Sr. Miriam James - Upper Room Conference 2019

can we do this one for now how about here for now okay all right I just want to say that I'm not usually in a place where there's three of us that hosts that podcast where there's a two-thirds of us are here today so Heather Kim can you please stand and welcome yeah come on girl yeah there she is there she is so it's a delight it's a distinctive light to UM to come to Canada so hello thank you for having me I'm delighted to be here and I live in the great nation of Texas now but I am your neighbor to the south so I'm the Pacific Northwest or Southwest I guess would be for you so I grew up in the Portland Oregon Seattle Washington area and right now in Texas all the nuns are still melting because it's so hot so I had I was able to be in Seattle last weekend and here this weekend and he did you go outside today oh my gosh we just say how blessed you are I mean I I just absolutely love it so I was out when I was it was raining actually what just rain is my love language because I grew up in Washington State but um I was oh hey there we go thank you so much so last week when I was in Seattle I was standing outside and it was misting and it was the fall weather and I was just standing out there just like this and they're like there's something seriously wrong with that girl you know and I'm like no this is beautiful here we are I mean here we are on the you know the state of Washington in this part of the country you know we all wear flannel we're depressed we drink coffee that's what we do and every Catholic knows that's the eighth sacrament okay so and speaking of after lunch I'm hope to actually keep you awake and so I as I was listening this morning and I got up very early this morning because that's what nuns do and I was praying for you and I've been asking the Lord because when I was asked to come to this conference I was invited a year ago and I've been just pondering it ever since and thinking about the theme of the conference and I speak across you know the nation and internationally extensively on a lot of different topics and to a lot of different audiences but I've never ever ever in my entire life ever given the same talk twice ever because every single person is encountered in a different way so as I was praying for you and thinking about the theme of the conference because I was asked to come you've been hearing about the upper room right the upper room where we encountered the Holy Spirit and were sent were baptized and sent to go out I was asked to speak to you today about the inner room because it's the inner room that we go to first we go to the inner room to the extent that we go to the upper room because we can't go to the upper room unless we go to the inner room we go to the upper room to proclaim Christ we go to the interim to be claimed by Christ and that's what we're gonna do today so as I was praying for you today I was just praying for you recently and I was asking Jesus I said Lord what do you you you love these people they are they are your children and you love them and what what do you want them to know what do you want them to know today and I had the distinct just experience it being just overwhelmed by his love for you and he said to me two things and this is what we're gonna talk about today he said I want them to know that they are known and that they are loved so that's what we're gonna talk about today is about you being known at the deepest levels and being loved at the deepest levels and how we go out and know and love other people is because you and I are known and loved first okay so since we're Catholic we can do this I'm gonna have you stand okay so so if you have something in your hands I'm just gonna ask you to set it down and I'm just gonna invite you right now just take a deep breath okay just take a deep breath just breathe in all the way out okay let's do that again breathe all the way in all the way out okay so nice and tall shoulders back okay I'm gonna give me your mom for a second and breathe all the way in and all the way out and I just want to invite you right now my dear brothers and sisters just to bring to the Lord whatever is on your heart right now whatever it is whether it's something you heard today or something that you're thinking about but whatever that is if it's important to you it's important to him because he loves you so let's just be very attentive to the one who loves you within and I'm just going to start with some moments of silence and I just want to invite you right now just to bring to the Lord whatever is on your heart right now and then I'll make more of a formal prayer and we'll be on our way this afternoon okay so here we go and the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit God Father Son and Holy Spirit we come before you this afternoon as your children as your sons and daughters who are fearfully and wonderfully made in your image and likeness and father I ask that you would reveal your face to us that we would allow ourselves to be known by you and that we would know you heart to heart we ask you Jesus the one who is sent the one who claims Lord Jesus I pray you would claim every part of our hearts our souls our bodies and our minds that we would allow ourselves to be claimed by you and to rest in you and we asked you Holy Spirit you who blue as a fire through the room of apostles I pray that you would blow through our hearts as a fire to purify all the ways we turn away from you melt anything frozen warm anything chill quell any fear come Holy Spirit now you are welcome here and Mother Mary you who are Mother you who are with the first evangelist he who would literally bore Christ within you intercede for us pray for us watch over us and we turn to you right now as a family and we pray hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen Our Lady of victory pray for us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen you may have a seat so as I was listening this morning I was listening to just didn't we have wonderful speakers this morning can we just give them a hand yes I just so beautiful and so I was listening to the archbishop begin this this morning and he was speaking about the necessity to be anteriorly attached to Jesus Christ and he spoke about the Paschal mystery the the suffering death and resurrection of Christ where you and I find meaning in our life where we find our direction where we find our joy where we find our home and we heard cardinal Dolan about the necessity of discipleship and what it means to be a disciple and it's not just somebody who's a student because the root of that word D is C means student it means learner but as we were listening to him he was explaining that it's not just about being a student because see the disciples with Christ didn't go home after school they lived with the master so much so that in the East when you study under a master your your your characteristics you know how people say after a while when you're married you start to look like each other you know that your characteristics are so just so close to one another that people can look at you and they can say I know who your master is I've had experiences meeting people from different parts of the family across the country at different conferences and when somebody will come to me and say hey you met my sister in LA and I'll talk to that person for a while and I'm like I know exactly who you're talking about cuz ya'll do have the same mannerisms you know and he talked about what what are the characteristics of discipleship when we're disciple income buddy that were in conversation with them and where we share meals with them and we heard Brett talk about this the upper room that were baptized and sent and why are we doing like why are we here so if I could just back up and could take that whole thing and just want to kind of hold that here and if I could just back up just a second and we can go to to the heart level I want to talk about what it means to be known and to be loved because it's there when we talk about a zeal for something the zeal comes from inside I guarantee you evangelized already on either Facebook or Instagram today right because what the good is diffusive of itself when you are captivated by something can you not help but share it it just comes out of you if you've ever met a young couple in love do they not glow they're just glowing and they can't stop talking about their beloved they're the one that they love it just comes out of them and that's what Christ does with us he comes and he speaks to the deepest places of who we are and it's in that foundation it's in the depth of who we are it's in the inner room where he encounters us and it's here where all is made known all is made known because see for us to be credible witnesses my dear friends is not that we're perfect because when we talk about perfection you and I will never be of a lack of defect this side of heaven but we can we talk about the fullness of perfection we can talk about the fullness of what it means to be human where all of our hearts are claimed by Christ every part of our story is claimed by Christ especially and including can I just say to you the deepest areas of poverty the peripheries that are right here because we've got some deep peripheries and do you not in your life and my life and whether it's in your personal life whether it's in your family it's in your marriage it's in that your churches it's in my religious community it's in my own heart it's and what we see where we had these deep areas of poverty and our lives and sometimes all we can do is sit by the roadside begging so to speak and asking Lord Jesus son of David have mercy on me and you know what the Lord does in those places he comes and he sits right next to you and I and he claims he claims every single part of our lives for himself because we belong to him and that to be able to stand up to be able to stand up and have our wounds no longer be instruments of torture or sign our ashamed signs of shame but through the Paschal mystery through the suffering death and resurrection of Christ his wounds are no longer instruments of torture their instruments of glory it's how the disciples knew him you know we see the story of Thomas we know that story very very well where you know he rises from the dead and the disciples have epically failed him and if you've ever had a relationship where the relationship has been severed and you can't reconcile doesn't it make you like sick to your stomach sometimes and the person won't return your phone call they won't text you back you're blowing up their phone they will not have anything to do with you and you just feel sick inside and I would have to imagine that's how the disciples felt you talk about being known and loved they know exactly what their life has been like with Christ and they know that when he needed them the most they failed him and what happens is that Jesus comes what does he comes he comes as a savior who seeks them out he comes through their lock doors literally and what does he do he comes through their locked doors and the first thing he offers them is Shalom peace but the peace is not just an absence of my dear friends the definition of that word when he says it is rightly restored relationships that he comes in search of you and I he comes to the peripheries of our heart so that our hearts are claimed by him so that we go to the inner room and then we when we go to the interim the depth to which we go to the inner room is the depth you and I go out to the nation's because we know who we are it was very interesting you know we've heard a lot about Pope Francis and John Paul the second and Pope Benedict and they're on my list too I'm gonna talk about them also but I was very been captivated lately by Pope John Paul the second Saint John Paul the second very first encyclical the very first thing he wrote it's called the Redeemer of man redemptor hominis Redeemer of man and he wrote that right after he became Holy Father in 1979 and the church is you know had gone through an upheaval and John Paul the first had passed away very suddenly and very unexpectedly and John Paul the second wrote this encyclical kind of like laying out with what's happening in the church right now after the Second Vatican Council what's happening in society it's a very astute for that time a very astute in even now laying out of the like what are the signs of the times but the very first sentence of that entire encyclical the very first the first sentence says this he says the Redeemer of man Jesus Christ is the center of the universe and of history the center and it's true he's the center of the objective the objective universe an objective history but he's also the center of our universe in our history when you know you look at we talk about Christ being a cornerstone has recently talked about a cornerstone you talk about Christ being a cornerstone the cornerstone of the building is the the where the foundation is laid and every other stone in that building is laid in relation to the cornerstone so when Christ is the center of our life he is the center of my University as the center of my history every other part of my life will be laid in relation to that stone and that's how it has to be so john paul ii he says this and this is really interesting when you talk about being known and loved he says the man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly and not just in accordance with immediate partial often superfish and even illusory standards and measures of his being he must so beautiful he must with his unrest with his uncertainty and even with his weakness and his sinfulness with his life and his death he must draw near to Christ he must so to speak enter into Jesus with all his own self you and I must draw near to Christ and this is exactly what happens is that he comes to us and the word became flesh and tabernacled pitched his tent among us a man like us and all things but sin so he's taken on every temptation you pat he's taken on every brokenness you've had he he comes to be one with us because he doesn't want to be a part and do we not with the ones we love do we do we not want to be with them you know sometimes just the people that know you that love you very much sometimes you can spend just time together you don't say anything just being in the presence of the one that you love and that's what john paul ii is saying here that you and i with all of our own story with it's it's not the edited version it's the whole story where we draw near to christ and we must allow ourselves to be transformed by him and what happens when you and i look within when we go to the inner room is that we find that he is there already and that's what happens in her baptism we are ontologically changed forever marked forever marked as belonging to christ as belonging to god we are his son his daughter and there's nothing there's nothing that could have ever happened to you nothing that you could ever do to ever erase that mark it's indelible it's an ontological change that's why we put a white gown on a person they're not the same person that they were when they entered the church is when they left they're brand new and from that reality from that basic reality being baptised we become a temple of the Holy Spirit where God dwells God dwells within us and I often when I speak I often quote CS Lewis I'm a huge CS Louis fan and one of his beautiful sermons he's a sermon called the weight of glory and in that sermon it's very it's very interesting to think of and maybe some of you heard me say this before but he quotes and he says you know aside from the Blessed Sacrament itself so aside from Jesus Christ's body blood soul and divinity he said aside from the Blessed Sacrament itself your neighbor your neighbor so the person right now sitting on your right and in your left is the holiest thing presented to your senses now if you live with them and you saw them before coffee this morning maybe that wasn't happening okay so but your neighbor is the holiest thing presented to your senses and then he says this and if your neighbor is a Christian it is almost the same thing because Christ Himself dwells within him Christ himself now imagine in your life in my life if we allowed that reality to just to permeate the depths of who we are that it is Christ himself but every single person every single person ever created is completely unique precious and unrepeatable there will never be another dr. Peter Kreeft wonderful Catholic philosopher aces were artists because God is why do we love artistry why don't we love creativity why did we love beauty I don't know what kind of beauty set your heart on fire but why do we love that why does it make our heart sing is because we're made an image like image and likeness of a God who is an artist oh he's an artist and his beauty is just gratuitous I remember reading an article many years ago remember that at the airplane that it crashed in it was that I think it left high pay and it was never found again like it crashed into this day that nobody's found it and there was like for months months and months and months that scientists looked for the airplane they were scanning the bottom of the ocean looking for the airplane into this day they'd never found it but I was reading an article that was very fascinating and what what scientists did find is they found many things along the ocean floor but one of the things they found in particular was a school of fish that had never been seen before at the bottom of the ocean they found a school of fish and they took you know just a fish to the surface and when they got them to the surface they realized these fish had never been seen before and the fish there's no light at the bottom of the ocean okay but when they got that fish to the surface the fish were brilliantly colored like a rainbow it was like of course they would be because that's what God would do just gratuitous beauty gratuitous and do we not in that reality do we not in that reality that foundation of who we are do we not to be known and to be loved is that not our his desire where Jesus comes to dwell he comes to commune he pitches his tent like we said he Tabernacles among us because he wants to be with us and he longs he longs to take every single part of your heart and my heart into himself to transform it so there's no part out here because we're not living this life over here and this part over here he comes to make us whole and that's sweet that's what healing is it's making us whole and we see that very beautifully the Archbishop mentioned the the woman at the well John chapter 4 today and we seen that story this beautiful story of Christ encountering a woman like he encounters you and I at a while and what happens is he takes her from this you know basic you know kind of encounter and he asks her a question like he asks you and I question every day I love it he comes to sit at the well of our souls and he says to you and me and every to me you and me every day and he says to us give me a drink give me a drink that the Savior comes in thirst of you and I and sometimes I think our reaction is oh no Lord not this not like that and that's not that I give it like not that or we're kind of busy or we have things going on in our life where we think well you know I've already talked to the Lord about that and he comes he's such a guy I was one of my favorite things about him he's just so kind he's so kind and what does he do with that woman at the well is he reveals his knowledge of her and from that knowledge he reveals himself you see the Christology rising as they have an interaction and she says what do you you know who are you would you asking me a Samaritan woman for a drink you know just against all sort of societal and cultural norms and they go up this ladder of like you know I said if you knew who was asking you if you know it was that pretty much what he's saying like if you if you know who is asking you you would have asked him and he would have given you living water and this she's talks it it's just very interesting conversation and then he says you know once you go call your husband and she says I don't have a husband and he says I know and you see even this context of him knowing her at the deepest levels he's like I know you don't her you've had you've had five and the one you have now is not your husband and you can just see her heart as a woman as a woman to have that called out because she's going to the well at noon because nobody else wants to be around her so she's by herself like do we not have those peripheries in our hearts all of us have those peripheries in our hearts where we feel all alone and we feel like we have to go to the well at noon and there's you know if you've ever been to a 12-step meeting one of the best things you're gonna hear in those rooms is this we're only as sick as our secrets we're only as sick as our secrets and we have a lot of secrets and that was her secret and Jesus encounters her and she he calls the truth out in her in a way that in his way the way his masculine heart opens her heart up and he just says it to her in such deep love and her responses sir I see you're a prophet and then she says you know there's said that we will worship on this mountain that there would be a date when the Messiah comes and the Messiah will tell us everything we want to know and he looks and he says it's me it's me it's through the knowing her and what happened this is biblical what happens when she realizes she's known at the deepest level and that she's loved and she has the truth called out why because she's sick there and his desire for hers to be well and what happens from that in her room encounter what does she do she leaves her jar at the well and she goes out and she evangelizes the whole town and she says come come see a man who told me everything I've ever done come see and the whole town comes out there and what did they say later on they say we believe not because you said it you said it but we believe not because you said it because we encountered in him we encountered him ourselves and that's exactly how it works but for in order for that to happen at a sufficiently deep level you and I must allow him to encounter us at our wells there's a really beautiful woman that I've been encountering lately and a lot of her writings and her name is Mother Mary Francis when she was an Abbess for many years at a poor Claire monastery in in New Mexico and she was writing a beautiful letter to her sisters about brideship and about healing of the bride and just the spousal nature of Christ but she said this and I just want to offer this to you about being understood and being known by the Lord and she says this she says we all long to be understood and by Jesus we are completely understood all the time far better than we even understand ourselves this should be a tremendous consolation to us the things that affect us that can hurt us that can be difficult for us that may seem very small to other people and that we could not even explain to our we couldn't even explain to others are perfectly understood by him the things that mean especially much to me as the person that he has made are perfectly understood by him the interior struggles that I have that perhaps no one else can understand are perfectly understood by him and this is our best security I think one of the most beautiful and one the most difficult things about relationships many times is when either were understood or were not understood and if you've ever had somebody come and you share your heart with them and you open your heart to them and they listen and they listen very attentively and they're not texting they're not doing something else but they're they're receiving you know there's this power of presence where they're receiving you and you know that they understand you at the deepest level and maybe they didn't even say anything but after you finish your story after you open that well of your heart to somebody and they they get you so to speak and they receive you does not bring a depth of consolation where you can rest and being at home and knowing that you're loved and known because I think one of the most typical things we have in our life is when we feel like people don't understand like you talked to somebody or like men you just don't get me like you don't get it like just stop you don't get it you know you don't you don't understand and I wonder sometimes my dear friends if we feel like the Lord doesn't understand and what he does this is why we must know the Scriptures what he does reveal is that he understands because he's become he's have been a man like us and all things buts enemies taken on our sin right to bring us into communion with him he comes to restore us to the Father because that's where we belong he comes to bring us home so in this understanding in this knowing is a great security because it's there where Christ dwells and when I know that it's but I understand so a God understands me so you guys just have to get over it's not like that it's that I'm understood at the deepest level why so I can allow his heart to come transform me and when his heart transforms me then what I'm doing is I'm able to know and love others in the love and the knowledge that he gives me so that he knows us oh he knows us and he sits right there with us it's very interesting if you read the genesis you know Genesis you talk about the story of salvation history and kind of you know the creation of Adam and Eve and the fall of Adam and even kind of what came after that and then Christ you know the Lord sending God sending his son as a savior to save us in Genesis I believe at 16 Genesis 16 chapter 8 there's a story of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 16 where Abraham has been promised a great nation and inheritance it there's numerous as the stars in the sky you can't even count them and Abraham and Sarah are very old and God has made a promise that seems just completely illogical and what happens is they kind of like you and I at time as we hear the promises of the Lord and we hear it but we grow impatient and what happens from that point is where Sarah doesn't or Sarah at the time doesn't really believe that you know what's gonna happen so she gives to Abraham her slave girl Hagar to have the inherit the son you know the child who would gain the inheritance and what happens a slave girl Hagar gets pregnant and she begins to look with disdain on Sarah you thought this function just happened in your family okay it happens like all over throughout salvation history and from then Sarah gets so jealous she's so abusive to hey guard that she abuses her so badly that Hagar runs away and she's a pregnant woman with child and to run away in the desert is certain death and what happens it's like the desert of your life and my life where the Lord comes to encounter us right there it's very beautiful because the Lord sends an angel to her as she sits in the desert and contemplates you know certain death and he says to her two questions is it's questions I've been asking you know just audiences lately and I ask myself that very often the questions that angel asked story says Hagar where have you come from and where are you going where have you come from and where are you going and if I were to ask you that right now because this is very important because these are questions that people are asking at large in life right now especially in society like what does it mean to be human what does it mean to be male and female what does it mean to be a person what does it mean to long what is the meaning of life and if God is so good why is there suffering like what is the trajectory of our story where we came from and where we're going and if we were to ask you know all of us in this room could probably give a just a concise theological definition of where we came from Nicola Quebec of the Catechism you could find one the human person made in the image and likeness of God a union of soul and body spirit and matter someone not something capable of knowledge of self possession of freedom able to enter into relationships with and communion with others and with God true because to be in communion and relationship that is our deepest heart because that's the eternal life but what is your story what is your particular story where did you come from what are the nuances of your story because this is very important for us to understand because this is exactly where God saves us because let me tell you this the stuff that Saints are made of it's not just in your stained-glass windows in your churches it's not just the Saints you were named after it's not just the patrons that you have that you pray to to help you out when things are lost the stuff the Saints are made of sits in this room right now it's you it's you it's in your story it's in every aspect in your story it's not because of this or it's not in spite of this it's not skipping over a chapter its Christ's love made manifest in every single moment of our lives and in the economy of salvation nothing is wasted nothing nothing you know when I tell you I tell you for so many years you know I I won't tell you my whole conversion straight day but you talked about witnessing you talk about for so many years in my journey I had these like parts of my story that I did not want to claim as chapters of my story and I thought to myself there's just that there's absolutely no way God could redeem something like this and just my own wrestling of suffering to the depths of my being from just my journey my recovering addict massive trauma as a child my father dying very untimely when I was a young woman just dealing with an ongoing area forgiveness in my life just an ongoing area just in tremendous tremendous suffering where I've sat in the areas of deepest poverty where I had no answer I just say Lord Lord I I need you to sit here with me I need you to bring me into communion with these areas because you know me and you love me in scene Agustin says that God would not allow anything anything to happen to us that he doesn't plan to bring a break a greater good out of so it is in your story my dear friend this is why you and I must be very honest in our own journey before the Lord and with people who love us because we must know our story and it can't be the edited version it has to be the whole thing and that's exactly where God encounters us because we came from him we came from him and every good story has it has a trajectory to it we came from someplace and we're going to some place our stories on a journey like we talked about the disciples are on a journey the Great Commission is a journey and our life your life and my life it's a journey it's the it's the steps we make every single day the evangelii on the good news where we come out and we can tell people that this is not the end of your story like whatever's happening in your life right now whether you're stuck and the most sorrowful mystery of your entire life or the most luminous mister you can ever possibly imagine but this is not the end not the end and it's Christ's continual revelation to us in the depths of who we are that we can sit with him and we know that we are known not just intellectually but from heart to heart because we talk about knowledge the acquisition of knowledge you know the kind of the the interior kind of you know receptive receptivity of some type of knowing something else you know of a quality of something else and so we know that way but we also know in biblical language there's another kind of knowledge and it's a very intimate knowledge it's the difference between knowing about somebody and knowing somebody our founder would often say and I met perhaps he got it from the church fathers but our founder would opted to say no and this in the resurrection story where Jesus has rises from the dead and Peter and John run to the tomb and write John gets her first cuz he's young everybody waits and lets Peter go in first and they go into the tomb to go then what do they find they find the burial clause but they find the claw that rolled that was about over his head rolled up and set aside and folded differently and our founder said you know that's because they knew how Christ folded things they would know like he did that you know he we've all had those experiences where maybe loved one we left a jacket or something like that you're like oh I know that that's her jacket I know her you know this reality of being known and so that in our story many times we're surprised like like mother Mary Francis was saying like there's things about ourselves we don't even understand we've all had things come out of our mouths and were like I can't believe I just said that like whoa I had no idea you know I can't believe I just said that or it comes out with a certain tone of voice you're like I didn't realize I felt like that but I guess I do the inner room the inner room where intimacy is born the inner room where the hearts are assured the inner room where Christ knows us and I'm very very convinced I'm very convinced that this is the place where Jesus speaks his deepest secrets of who he is because see he too desires to be known we have a savior who isn't somebody who standoffish and who just kind of saves and keeps us at a distance but somebody who comes alongside and who to thirst to be known and received by us he desires to open his heart to lavish his love upon us and we see that you know the devotion of st. Faustina the diary of st. Faustina where his heart he speaks to her of his heart just being poured open where his desire is to love mankind and we had to allow ourselves to be loved because love this desire for love this is our for communion relationship this deep part of who we are is part of what it means to be human and he speaks about john paul ii speaks about this reality of love and like that that our lives don't make sense without it that we don't understand who we are without it and that he it's the reality of this transformation of who God is to us right and the transformation of our hearts is revealed in this area of love aneesa's man remains incomprehensible to himself if he doesn't have love he remains a mystery to himself if he doesn't encounter love if he doesn't make it his own if he doesn't have an intimate knowledge about it so this is not just about you and I fulfilling obligations and kind of going through the motions or something wrong with obligation but my goodness the Lord is desiring to come and pitch his tent among us and to be received there by you and I and in that transformation he heals us and sets us free Pope Benedict if you read his encyclical space Ave saved in Hope which is beautiful one he says this he says we talk about being loved he says before his gaze before the gaze of Jesus all falsehood melts away this encounter with him as it burns us it transforms and frees us allowing us to become truly ourselves his gaze the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation as through fire but it is a blessed pain in which the Holy power of his love Sears through us like a flame enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God this transformation as you see in the disciples you see in the scripture you see this transformation as through fire you see this transformation as through suffering but what it comes through suffering to be resurrected and you see this reality that the Holy Spirit comes in the Upper Room like a fire and transforms them and we're sitting here today because the Holy Spirit came upon the Upper Room 2,000 years ago and you know what there's gonna be people that are sitting here 2,000 years from now because the Holy Spirit came here because that's how it works and the Holy Spirit comes here and his fire like Pope Benedict is saying his fire burns away the falsehoods within us the falsehoods because they have to be burned away because ultimately what people want and I'm sure in your own ministry you figure this out and I figure this out very early on and I hope I never forget it but what I realized very early on when I began to speak in and you know to proclaim the Gospel and you talk about healing and restoration and conversion what I realized very quickly is that people at the end of the day don't want to meet me thank God they don't they want to meet the living Lord Jesus and they want to know that God is alive and well and that the deepest places of their heart the deepest place is you and I have a poverty that's so carefully guarded most of the time it is so carefully guarded and so carefully managed what people want to know is that they can real with the reveal the deepest places to Jesus Christ and to know they're loved that I love transforms their own interior life in the world people are longing to have an encounter with the Living God and you know what they encounter him in you and I and they come to us they look at our life people look at our life all the time and they say oh you're Christian or you're Catholic like it is your life does it look any different than anybody else's life are we willing to allow him to go to the deepest places in you and I to burn away the falsehood so what we can be totally ourselves and totally of God and that is the transformation that is so desperately needed in the world today because to go out into the Upper Room like we said we have to go into the inner room to be claimed by Christ we're in the core of who we are we know we are known and loved and it's that security that allows us to go forth because what's happening now and if I could just say very honestly about this what you see happening in a landscape of the church right now people are saying all kinds of things about it what's happening you know we use the saying no we're only as sick as our secrets what's happening in the church right now my dear friends is the secrets of the church are coming out and they're horrific aren't they they're scary and they're very difficult to see but the truth is they have to come out and I honestly think it's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better because you know what the bride is sick the bride is sick and the church is the Bride of Christ and he loves her and he's given his life for her when a man loves a woman he will stop at nothing to make sure she's well so all the secrets are gonna have to come out because all the darkness is gonna have to come out why so Jesus Christ can bring through the light of the Holy Spirit healing to the core of who she is just set her free to make her beautiful and when she is made beautiful the entire world will run to her and the truth is all of our secrets have to come out we have know what there is no other way for for the Catholic Church then for you and I as the archbishop was saying is to stand in the light of Jesus Christ on the cross and allow him to draw all into him to transform it in to resurrect us so that we stand before the world with our wounds with our openness with our Laue our lives open right to the one who loves us Christ who loves us so that it can be transformed so what in your life right now if I were to ask you very honestly you know you talk about where you come from and where you go where are you going because in Genesis God Himself asks another question and he asks it to Adam and Eve after the fall and he's looking for them and they are nowhere to be found and many times that's what happens in your life in my life you know we get to certain stages and we say well you know Here I am this is how I am or this is just how life is and we kind of settle for this area of mediocrity I talk about that a lot like this settle for this area mediocrity and we say well this is good as it's gonna go this is good as my marriage is gonna get this as good as my ministry is gonna get this as good as the parish is gonna get you know if the choir could actually sing on key next time my life would be a lot better like I don't know what that is for you okay you know and we kind of settle for these places and we say this as good as it's going to get but I don't believe it for a second that we actually believe that because in our hearts we ate for death we ate for conversion we ate for transformation and so what happens is after the fall Adam and Eve are nowhere to be found and they're hiding like you and I are hiding and maybe in your life right now as you're thinking of your journey and you think about where you come from and you talk about stories and maybe you too like me have some chapters in your story that you'd rather not think about or you have chapters in your story you'd rather not claim as part of your own or you have things that have happened to you in your life that you know it's not the memories we wish would never end it's the memories that we wish would have never happened not unlike Frodo himself right I wish the ring had never come to me right it's in those places where the Lord comes to encounters us and he asks Adam and Eve where are you where are you so where are you right now in your life where are you and your story because we can say well you know what sister it doesn't really matter what happened to me when I was young because that's in the past well let's find it the past is in the past but it doesn't it's usually bleeding played out in the present that's what's happening and so we see that's what's happening we see the brokenness of the past has caught up to the present and what happens instead of you know transferring God's love and knowledge to people what happens is forming and we're transmitting our suffering on to people and what the Lord is calling us to do is just little by little step by step little by little he's asking us to come and allow him into the deepest places of our hearts so he can burn away those places right and so when people encounter us they're encountering the Lord so where in your life what is the well what is the well of your life where Jesus Christ is already sitting there and he's waiting for you and he's saying to you give me a drink and so many times in our lives were saying I don't want to I don't want to I don't want talk about that I don't want to talk about that because we don't understand that it's actually affecting the entire rest of our lives and Jesus is like when I want to talk to you about this because I know you here and I love you here I think sometimes were afraid of that we're afraid of that and is really beautiful and one of his homilies for Easter Pope Francis you know he spoke about this very thing and he says Pope Francis says this he says God asks us to view life to view our life as he views it for in each of us he never ceases to see this is so beautiful and irrepressible kernel of beauty in our sin he sees sons and daughters to be restored in death brothers and sisters to be reborn in desolation hearts to be revived and he goes on to say do not fear them do not fear for the Lord loves your life even when you are afraid to look at it and take it in hand the Lord loves your life Jesus shows you how much he loves your life even to the point of living it completely experiencing anguish abandonment death and hell in order to emerge triumphant to tell you you are not alone you are not alone put your trust in me put your trust in me to trust somebody means you actually have to rely upon them to actually trust somebody have to be dependent upon them and so Jesus comes to you today and he stands and he's sitting here actually sitting at your well and what in your life my dear friends right now is Jesus asking you to give him because it matters what is he thirsting for in your life and maybe it's kind of another way we could ask this is like what kind of fruit is your tree bearing for a tree is known by its fruit are our lives bearing dissention are they bearing pride are they bearing self-righteousness are they bearing lust are they bearing what are they bearing or are they burying something else and many times you know our trees have a variety of fruit growing on them but what is the one thing today when we talk about going into the inner room and being known and loved what is the well that the Lord is sitting by right now and asking for a drink from your soul because it's in that very place where he comes to encounter you where he brings you to conversion and where he's known within you he's known there and we come to know him they're very so tender and so very kind and he is saying to you and I today you are not alone you're not alone and revealing our hearts to him into the world and I I loved parish based programs I loved all kinds of things like that they're very important but I really believe the correlation to how effective they are as to how willing we will allow Christ to encounter us every single day because that is the most important encounter because to the depth he comes to claim every part of our life is the depth that we proclaim who he is in our life because how can I proclaim him if I don't know him how can I proclaim him if I haven't let him close to me in the most intimate places of my life to restore me how can I claim his mercy and beauty if I don't know and he desires us to know so the people that come into contact with us say the Lord is alive and well and he's alive in you and I see him I see him and that's one of the reasons I'm standing here before you today this while I'll always speak about personal encounter and personal witness because I'm a religious sister too my work community 21 years I'm here today because the encounter and the witness and the the captivating example of a Catholic priest who came into my life when I was addicted when I was broken it's one of the reasons why the priesthood will be the deepest love of my life for the rest of my life it is the power of one yes that changes the world and I was looking at him and I you know I just remember there are so many things about him and he wasn't perfect and he had his own store and he had chapters of his own story that were tremendously broken oh but that man was willing to have it all seen by the Lord and he was captivating Saints aren't weird actually captivating and he just glowed like there was something so radiant about him and I remember being 21 years old a senior in college and playing volleyball I wanted to work for a Sports Network you know I had this kind of all these plans for my life on the other side was heavily addicted I had addictions to several different things in my life was a mess and I denied a lot of things in my life there's I deny that there's no way God could love somebody like me there's no way that God could be real there's many things that I denied in my life and my own experience of God I didn't understand I'd never fall in love with God but when I looked at him I could not deny the Lord's love I tell you this that many times when father would look at me I could see Christ himself looking back at me and I said I don't I don't know what's happening here like I don't know what that is father but I want that like what is this like what what is this and he would often say to me that's the love of Christ for you that is a little of Christ for you and it happens at big moments and it happens in small moments but like Pope Francis is saying Christ takes on our life and he comes to know and he comes to love us and he begins the relationship first so then you and I from that relationship can go out and we can know and we can love others and bring them to the one who loves them through the inner room to the upper room and out to the ends of the earth the Great Commission right and the Great Commission starts right here and I think for a long time I waited it for it to start out there I'm like if y'all would change my life would be a lot better if you guys caught that kind of get your act together over here like my life would be a lot better you know that's called codependency it doesn't work like that the restoration of the church right now it's xiety right now begins right here and it's already happening right so where is Christ encountering you and I today if we were to ask you where are you where is he encountering you where does he want to claim another part of your heart that maybe you've been managing quite well on your own you think you are or your there's something in your life you don't to talk about like where is the Lord speaking to the deep levels where he's knowing you and loving you and he's sitting right there where you were sitting by the roadside begging he's sitting there right beside you to bring you into his own beautiful life to bring you into his heart to bring you into his healing to make you whole and so you bear witness to the one who loves because that's the most powerful witness ever the most powerful gospel you will ever preach is how you live your day-to-day life and that's exactly where Christ is encountering you right now shall we pray let's ask the Lord to encounter us Solar Jesus we come before you right now as your sons and as your daughters I just want to invite you just my dear friends if I could just kind of lead you on a bit of a meditation just if you could imagine like a well like a well like with his bricks as stone it goes deep into the ground but could you imagine oh well somewhere in your heart what does it look like maybe it's in the desert maybe it's analyst green area I don't know but what is the well inside of you look like in a well as an area of deep desire and maybe your desire is just to be known maybe the people in your life don't know you or maybe there's something in your life that there's a secret that you haven't told anybody or maybe it's an ache in your heart that you have but what is your well what does it look like within you maybe it's an area of addiction that you've tried to overcome but you just can't do it and as you look at that well sometimes inside we feel shame about that well what does it like to look within you of the deepest desire of your heart or the deep area of a core need in your heart and as you look at the well within you you notice that somebody's approaching and as they get closer you see its Christ himself and he's so kind and his desire is to sit right there that's okay with you so he's going to ask you if he can sit right at your well and what is it like to see him there sitting right next to your deepest acre you deepest fear or your deepest sorrow because he's not afraid he loves you and he knows you and he looks at you and he says to you give me a drink tell me about this tell me about this part and if you're willing I just want to invite you to tell him about that part of your heart maybe you've never told anybody before would you tell him about that and you see that he looks at you with such reverence and such honor and such a key understands you and if you're willing he's gonna ask you to come sit right beside him at your well so would you be willing to do that just to sit right next to him and he's gonna say something to you about that part of your heart so Lord Jesus right now what would you like to say to each one of us and if you'd be willing my dear friends today just in a small way would you be willing to surrender that part of your heart to him would you allow him to see the whole thing and to speak to the whole truth of that and would you allow him to as he sits next to you if it's okay his hands are healing hands the hands of a king or the hands of a healer and would you allow him right now to place this sacred and holy hands on your heart and heal you so Lord Jesus I pray right now for healing for every single person in this room I pray for a healing of the wells within us Lord that you would say she ate these places that you would dig the well deep in yourself and speak to the deepest places of our heart just pray for healing for relationships for marriages for parishes for this Archdiocese I just pray for a healing and this archdiocese that people would know the depth of who they are and a new anointing of love would come forth from this place pray for a healing of parishes of families and Lord Jesus I pray right now that we would allow ourselves to be known by you and loved by you I pray that your love would seep down to the deepest places of the foundation of our souls and acclaim every part of us and lord I pray that you who have begun to go to work today throughout the day that you have begun a good work would see it to completion I pray that you would spend your holy spirit upon each one of us right now the power of love the power of anointing the power transformation set us on fire we thank you Jesus for how you love us and how you know us a love that never ends may our hearts be open to you to a new encounter every single day we make this prayer through Christ our Lord amen Christ comes into your life because he loves you and it is my heart as your sister on the journey and as a religious sister on the journey and as a friend on the journey that we journey together and that we need each other like Christianity can't be lived in isolation it can't be lived on its own that we need each other and then we need small group communities we need people that know us that love us that can help remind us of who we are when we forgotten and who can be the face of Christ for us and we also need the sacraments as well we need regular confession regular reception of the Holy Eucharist we need to be on the journey with Christ that our foundation of our lives is resting upon him as st. john paul ii says Jesus Christ the Redeemer of man is the center of the universe and the center of history and not just objective like history not objective universe but ours and may he continue may he continue to be the center the inner room that that most intimate part of us to transform us and that people would know who he is when they encounter us because he lives in you and he lives in me so god bless you thank you very much you

Channel: Proclaim

Views: 13,443

Rating: 4.8723402 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic Vancouver, Vancouver, Archdiocese of Vancouver, Evangelization, Faith, Christianity, Jesus, Gospel, Christian, God, New Evangelization, Proclaim, Catholic Church

Id: e9DmQeZxo1c

Length: 55min 55sec (3355 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 03 2019