been fighting and trying to save people from was in fact the very church christ established 2 000 years ago and that holy shock scott hahn's word physically ripped through me it was like an electric bolt again it paralyzed me for a second and a half and i knew at on the spot though i still couldn't fathom being catholic or believing it that holy shock was so strong that i knew if i did not look into the claims of the catholic church i'd be turning from god those two times 19 that the shortening of the habits that was my deep and immediate loss and it had nothing to do with me i thought 26 years later when i knew not only i'll tell you now in hindsight that holy shock 26 years later which is the same thing that happened when i was 19 only those two times in my life was so powerful that when i look back i know something else that happened i knew on the spot that it was true that the catholic church was true and the whole of my four and a half year agonizing search to the church was to find out how on earth it could be i knew at any point during that search if i turned from it i'd be turning from god and i entered the church in 1995. um there's something in between those two holy shocks but those were um kind of supernatural significant moments that i can't account for um unless god did it but there was one other and and that was uh in my jewish background when a group of very faithful beautiful jews for jesus evangelical protestants were trying to lead me to christ blessed god bless them forever but i thought they were insane and the night that i said to them look i have no idea what you're talking about christ died for your sins my sins the sins of the world whatever that language means i have no clue what you're talking about let's say this happened and let's just say christ's side for your sins my sin the sins of the world my question is what for what was in his mind what would a man do going to the cross and doing that what was he thinking and when i went through asking that question they took me through the sacrificial system of the old testament which i never knew through all my years in judaism they explained to me how we come into the world separated from god for original sin and if we leave the world that way we'll be separated from him for all eternity i won't go through everything that said they said that night we don't have time on this program for me to do that but basically they told me that the old testament sacrificial system told the hebrew people that without the shedding of blood there could be no remission of sin they went through the passover where the blood of the lamb was put on the doorposts that when the angel of death flew over egypt that night all the firstborn in egypt of man and beast that would be the oldest son of man and of beast would be killed but the houses that had the blood of a lamb a one-year-old male perfect lamb on the doorpost would be saved because the angel of death would see the blood and pass over that house and so the firstborn would be saved and they took me through the sacrificial system for 1500 years that god gave the jewish people through moses on mount sinai and how a lamb or bulls and goats and lambs had to be sacrificed bloodshed for the forgiveness of sin and finally how the individual every passover would come with a lamb a lamb had to be perfect without blemish without spot to represent a holy offering for a holy god it had to be one year old and perfect and the individual would take that little four-legged creature before the priest and put their hand on the head of that little lamb it would symbolize the sin passing from this individual onto that little lamb and that little lamb who was innocent but who symbolically had taken upon itself the sin of this person was that slain and the blood of that lamb shed on the altar as an offering to god for this person's sin i would say the holy shock that came from that story and the end of it i'll tell you when we come back the future of the family is grim as our lady of fatima said the final battle will be for the family it truly seems as though we're in the heat of this final battle and we need your help our mission at lifesite news is to educate and activate readers with the information they need to defend life and the family and restore christian culture we are currently the most popular pro-life website on the internet with over 40 million unique users every year and we've been experiencing an even bigger reach than ever this year but we need your help to reach more of the 7.7 billion people on earth if we are to truly succeed in changing the culture please consider donating to help our mission of promoting the culture of life and fearless defenders of the faith like mother miriam visit give.lifesight.news.com to give today thank you for your support praise be to jesus hi this is joe mcclain host of the catholic drive time morning show joining you on the station of the cross catholic radio network each weekday morning at 7 am we'll keep you informed and inspired with insightful guests and breaking news stories of the day that's the catholic drive time weekday morning 7 am on the station of the cross and the i catholic radio app we'll see you then may god love you podcasts of our network-produced shows are free for your listening pleasure at the stationofthecross.com and on our free i catholic radio app for android and apple mobile devices be uplifted in your faith and inspired to spread the good news of jesus christ listen today at the stationofthecross.com or on our i catholic radio mobile app welcome to mother miriam live on the station of the cross catholic radio network with live video streaming brought to you by news and the station of the cross call mother with your questions at [Music] 1-877-511-5483 welcome back beloved to uh mother miriam live on the station of the cross and live site news um i um just have been answering janet's email taking a little lengthy time janet said is there a single experience or revelation that you had that really solidified your belief in god for example have you ever seen any apparition or had any once in a lifetime experiences like that well there wasn't a revelation that solidified my belief in god but there were that solidified my belief in the fact that god the god of abraham isaac and jacob is one god in three persons and that he sent the second person the blessed trinity our lord jesus christ who is the messiah and god himself to earth to die for the sin that separated us from god and the the three events in my life one when i was 19 the holy shock that nun's habits would be shortened 26 years later um i think i was 46 i don't recall i think so when i was listening to scott hahn and i knew that if i did not look into the claims of the catholic church i'd be turning from god that began my journey and then finally well actually in between those two what actually led me to christ were magnificent jews for jesus missions to have a glazer above all that explained to me how not any of the old testament sacrifices system not a million lambs together could take away the sin but every lamb that every lamb was sacrificed and in a symbolic act that was transferring the sin from the individual onto the animal the animal who was innocent but who symbolically had taken upon the sin of the individual was slain to meet the requirements of the law for blood to be shed and shed on the split a shed on the altar as an offering to god for my sin and i thought why would god do that why would god put an innocent animal to death for mice and put me to death it made no sense but it began to get through to me that sin was no light issue to god that god would do that and these beautiful jews for jesus said to me that the blood of bulls and goats and lambs for two thousand year fifteen hundred years of the mosaic sacrificial system couldn't take away sin they were dead sacrifices they had no power to change the worshiper to change the heart they were ineffectual they were temporary but every one of them and all together were signed they said to point to the one who would one day come and take upon himself not the sin of a single individual for a time but the sin of the entire world for all time you know i'm looking for crucifix that we're still in temporary quarters um let me just see this this is can you see my crucifix here for my benedictine um rosary it's blessed so the sins of the entire world pass president future put our sins put on him the lamb the final lamb the passover lamb the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world and when they showed me that illustration and quoted john 1 29 when jesus walked into the jordan and john the baptist looked at him and said behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world janet that was the second time the third time was the holy shock with scott hahn but when they quoted that verse after they had taken me through the sacrificial system of the old testament for two and a half hours they pointed to the one verse the land that takes away the sin of the world the sign to which every old testament sacrifice pointed for me a curtain opened up and i knew it was true i knew it i it's almost that i saw the stage i didn't physically but i saw it in my mind's eye i said a man can't be god how could this be true a man can't be god and i realized that night i was right a man cannot be god but god if he exists can become a man and i believed it by the grace of god and it was a couple of months after that that i gave my life to him i had to shed pride and baggage and whatever i feared gave my life to that incomparable man the man the man christ jesus the god man god come to earth i've never been the same and it was 18 years later that i realized that that god the god of abraham isaac and jacob who i was raised to know that no man could look at and live not only that he can't descend to become one of us but he condescended further to become our food there's no words to ever describe it there's no length to eternity to give him enough thanks faith is a gift we have an email from priscilla that i think we may have entered into on friday but i don't know that and priscilla i want to read it again if i've already done this i want you to get a book priscilla writes to your mother how can i overcome my fear of confession and trust in god's mercy i've been struggling with going to confession recently if i fall into mortal sin i ask god to forgive me and sometimes sob out of sorrow that i have messed up again and offended god by but i'm often embarrassed to confess to a priest i put it off and put it off and put it off because of the shame i feel of telling the priest that i've fallen into the same sins again priscilla dearest one that's why christ died because we all do that we fall into the same sins over and over and over again priscilla says i know i should not feel this way and the worst sin here is probably the pride of continuing to delay this but i am an overthinker and when i'm in the confessional line i feel choked up and anxious i understand that this can be normal but the frequency that i have experienced this avoidance from confession makes me believe these feelings are from the devil well i tell you they're not from god sweetheart they're not from god i've been withholding myself from communion for about four months and it saddens me it saddens god too dear priscilla before this time i tried going to confession once a week however i noticed i was becoming scrupulous and my confessions were a bit lengthy because i include venial sins that i think are mortal don't worry about that let god judge that but you should include venial sins after confession i often fear that maybe i was not specific enough in the type of sin so it might not be forgiven um there's two books i want to uh urge you to get just in case the program ends i'm going to stop to give you those two sins one is called scrupulosity and the saints scrupulosity and the saints the second one is called um let me get the title uh seven secrets of confession so number one scrupulosity and the saints the second one is seven secrets of confession by vinnie flynn i think i reviewed that i might even have a review in the book seven secrets of confession if you ever want a book that understands what you're going through read that book um it will it will convince you that you not only are you are not alone not only are your thoughts normal but it'll help you to go to confession um priscilla writes um oh you see i knew i wouldn't get it um get through it but this is the third try i've had so dear one uh understand that there's no such thing as a priest who hasn't heard every sin in the world and the fact is you might be surprising a mortal man which you will not be but you're not surprising god he knows if you never confess a thing he knows your life he knows your heart he died for your every sin he loves you he wants you to receive the grace of confession and the eucharist he wants you to do that don't hurt his heart sweetheart go to confession forget there's a man there to jesus he loves you he will forgive you we'll speak with you all tomorrow dear ones you

Channel: The Station of the Cross

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Id: 0jIsJUKc0Oc

Length: 57min 14sec (3434 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 01 2021