Seeing Clearly

can't you just feel it the conflict is becoming apparent in our culture it reminds me of those words of john paul ii we're now living in the final confrontation between the gospel and the anti gospel between the church and the anti church between Christ and the Antichrist and if we don't choose to know God's Word to believe God's Word to follow God's Word we're gonna be a sitting duck for all kinds of confusion all kinds of disorder those are really important choices that people have to make and these choices are difficult who am I going to marry what kind of life am I going to live how am I going to raise my kids what am I going to do with my time my talent and my treasure and have to make a choice today Jesus says to each one of us I came that you might have life and have it to the full the question is do we want it [Music] [Applause] you welcome friends her back we're here again with another week of choices we face and I'm really delighted to be able to introduce to you a good friend of fantastic priest father Mark goring was a member of the Companions of the cross and he is besides you know loving the Lord with all his heart as a good priest he's also a surfer a skateboarder a motocross guy and a passionate preacher the gospel and welcome father mark thank you good to be here I forgot to mention you're the pastor of st. Mary's Parish in Ottawa now right that's right okay great well I thought it'd be good today for people just get to know you a little bit I know you've got a very popular YouTube was a program how do you say you to be to have a YouTube channel channel so you got your own YouTube channel and it's it's really quite good and you touched a lot of lives and so there's quite a few people out there who know you but let's start with your story yeah yeah well I grew up in a good Catholic family and we went to church every Sunday I went to Catholic school but as a young teenager I just stopped believing in God and I guess what happened is it just seemed like thinking people just all knew that God doesn't exist you know like the the academic world the the entertainment interesting it just seemed like this whole thing of believing in God and worshiping God was kind of for more superstitious uneducated know type people and and especially for me I guess as a young teenager I was quite a thinking person already and you know just like there's all these different religions like what makes me think mine is better than any other one and also it seemed like the world of psychology was saying that everything we experienced like these you know religious experiences that can all be explained by psychology or sociology or whatever and so it just seemed like for me to believe in God was was it was a bit of an intellectual suicide and and I guess my experience too with with with Church was more kind of ritual you know you go to church on Sunday you put in your hour and and that's it and and you know there wasn't kind of an experience of the Living God at week you know weekly mass and even at school I mean we were taught things but the experience of God just wasn't a reality and so but what happened is is and I wasn't one of these kind of you know proud atheist for me it's like it's kind of you know bleak when you're thinking that the reality of who I am is consciousness because of brain waves and one day the brain waves will stop and it's over the this you know reality of Who I am what will just cease to be and and again that outlook I gets it's it's not you know very hopeful but it didn't it wasn't really a big issue until you know maybe you're 1314 ish when I started to have to make some moral decisions about how I was gonna live my life you know and you know what one of the big decisions of course was the whole question of getting into premarital marital sex you know because at that age my buddies were talking about what either what they were wanting to do with their girlfriends or doing with their girlfriends and things like that and you know I was at an age where that was you know kind of really interesting me too and and I just I had to make a decision like what road am I gonna go down you know and am I gonna go down you know if it feels good do it sex drugs and rock and roll you know or am I gonna try to live a virtuous life according to the teachings of the church and and I mean it seems like could be a wall to no brainer obviously you don't believe in God so go down the road of you know if it feels good do it but already at that young age I had enough life experience to know that if I go down the wide and easy road of if it feels good do it and gratify your appetites or whatever I knew that that road would not fulfill me like I knew it would leave me empty you know and it was is that this is frustration where like I want to be happy like I want to be fulfilled I want peace and I know that if I go down the self gratifying road of you know whatever it's it's gonna leave me empty I know that how did you know that at 13 fortune your friends need to know it yeah well just I guess I guess just enough experiences where you again you you gratify your appetite so you do the thing that you think is gonna make you so happy you go to the party or you get the new dirt bike or the you know the new toilet and it just it doesn't deliver it if anything it typically leaves you even more empty you know like I yeah maybe it was maybe it was a grace of God but the thing is my other option was to to be a good little Catholic and say I don't believe in God and so it's almost like well that's not an option so I decided to talk to my dad about it and I wasn't explicit I mean I didn't say hey I don't believe in God and I wanna have sex but you know what should I do you know but but the way I put it is my family would oftentimes pray the rosary so one night after the rosary I just said to my dad I said that like I don't mind praying the rosary like this it doesn't bother me but I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall and I said is that normal like is being Catholic just they you go to church you say your prayers you follow the rules and hopefully if there's a heaven you got to heaven and I said or or I asked my dad I said or can you actually experience God like kind of communicate like no he's real can he you know affect touch your life and that's when my dad his answer was yeah you can experience God and if you want to learn about experiencing God you should learn about the saints and then he told me about people like Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Teresa of Avila and you know st. brother Andre up in Canada he wasn't a canonized Saint yeah then but dad what a good dad yeah yeah and he had a couple little Saint books and he you know suggested one or two and I started reading them and it changed my life forever you know I mean it it began yeah I opened my heart to the Lord as I read these books there was just this kind of I mean there was a lot going on at a lot of levels one of them was that just the fact that my dad explained to me listen before a saint is canonized there's a very thorough process so like someone like Saint Padre Pio if that stuff isn't made up like it's all the church just bakes up these wild stories to convince people if anything it's the opposite the church is extremely careful and skeptical and cautious and they will want to verify things and I'll take years and so he says if the church canonized is someone it's because the guy is legit and so to learn that the church was so careful and so you know rational you could say reasonable with its you know investigating Saints and yet acknowledging that there is you know signs from God in a reality of God it gave me a respect you know for the church and then also the supernatural like I guess God is real if you know someone like Saint Padre Pio wrestles with demons and has a stigmata and people are healed through his prayers and and what that led to like for example Saint Padre Pio he said that the key to the heart of God is prayer and so you know I'm reading this as a teenager I'm like okay you know I'm gonna start praying to God you know not in kind of the mechanical way like I used to but really yeah I mean if if God's real I'm in it I'm gonna try to talk to it like I want to know and so that was kind of my prayer you know I mean what did it what did it look like and sound like if a teenager well believe it or not again because my formation was so limited and I at that point too had begun to read scriptures so I you know when Jesus was asked how to pray he said when he prays say our Father who art in heaven so I just prayed every night before going to bed the Lord's Prayer they our Father but very very slowly you know cuz I one of the things I knew is if God is real he probably doesn't want us babbling prayers like just kind of mechanically going through prayers they keep but he actually probably wants us to mean what we say and so I prayed the Our Father and he are the others I prayed it very slowly but the other thing from a saint was Saint brother Andre he said when you he says God is so close to us only a thin veil hides him and he says so when you pray the Our Father God the Father his ear is right next to you lips and that image just caught my imagination and so when I prayed the Our Father I would imagine that God yeah he's actually listening to me oh and and that's when you know the transformation began to happen in my life and then one one kind of experience that to kind of show what was happening in my life I would pray every night sometimes for a long time like again I was thirsty for God and hunger and for him and as I prayed you know it led me to repentance and things like that but I remember one night I was laying in bed after my prayer time and for me typically as a teenager nighttime was a time of being sad of having trouble falling asleep maybe being I know anxious and depressed temptations fears it was a time of darkness it was like that for a long time you know and maybe years and it was just I gotten used to that nighttime was a time of darkness but that particular night I was laying in bed after my prayer time and I just noticed there's none of that darkness I in it was the opposite it's like I was happy like I'm laying in bed and I'm happy and none of that dark stuff is is not only is it not even here it didn't even seem to be around anywhere like it seemed to be gone you know and and it was so real that I actually started thinking about my day wondering did something happen today that's that's making me so happy and I couldn't think of anything and and and it's like this this happiness it was like it was deep deep inside of me and it was it was this I know what I know I understand to be joy you know it was a deep deep joy but but I felt like kind of like a a warmth like a fire but it was so so peaceful I think it wasn't emotional it wasn't like I was all you know worked up or a more I would I felt so peaceful and joyful and it was like a fire and then and again I knew enough from Mike at ism you know growing up that I thought I think this is the Holy Spirit yeah inside of me you know and and and then the scripture I learned the scripture where Jesus said he'd only pray go to your room close the door and pray to your father in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you and I I really believe that my father who sees in secret rewarded me by driving the darkness out of my heart and replacing it with his light and his presence in His Holy Spirit you know like I it mean it took a while for me to kind of clue in it's like wait a minute like God is true to his promises yeah and and and again my seeking him it really was sincere I wasn't asking for a new bike I wasn't you know like it really was it's like God if you're real I really do want to know you and and I want to love you and you know there's also that element of like eternal life like the idea of when I die the brainwave stopped my consciousness ends and that's it like it's that's a lot more bleak than the idea that you know when you die if you've had faith in Jesus and loved him you spend all of eternity with your father in heaven where there's no tears no pain I mean who doesn't want that so there was also that element of like Who am I what's the meaning of my life what's much my destiny and that it changed everything for me old were you when I was around 14 15 ish that's yeah that's great that's a blessing I was thinking the passage of Jesus said I'm the light of the world he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of Life yeah you can see that promise being fulfilled in your life as yeah and you began to follow him yeah you made that decision yeah you made concrete steps you know those who were able to do at 13 14 years old yeah it's inspired you your dad inspired yeah you kind of pressed in you're battling the darkness and eventually the Lord fulfills his promise yes yeah so after high school mm-hmm what'd you do I did a year of computer engineering and during that year I mean I loved working with computers it was at the time where the the internet was just starting up so there was like tons of money to be made in a high-tech but it was just one of those things like I'm a bit of a passionate guy you know when I tend to put my heart into whatever I do and you know like everyone else I I knew I had certain gifts you know and during that year of Engineering I just felt like I don't know if I want to give the my all of Who I am like put my heart into making a high tech stock go up you know to make the internet available to the whole world not like there's anything wrong with that but I just because I'm a I'm a wholehearted person I just I thought like if I got one life you know one life and it's pretty short you know compared to eternity and I just felt like if I'm gonna do something in life my heart is really like i'm in love with god and i III want everyone to know God I believe Jesus needs to be proclaim and and I that's where my heart was and it became clear during that first year of Engineering and so I joined the seminary was it the Companions yeah yeah I I found out about the Companions of the Cross part of my conversion as I was you know seeking God as I came across a little charismatic prayer group and I had a big impact on my life and they introduced me to some of father Bob Bernards writings he's the founder of the Companions of the Cross and I was deeply impressed with his writings like he was so real and and he had such a faith like hehe it's like he spoke like like no one else you know I around me you know and and so when I went for my engineering studies I went to his parish which is the parish I'm at right now st. Mary's Parish yeah now Astor yeah about that um and I got to know him a bit and I just told him where I was I said I'm studying engineering like I love it but I I think I might be called to the priesthood you know and and he said well why don't you why don't you join us for a year see what you know see if we see if it fits you know and that's when it was like whoa now it's not just you know fantasizing or daydreaming about becoming a priest now it's like do I do I do it or do I not do I do I join the seminary or not and it you know a huge decision but I I mean I I prayed after he invited me to join for a year and it was just such a deep peace in a sense that yeah God is doing something right now you know through the Companions of the cross we had all these young seminarians a lot of fervor and you know conversions at st. Mary's is a real fire there and I just felt it's the Lord is saying like I'm doing something just like I've done things over the ages this is something I'm doing now and I want you to be part of it and so I joined I remember father Bob too got arrested so he was such an inspiring he's yeah it was very inspiring and he was also hilarious yeah yeah so funny you know but tell our listeners a bit about the companions yeah new new order of priests founded I think officially in 1985 and we we're kind of unique in that were we're charismatic we flawed of the charismatic renewal but we also are very kind of loyal to the Magisterium of the church so I kind of describe us as conservative charismatic so you know and and our focus is on on evangelizing proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord he's the savior the world and you can know him and he if you allow him he he'll fill you with His Holy Spirit and change your life so kind of focusing on the charismatic preaching but we also as a community it's a community of priests we live in community and so for us community life isn't just kind of a sideline or a you know accidental thing but it's part of our mission you know of loving one another as as brothers in Christ and and so we say the quality of our ministry flows out of the quality of our life together and it's I love my community you know like it's not it's not humble to say I have the best I'm in the best community in a row but I kind of feel that way you know like I really love like father Barbour founder he was you know totally in love with God again love for the church and the church is teaching but just a an easygoing chill guy and saw a community like one of the things father Bob told us he says listen we need to take God seriously but let's not take ourselves too seriously and so that it's kind of what's nice about our community is you know you got guys totally in love with the Lord want to preach Jesus you know see the see the you know pentecost happening today but just guys who are real down to earth you know they're they're a set of pillars or something that you guess yeah the four the four pillars it was so charismatic so we believe in ministering in the power of the holy spirit using the charisms of the holy spirit that the holy spirit gives to us were Eucharistic so we you know emphasize the lord's presence in the Eucharist through you know fervent and reverent celebration of mass but also Eucharistic Adoration were Marian so you know we're entrusted to the Blessed Virgin Mary we we know that the Lord gave her to us from the cross so we entrusted to our Blessed Mother and also we're Magisterial so we believe in the you know the the teaching of the church you know we we don't want to compromise you know what the Church teaches if someone's listening to the program they want to know more about the companions maybe a young guy is listening to the program and say oh I'd like to learn more about them how can they get in touch with you guys yeah I think our websites companions cross.org you know they can check out our web site and apparently I don't spend a lot of time looking at different websites but I've seen our website a lot of people say I want your website I love it you know so apparently our website is a good introduction to the Companions of the Cross we also have a youtube channel which has some introductory videos and where they can just come visit us in our seminary in Detroit or other locations very good now we were talking yesterday a little bit about some of the things you're passionate about and you're passionate about a lot of things yeah one of the things you were talking about was the the battle that churches both evangelistic mission and extending the gospel in a secular world and how do you how do you talk to people who just have turned away from the Lord or turned away from the gospel or yeah yeah well I mean everyone's different you know so I don't think it's a one-size-fits-all but I guess like you know you can't give what you haven't got and and the the thing is is my my story is I didn't believe in God and I didn't believe in God because of the secularism that you know the agnosticism and what kind of rocked my world was kind of the signs God gives you know so you know the Saints but also you know like I'm just fascinated for example by Eucharistic miracles like there's been some recent Eucharistic miracles that have been met you know medically scientifically verified it's it's mind-boggling it's like you know God's example for example so KOCO in Poland you a consecrated host fell to the ground they did what they were supposed to do they put it in a receptacle of water and then an in the the safe where the chalices are kept so that it could completely dissolve and in a week they would take the dissolved water and you know poured whatever in our lady's rose bush or whatever came back a week later that the host hadn't dissolved but at the center there was flesh and so pretty mean flush flush you know how did they know well the the the nun the sacristy and when she opened the safe to check on the host a week later again assuming it would be completely dissolved so when she opened the safe the the safe the first thing she noticed was the waft of fresh-baked bread okay that's weird and then she looked in the host wasn't dissolved but but at the center it was red now she didn't know it was flash but she's like okay why is why is it red at the center and why does it not look like consecrated bread well you know and and you know how the church works they take their time they wait but eventually they had the consecrated host with the red in the center scientifically analyzed again this is just a few years ago so by just the leading you know those forensic type and whatever you call those people like you on and see I asked the Talia water exactly so those people and they said what you're dealing with is is you know bread structure wedded to flesh flesh of the heart of a man and they can think wow they can Tower I don't know how but they say the flesh of someone who's about to die that's that they can tell that you know and in the first day I was like what is this he told what did you get this yeah exactly where did you get there's a and and for them the two things I mean the whole thing is mind boggling but two things that particularly mind-boggling is the bread a lot of the bread it hadn't dissolved in the water and they say like that doesn't make sense because the molecular structure as soon as it water hits it it falls apart and that didn't happen but also how the bread was wedded to the flesh and they were looking at this with electron in light microscopes and they're saying like no science can unite flesh structure with bread structure that you can that can be observed at a molecular level and and they were just they were blown away you know they're saying this is it and you know the cool thing about that one is other Eucharistic miracles where the consecrated bread just becomes heart tissue of a man someone could say well some doctor just took a little slice of heart put it in and everyone believes it's a miracle okay but what about this one it's not it's a host it's a consecrated host that's has heart tissue now at the center you United to it like okay help us understand I know this is somewhat of a mystery so what's that what's the message what's the Lord saying yeah yeah why don't know why that's what's important quiet you know place that hardly anybody can see you know what I mean like yeah what is the Lord doing through all that yeah well I mean I mean he's screaming to the world that he died for us again it's the heart of a dying man he died out of love for us and he gives us his living beating heart you know like at mass it's Valentine's Day every day the Lord you know he comes to us I mean II look at the story of the gospel God becomes man is stripped and beaten and is crucified out of love for us says Father forgive them they don't know what they're doing and then his heart is pierced and as it explodes blood and water gushes forth like what's he telling us like I love you know I'm dying to to be united to you and in a you he comes to us and we come to him there's there's that there's that flesh Union you know that that intimate Union you know with with the God who loves us more than we could ever describe you know st. Faustina she tried to describe the unfathomable love of God you know with the grace of God and the Lord even told her you know you've you've expressed some of it but it still doesn't express how much I love you brother Marc thank you so much for being with us it's very powerful I didn't know we were going to talk about that and Christmas miracle but I'm glad we did yeah friends the Lord is alive he's present he's active and he's changing lives the Lord loves you the Lord knows you what he died for you and he wants you to know that love and it's that love that will change your life and friends I want to offer you this new booklet I just wrote called unfailing promises the scripture is full of the promises of God and God is good he speaks the truth and he's got the power to fulfill every promise that he gives and he says I'm with you always until the end of the age he said at one point based on our subject today we ended up talking about my body is real food and my blood is real drink and he wants to feed us and he wants to feed you because he loves you if you'd like a copy this booklet you can just write to the address on the screen or call the 800 number until next week disappear Herbeck and father mark's saying let's walk in the Lord with all our heart soul mind and strength god bless you we live in unsettling and challenging times people everywhere reaching for an anchor something that's true something they can hold on to st. Peter tells us we can find this security and what he called the precious and very great promises of God the Bible is filled with promises that come directly from the heart of a loving father and they've all been fulfilled for us in Christ I've written this booklet unfailing promises to help you lay hold of promises that will give you the hope and strength needed in the face of any and every kind of trial to receive a free copy please visit our website or call the number on screen [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Renewal Ministries

Views: 28,378

Rating: 4.9524565 out of 5

Keywords: Christianity, Jesus, Christ, Evangelism, Mission, Spirituality, Evangelization, Religion, Catholic, Church, God, Trinity

Id: ONoedhSxNOw

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Fri May 29 2020