Explaining the Faith - St. Joseph: Terror of Demons (March 19)

well thank you everybody for joining us i'm father chris aylar one of the marians here at the shrine of divine mercy and we're so grateful that you could be with us today live here at the national shrine on march 19th and this is a special day few people remember but most catholics do that is the feast day of saint joseph so this is an incredibly important saint right behind the blessed virgin mary and we're going to talk about some new things today and one of the things i'm going to touch on is spiritual warfare and saint joseph because we're all facing it especially now and there are some things that i learned in seminary also talking with some of our theologians like chris sparks that are powerful that we want to share with you today about that so let us begin with a prayer in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen heavenly father we give you all thanks and praise and glory especially on this day for the gift of saint joseph we ask that like mother mary we take him into our hearts we ask for his protection and as the terror demons we ask that those who are oppressing us obsessing or even possessing us that he may through his intercessionary power give take them flight and so we ask all this through christ our lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit before we begin we have a quick announcement i'll also reiterate this at the end but we will be changing schedule on these saturday talks we will be going digitally online for the next several weeks not in person and so we'll give more details at the end so please stay tuned at the end for that detail but first saturdays will remain always live here and the changes here will only be temporary so all right now as you saw from the slide st joseph is the tear of demons we we have a great advocate here and uh so saint joseph is the one that we want to turn to especially when we are facing spiritual warfare now today is march 19th er even if you're watching this talk after march 19th that's okay but why was march 19th chosen as saint joseph's feast day all right and remember a saint has a particular power on this day given by god not from him but the grace of god goes through these saints and on a saints feast day he's granted special gifts now let's look at our next slide this is march 19th that's saint joseph and that's a beautiful picture of him with the christ child and it's traditionally this was the date that saint joseph died now he's also may 1st but may 1st has to do with saint joseph the laborer the the worker and that's because may day was in may first was always a communist celebration of communism and so the church put may 1st as a true laborer for saint joseph but today march 19th is traditionally believed as the day he died and so this is interesting because this is when we celebrate it now here's what's interesting the oldest celebration of this feast appears among the coptic christians all right who they celebrated it though on july 20th the reason that we have the date of march 19th is because we believe he died on march 19th because surprisingly of what we call the apocryphal writings okay i want to take a moment to explain this because this could be a whole other talk how did we get the gospel of matthew mark luke and john do you know at the time that those gospels were first distributed to the known world you had the gospels of thomas the gospels of peter the gospel of mary now that does not mean they were written by thomas peter and mary they were just called that and so somebody would say well gee father if it was written by mary why in the world is that not in the bible no the gospel of thomas peter or mary were not written by them they're written by other authors now it was the catholic church that determined and this is why when non-catholics criticize the catholic church continuously that we don't read our bible we don't know our bible you have to ask do you know where the bible came from well it came from god of course of course it came from god but who determined when god became active in the world from the very beginning adam and eve he's been active in the world but all of a sudden in the first century we got all these gospels matthew mark luke john thomas mary peter we have all these gospels who determined which ones went into the bible the catholic church so even our protestant brethren our non-catholic brethren that read from the bibles they have the very same matthew mark luke and john in the gospels you have to ask them you can't accept that bible and reject the authority from which it came it came from the catholic church now again it all comes from god but it was the catholic church that determined that matthew mark luke and john were the only inspired ones by written by the holy spirit now what does that tell us about the others about math excuse me peter and the gospel of of mary in the gospel of thomas and others what does that tell the gospel of james what does that tell us about them okay the churches always said that they're not inspired meaning they don't come in the same level of importance of matthew mark luke and john but we can learn some things from them they have historical facts like my birthday july 26th that's the feast of joel come and anne that is the appearance of mary we know and celebrate that even the church puts it on the calendar because it comes from those apocryphal gospels so the church doesn't throw them away completely a lot of times critics will come to us and say the church hides these things because they they try to say that they're no good no the church has taken a lot of information from those books and one of them is the date of saint joseph saint joseph dying on march 19th is the tradition from those other gospels it's not mentioned in our gospel now i want to read you something else that's in those gospels because we don't see them as infallibly true like we do matthew mark luke and john but they're interesting nonetheless and we can learn from them now the church does not teach that we have to believe joseph was never married before mary there's a strong tradition that he was not and that he was a virgin father don calloway holds to this i personally do too but you are not required as catholics now here's something interesting taking from the apocryphal gospels and this is in the catholic encyclopedia the catholic encyclopedia asked the question if joseph was married before married to a woman named melka and had six children now in one sense it would partially explain why they say jesus had brothers they would be step brothers and sisters now i personally am not believing of that so as you know i always say please have mercy on the letters and sending to my superiors i'm just reporting what the church has said over the years and here's what the catholic encyclopedia says about what was taken from the apocryphal writings these apocrypha writings have no authority they said when forty years of age joseph married a woman called melka or esha by some salome by others they lived 49 years together and had six children two daughters and four sons the youngest of whom was james the less who in the bible our real bible says the lord's brother kind of interesting a year after his wife's death he espoused was espoused to mary then between 12 and 14 years of age joseph was 90 years old at the time this is where i find that a little hard to believe he went up to jerusalem among the candidates and a miracle manifested the choice god had made of joseph remember where they laid their staffs right and joseph's staff sprouted a lily that traditional comes from these apocryphal gospels but we cannot take these as having authority we cannot take these as being equal to our bible we cannot but historically speaking for facts and dates kind of interesting okay god had made the choice of joseph and two years later the annunciation took place these dreams are void of authority here the catholic encyclopedia is saying they have no authority in these statements they nevertheless acquired in the course of ages some popularity amongst christians in them some ecclesiastical writers sought the answer to the well-known difficulty arising from the mention in the gospels of the lord's brother that's james the lust or the belief that saint joseph was older at the time of the marriage with mary you know it's it's interesting because today's our 89th episode and it's funny because the other writing i saw said joseph was 89 not not not 90. today's our 89th episode they said st joseph was 89 and it says mary was 14. i don't know if my dad's watching right now he's been kind of sick but one of the funniest stories my dad said that he remembers from my childhood and i just figured i'd throw this in here when i was about five my mom took me to the store and i started a conversation with some little boy in the grocery store i think i was four and we were talking and my mom overheard me say at four years old to this little boy that my dad is 89 and my mom is 14. and so for this whole time whenever i talk to my dad not every time but for periodically my father will say i'll say something like well how old is that you know person or how old is that person he'll say he's 89 and she's 14. always kind of bringing up this joke from my childhood i find that hilarious that today's our 89th up in a good way please i don't mean that in a disrespectful way but this is our 89th episode of of explaining the faith joseph was 89 mary was 14. so was god at work even in a four-year-old kid who knows but i find that a little interesting all right let's go to our next slide this is important the terror of demons now there is a great thing online by a father hugh barber from catholic answers and i want to i want to take from some things that he put together because i have read so much on saint joseph father don has some amazing things father don calloway but when i was doing my talk on spiritual warfare last year which you can find online i came across some stuff and then when i was in seminary i dung up my notes and it was confirmed with my seminary course so this is a beautiful way to take you back to seminary as we always say to give you that opportunity to attend seminary with me without paying tuition and without having to leave your own home and have to be celibate at the same time so in my spiritual warfare training and in this article by father hugh barber and father don talks about this there's some incredible concepts i want to share with you right now that blow me away this to me is some of the most powerful things i've ever gonna have talked about in these 89 episodes and so this is why st joseph's day today this is a powerful time to talk about this all right we know saint joseph is the greatest of saints after mary he terrifies demons now why did he get that title extremely interesting because these demons cannot see what he's doing now you might be like me always learn that the demons can see everything we do and even have access to our intellect they can't control our will but they can affect our intellect they can put things into our mind but they cannot touch our will they can't force us to do something that's our choice but the demons can't see anything saint joseph is doing why all right spirits do not have feelings and emotions like us but they have an intellect and a will like us they can reason they can rationalize and they make choices this is why the demons had a choice to accept god or not at the time of the fall they had the intellect to contemplate it then they had the will to choose it just like us now they are more powerful than we are by nature in the way they're created and they are invisible so it makes them even more powerful and they perceive the movements of our emotions and imaginations i can't emphasize enough how important it is for you to safeguard your emotions and your imagination this is why you have to be so careful what you do in the privacy of your own time the demons can get a lot of information about us and again i'm referring here now i know many of you are going to disagree i'm giving you church teaching what i learned in seminary father don calloway father hugh barber chris sparks our theologian myself others teachings of the church so the demons can get a lot of information about us from what comes across screen of our memory our imagination and our emotions if we don't guard those it's like putting all your information out in cyberspace for anybody to take and use against you you want to put your credit card information out there to the world on the web i guarantee you somebody will take it and use it against you this is what you do when you don't safeguard your memory your imagination or your emotions they then use that to tempt you and then if you really are doing it you will open portals this is why for instance pornography is so dangerous the mystics tell us that every time you look at an image and this doesn't even have to be graphic men are more visual so men will look more at pictures women are more sensitive sensitive they'll do more like reading stories this is the same thing with reading a i'm sorry i don't know the better term a romance novel okay what happens that the mystics tell us is that when we look at these images or we create these fantasies especially if you're talking like pornography on the internet behind each image is a demon and behind each image that you are engaging in now opening up your imagination you are recalling memory maybe with a past person you are now opening up a portal and that portal if you open up your door or window in a torrential downpour water is gonna come in right now there is a torrential downpour of demonic activity and if you open that door a portal they will come in and it can be other things too you know the possession of the movie the exorcist is actually based on a true story i read that transcript in seminary in one of my courses i read the real transcript and you know that that transcript was actually scarier than the movie i'll never forget reading that i was actually a boy it wasn't a girl and the boy the door or the portal was open through the ouija board and so any of these type of activities can open the door what do we do how do we defend against this saint joseph let's look at this now these here these portals can be open now demons are not fully omniscient they're not like god they don't know everything god prohibits them from knowing everything but they can use what you give them which you put out there you willingly fill your mind and heart with wrath anger unforgiveness lust you might as well just tear open the shield over your soul and then say come on in so this is where we need a saint joseph to guard that and we'll explain why he's the terror of demons so they can only use what you reveal to them all right they can't access your deepest inner spiritual thoughts and intentions that you give to god even if you struggle even if you do struggle with these types of things give it to god pour the precious blood over it have mary put her mantle over it and have saint joseph stan guard over it then you're protected you can't be safe enough but they can see the part of your thoughts and feelings that are linked to your bodily senses so if if you are ravaged by lust or gluttony or sloth those are tied to your bodily activities sloth you're lazy your body doesn't want to move lust you're desiring sexual activity gluttony feed me feed me feed me doesn't have to be food more tv more cell phone more internet more bad movies these kinds of things now since we have had we definitely as humans have a hard enough time as it is to govern our own imaginations and passions that's difficult enough on our own now we have to guard against the added attacks of these demons this is real stuff i know regularly i get comments saying this is a fairy tale and imagination and hocus pocus tell that to jesus in the bible his whole ministry was heavily involved with evoke and demons and he even told the apostles that some of these demons are so tough they can only come out through prayer and fasting prayer to saint joseph is one of the reasons now we need to know that they are incessant these demons in their attacks to drag us down to hell with them now why all right here's what's really interesting do you know that the tradition and i use small t this is not dogma or doctrine but small t teaching of the church do you know when the world will end nobody knows the date or the hour but the small t tradition of the church is that the world will end when the number of human souls enters heaven to replace the number of souls of the demons or the angels that fell from the sky that day now tradition tells us there's billions of angels way more than human humans way way more multitudes more of angels than human beings that have ever lived there's seven and a half billion people in the world today maybe close to eight billion now science tells us there's about 115 billion have lived since the beginning of time there is way more angels than that and small t tradition not doctrine not dogma says the world will end when the number of human souls enters heaven to replace the number of angels that fell from heaven that day now here's what's interesting we are meant to take the place of those demons who fell so the demons are bitterly jealous and this is why they want to destroy us they are bitterly jealous of their lost status and don't want a mere human being like you to take their spot this is why they have hatred towards us they know that this will happen ultimately they're not stupid but they have an obsession with trying to find out who will be lost with them on the last day you want to know why they want to know you want to know why the demons want to know so badly who will be lost with them on the last day because then they give up on you you're already gone then they go on to the next person so if you're being attacked it actually this sounds so ironic it's actually a good sign if you're being attacked you ever wonder why people say why is it that all these celebrity atheists in hollywood or great athletes seem to have no they're just they have everything they have no challenges no troubles well you see a lot of them going into depression now you see a lot of them going on anxiety now because they don't have god but for the most part it seems like it's the faithful christian that is bearing the weight of the cross being attacked incessantly it's actually a good sign i once heard it said that we're like a bag of marbles that satan holds and he drops the bag of marbles if you draw a drop a bag of marbles at your feet some marbles are going to be right there and other marbles are going to be rolling away which one is satan going to go after he's not going to go after the marbles right at his feet they're already there he's going to stretch and reach out for the ones that are rolling away from him towards god the closer you get to god the more the attacks will happen and so don't see it as god hates me or god abandons me see it that that means you're getting closer to god the problem is are we ready for those attacks are we able to withstand those attacks saint joseph was and this is what we can i'm getting to st joseph here so all right this this is so important all right so these demons are jealous don't want us to take their place they know what will ultimately happen but they are determined to find out who will join them in hell they want to know this this is why they are so intensely interested in what is going on inside you they want to know what path you're on because if you're on the path to god they want to get you before it's too late for them if you're heading on the way to damnation they want to make sure they coax you right over the cliff we have no clue of the spiritual attack and the battle that is going on right now that we can't see they want in order to wage this war they want intelligence you know how all wars are won go back to world war ii the reason we defeated the nazis is because we discovered and broke the enigma code intelligence the reason we defeated japan the evil empire of world war ii was because the code breakers cracked their code in the south pacific and in midway which turned the whole course of the war around in five minutes in five minutes the entire course of world war ii was changed when they broke the code of the japanese and wade mccluskey and his dauntless dive bombers discovered the japanese fleet the entire thing changed intelligence intelligence this is what the demons want they are like spies looking for clues on anything they can find don't put your information out online guard your emotions your sentiments your imaginations keep it free keep it pure ask god and saint joseph to guard it now yes even if they tempt us and we fall which will happen they can never be sure that that fall will end us in hell only god knows the full culpability of our soul only god does they can never be sure to see the true state of your soul they can see what direction you're going only god can do this or the saints and angels that god gives this grace to them but let me tell you they're going to try all right they seek the consolation of having a great certitude that you are going to be lost and the way you live your life is the key you know i said the other day in homily surprisingly people who rail against god and are angry with god and almost disgusted because god how could you let my daughter die of cancer those people according to the saints actually are closer to god than the apathetic who just say i don't care that's why jesus said the lukewarm sinner is the worst the apathetic he said i'd rather you hot or cold what does he mean by that hot means you're in line with them you're preaching the gospel cold means i'm angry with you god i don't understand you but actually that's a better sign than just being i don't care what time's the game on this is important now in the light of this demonic struggle we can see why joseph is invoked as a tear of demons now we're getting to saint joseph the greatest saints on earth were impervious meaning just immune to the attacks of the devil on their inner lives how because by a special grace they had such control over their feelings and their emotions their memory their imagination that the demons were not able to be able to figure them out the demons were not able to surmise their thoughts and intentions because they kept them guarded they submitted them to the precious blood every morning you ask that the precious blood be poured over you not just externally to protect you and your body from harm like i'm flying i got to get on the plane today right after this talk i will always pray protect me on everybody on this flight but it's more than the external pour the precious blood upon your memory your intellect and your will your imagination safeguard it from fantasies and impurities and ill will such as hatred and unforgiveness when we do those things we're putting our credit card information as i said right online for the demons to gobble it up so before them these saints the demons are powerless they stop and they actually if you invoke one of these great saints to guard your soul and the demons come after you listen to this the mystics and saints tell us that these demons have to stop and reveal themselves in their attempt to get at you and this makes perfect sense do you remember the gospels when the demons were attacking the sick people and jesus would come and then all of a sudden jesus would command them and all of a sudden they were helpless they started spilling their guts we know you're the son of god don't torture us they were powerless now we don't have that power but god designates that power to the greatest of the saints and right at the top of the list of mary and joseph our lord is obviously the first the greatest our lady is second and saint joseph is third and john the baptist is fourth invoke that whole line they had such a serene sense of life that there was nothing there for the demons to attack there was nothing for the demons to take this is different from us we have so many images and memories and feelings beyond our control then we let it control us you know i i struggled for years after breaking in fact i almost left the priest in fact i did for a year because i couldn't get the feeling of an ex-girlfriend out of my head not not not in a bad way but just in an attachment and in the the devils can play havoc on that with a priest if i'm attached to a creature rather than the creator the devil has a field day with me especially as a priest and if you're attached to another creature besides god or your spouse you can commit emotional adultery doesn't have to be physical and the demons can have a field day with that protect yourself god bless you all right next let's look at our next slide remember how satan tempts jesus in the desert he wasn't able to come away with anything he wasn't able to get any useful information jesus stuck to the publicly revealed scripture and doesn't give away anything internal the devil couldn't even figure out who he was because jesus was recollected constant in control of his emotions and his passions the devil can't be sure exactly who jesus even was there or what he was up to and so this is why the devil feared it's the same with saint joseph the devil can't figure out who he is or what he's doing because saint joseph is so perfectly guarded so he calls him the terror of demons the terror the demons tear flee and fear so let's look more at saint joseph here the great theologians have told us that even though he was not conceived without sin like mary he never committed sin did you know this tradition tells us again small t not dogma or doctrine that yes only mary was conceived without original sin and only mary was given that grace but saint joseph and john the baptist number three and four right behind jesus 1 mary 2 saint joseph 3 john the baptist 4 3 and 4 they had some special graces tradition tells us that yes they were conceived with sin not like mirror they were not immaculately conceived but they were purified in the womb when was john the baptist purified when mary came on the visitation in front of elizabeth and the child left in the womb he was purified in tradition says neither joseph nor john the baptist committed actual sin they were born i'm sorry conceived with original sin now what this means is that joseph's imagination and memory and feelings are not accessible to the demons they're perfectly guarded they can't see it these powers were completely under the control of his intellect and will freedom free intellect free will so even in his earthly life they feared him as one whom they could not penetrate this comes from all the church fathers i'm not making this up father don says this this father john barbour the fallen angels knowledge is their principal weapon in attacking you and the only knowledge they can have is what you give them if they are deprived of knowledge they have only fear and frustration even more if they perceive that the person whom they can't figure out seems to be really close to god they know that that one will have even more power to confound them the thing is if you're one of those marbles rolling off to god but you're not protected you're not safeguarded you don't have control of your passions your your memory and your intellect and your will they'll come get you or at least try what you want to do is be one of those marbles rolling off to god but then invoke saint joseph to safeguard over you ask him to protect your intellect your memory your passions your imagination don't let the demons have access this intense love and pure inner life of saint joseph frightens the demons he terrifies them because they can't see what he is up to i find this fascinating and it makes perfect sense they can know we're praying to him but can't see what he's doing with it they can't see his movements his influence or his tactics to help us it's kind of like the stealth plane that is completely undetectable by radar satan's and the demon's radar shows no blip when saint joseph is out there working so they don't know where he's at as they're ready to launch an attack on you they're worried about his attack on them but they can't see him they don't know where he is they're going to be much less inclined to come after you if saint joseph is guarding over you and all this i'm saying also applies to the blessed mother this is why they're so powerful this is incredible he is as it was or as it were the most terrifying of mortal enemies because he's an invisible man this is a special grace that not even all the saints have the demons are constantly taken by surprise by his help of sinners because again they don't know where he is they don't know what he's up to they don't know what he's up to and then he'll strike crush them like mary he aids saint joseph in temporal and bodily needs he teaches the life of prayer he directs events for our good he's all at work now this is why saint teresa of avila one of my favorite saints and when i read of her devotion saint joseph i was like man that makes perfect sense why she has such a devotion saint teresa of evil and saint francis de sales especially they said his intercession is ready powerful and perfect and these are doctors of the church what is a doctor of the church it means you have special guarantee that you can follow their teaching their teaching has a particular authority even over all the other saints and we only have a couple dozen doctors in the church in the history of the tens of thousands of saints he obtains for us a more serene inner life so that we can be less subject to the tax of the demons saint ignatius of antioch said this the virginity of mary check this out this is so amazing there are three things satan was not allowed to know saint ignatius of antioch said this was revealed to him won the virginity of mary all right two her giving birth to jesus christ they didn't know that that was the son of god and third was his death remember satan was trying to figure out he actually wanted this jesus guy to die not knowing about the resurrection basically said ignatius says these three great mysteries were done in the stillness of god they were not revealed to satan but guess who was a witness in all three saint joseph saint joseph was present in him the devil could not find any stray thought or imagination we should entrust god's deepest plans for us and our innermost desires to his intercession so that we will be protected from these demons they flee in terror unable to act against this invisible man let's look at this video i want to show this video because with knowing all this i'm going to pause for a moment and we all pray together one of the most ancient prayers in the history of the church that they believe is 1900 years old one of the most ancient prayers we have in the entire church the oldest of all is this prayer let us please join together now in prayer as we watch this prayer read on the screen and us here in the shrine together let us also remain in a moment of silence asking saint joseph to help us let's watch this video prayer for saint joseph's intercession o saint joseph whose protection is so great so strong so prompt before the throne of god i place in you all my interests and desires o saint joseph to assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain from me from your divine son all spiritual blessings through jesus christ our lord so that having engaged here below your heavenly power i may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of fathers o saint joseph i never worry contemplating you and jesus asleep in your arms i dare not approach while he replaces near your heart press him in my name and kiss his fine head for me and ask him to return the kiss when i draw my dying breath saint joseph patron of departed souls pray for us amen saint joseph prayed for us and that prayer being one of the most ancient and oldest in the history of our faith captures everything in the role of saint joseph as the terror of demons and so let us pray that prayer pray that prayer whenever you can or whenever you need help all right let's let's change gears now and go let's look at our next slide brother mark can put on the screen here um this is an interesting apparition the apparitions in continuing france this is saint joseph's little known appearance in the country of france and you see on the screen as brother mark is showing it this happened in june of 1660 to a shepherd and so let's talk about a little bit about this all right this is a very powerful apparition that you've never heard of we hear a lot about marian apparitions how many st joseph apparitions have you heard about well this is a big one all right in this apparition st joseph spoke to a young shepherd who um followed his directive and this ended up leading to many miracles what happened all right we all know that jesus joseph appeared at fatima along with our lady in october 13 1917 and after the miracle of the son our blessed mother appeared again that's when actually he appeared with her joining saint joseph holding the child jesus both the christ child and joseph bless the world but joseph like the bible remains silent he remains silent now this is not the only appearance of joseph and mary made in a single place in europe in fact my grandparents the names of my grandparents were joseph and mary and they were slavs but i remember my grandma had a statue of saint joseph and i remember as a little kid because my grandpa's name was joseph and her name was mary and i remember as a little kid looking at that stage usa joseph and it looks exactly like this one and i always wonder is that the one she had it's one of his appearances now it's not the only time that joseph and mary appeared together was not at fatima but here in france now these were lesser known apparitions that happened even earlier than fatima let's go to our next slide here's a picture of a stained glass window that captures this occasion where both joseph and mary visited this little village of kotanyak france here on the screen you see the child jesus with mary now this happened separately to begin with all right what's going on all right in the summer of 1660 it was exceptionally hot then on june 7th the date we just saw a young shepherd named gaspar ricar was searching for fresh grass and some shade on mount bazillion to lie down next thing he knew there was a tall man standing next to him all right came out of nowhere pointing to a large boulder he told the man i am joseph lift it and you will drink now getting clean water then was a challenge so this boulder was huge but the shepherd listened to the man and tried to lift the rock to his amazement he was able to lift the boulder and under it he discovered a fresh water spring now he looked up to thank the stranger but the man was gone and the shepherd went and told all that happened to the local townspeople now that the local town knew this guy this humble shepherd so everybody believed him he was a very honest man and they all rushed to see where this new spring of water was where there had never been water before now i'm getting this from the documentary called the shrine of the holy family which was on ewtn now i trust ewtn i know colin and there are other theologians down there and i trust ewtn they always do their due diligence they're good partners of ours um we have our show called living divine mercy on the ewtn network every wednesday and so this information that i'm getting is from there so i know you're gonna many people are gonna write and say where is this in the bible remember god doesn't stop communicating with his people just because the bible has been finished being written god still is going to communicate with his people the bible doesn't talk about nuclear war why because nuclear war didn't exist at the time of the bible but do we think god has nothing to say about nuclear war so he uses apparitions mary joseph saints saint padre pio or saint therese you know more people wrote in saying fatima is not in the bible well at this point we've got to use a little bit of reason here fatima is not on the bible because fatima apparitions didn't exist at the time the bible was written they happened 1900 years later how does that mean then that god stops talking to his people no so anyway i'm getting this from this documentary and it tells how the water had a lot of healing qualities and attracted people from all over and because of the number of people who came they decided to build a chapel there now the church does officially teach one of the best signs of the trueness of an apparition is if a church is built there did you know that that's one of the surest signs that an apparition is true and authentic is a fact if a church was built there because god is the one behind the building of a church so healings began at the sanctuary into the spring many reported miracles but this spring has never dried up now the word spread and even king louis the 13th who would consecrate i'm sorry who had consecrated himself right four years earlier took notice of this and he not only consecrated himself but his throne and all of france to the virgin mary because remember now mary and joseph are appearing here this is why it's unique he was moved to do so because he and his wife the queen knew about the apparition of mary at that same site of this chapel of our lady of graces now in contiac two miles away saint joseph appeared so they're right there so on january 31st of the next year 1661 the local bishop combined these sites of both apparitions mary and joseph because they were very near to each other under the title sanctuary of the holy family boy do we need that today i can think of no phrase that better summarizes what we need today more than the sanctuary of the holy family to me if you're going only by names i think that is the most powerful the sanctuary of the holy family wow do we need this now there is not one instance in the gospel where joseph speaks and in france he only said one small phrase i'm joseph lift that rock [Laughter] so the local priest said his silence is not about being mute or having nothing to say and this is a lesson for all of us first and foremost myself he only spoke words that mattered this priest said one lesson that we can all learn from today and he said quote in opposition our world suffers from an avalanche of words words that hurt words that pierce words whose meaning are constantly even changing like the word marriage has now changed religious freedom has changed all these things are changing gender has changed man or woman has changed that that's like the most unchangeable of all things that exist in the universe man or woman and yet we've managed to change the meaning of those words well they haven't changed society says so it seems he says the more people speak the less they know and communicate the silence of joseph is the opposite it is not empty it is only the absence of unnecessary words what a great lesson so with his short directive to the shepherd pick up the rock st joseph spoke a whole treasure cho trove of learning when joseph heard the words of god in his simple directions joseph immediately acted you know what we're talking about he didn't stop and ask for explanations you know i think back in one of my meditations i remember if because there's a a form of prayer called lexi or divina where you read scripture and then you put yourself right into the scene and it was reading the scripture passage of the word to joseph about pick up the family moved to egypt and i remember the lesson god had in that for me and my prayer was clear because if i was sleeping and god came to me and says all right pack up everything i moved to egypt i'd be like okay wait a minute will i have enough money where do i stop along the way have you provided for my shelter will the weather be okay are we going to walk what route are we going to take i mean god would just shake his head at me but instead saint joseph just went and he did it at once or what about when he told him to take mary into his home i put myself in that prayer too what a learning experience when you pray lexia divina with these gospel passages because you know when and i was engaged to be married and i have no problem sharing something personal i i one time had thought that my fiance may have been unfaithful and i was devastated ended up not being true praise be to god but i was devastated there would have been no way that i would have just jumped into the marriage and went forward like nothing happened i want in my stubbornness i want proof joseph could have done that joseph could have said lord you got to show me and prove to me that she wasn't unfaithful but joseph trusted now we're not saying be blindly ignorant but trust covers them so this is amazing all right now the shepherd must have grasped this because he didn't ask joseph how am i going to lift this rock you know i could throw up my back you're asking me to lift this really big boulder but you better show me how i'm going to do this you better get me a long fulcrum because i'm going to throw on my back trying to lift that rock no he didn't ask joseph how he could lift it he just did it joseph had the faith this is powerful joseph had the faith that moved mountains and here we are taught the same to the shepherd who immediately and went and moved a small mountain certainly he got supernatural help for his trust and the healing's filed this is kind of like saint joseph being those four men in the gospel all those healings were from the trust of saint joseph so invoke him see joseph follows what his son jesus did in healing the sick comforting the afflicted you know the benedictine sisters are there at the monastery connected with this sanctuary and they report quote saint joseph brings many children back to their parents protects the unborn reconciles feuding families and that he also helps people with their financial difficulties you're having financial difficulties pray for his intercession especially saint joseph of contiac in france now let's finish up with the last part because i think this is really strong let's look at our next slide you want to know puts a stamp of approval for the role of saint joseph for me is saint faustina shane faustina had devotion let's read what saint faustina said this is from her diary saint joseph urged me to have a constant devotion to him he himself told me to recite three prayers the our father the hail mary and the glory be along with the memorary to saint joseph once daily he looked at me with great kindness and gave me to know how much he is supporting this work of mercy wow st joseph is with us he has promised me his special help and protection i recite the requested prayers every day and feel his spiritual i'm sorry special protection what a beautiful prayer but it doesn't end there i mentioned saint teresa of avila doctor of the church she was hugely devoted to saint joseph she said to other saints the lord seems to have given us special grace to help us in some aspect of our lives like a certain thing that's what a patron saint is all right you're struggling with cancer god gave the patron saint of saint peregrine so he gives she said it looks like god gives certain saints for certain needs but saint joseph she says helps in all of them also that the lord wishes to teach us that he was him okay i know i've been saying this a lot but this one really struck me saint trees of avila said the lord wishes to teach us that he himself was subject on earth to saint joseph so in heaven right now he also does anything saint joseph asks you go to saint joseph you get him on your side you get him to protect you jesus won't say no this is amazing a special favor this has also been the experience of other persons whom i have talked to and have advised to commend themselves to saint joseph you know saint teresa of avila wanted to persuade everyone to be devoted to saint joseph let's look at our next slide this is saint jose uh saint therese um let's look what she says i am astonished at the great favors which god has bestowed on me through saint joseph and at the perils from which he has freed me both in body and in soul wow all right now she has some great quotes here um she says for i have great experience of the blessings which can which he can obtain from god she said i do not remember that i have ever asked anything of him which he has failed to grant incredible huh all right finally the dreams we all ask about dreams we all seem to want to know where these dreams come from what do they mean dreams are very you got to be very careful not every dream is a prophecy like if you dream you're going to get hurt if you go to that location that's not always true dreams don't always have to be taking so literally sometimes they can have no meaning at all but sometimes they can now are you culpable for your dreams father benedict rochelle used to say no he used to say don't get upset if you have a dream because you're not fully culpable but dreams can reflect what's going on in your mind and heart let's listen to this let's first talk about the dreams of saint joseph all right god himself even used saint joseph in his dreams in order to direct him which tells us a lot about saint joseph okay the desert fathers and the great theologians like st thomas aquinas tell us that our dreams can in a way reflect the state of our passions and emotions not always when a person is of high sanctity or of deep simplicity of heart his dreams are clearer and safer guides than usually the rest of us whose dreams like mine are a mixed bag all right a mixed bag of whatever is churning inside of us right now we as religious we pray the divine office you've probably heard me mention this we have morning prayer evening prayer there's a a certain prayer called compline that means night prayer and when we pray that we pray surprisingly in the hymn we pray to be delivered from any deceptions coming from the devil playing games with our unguarded imagination as we sleep now this whole first part of the talk we talked about your unguarded imagination it's so important that we religious in our comp line our night prayer we pray for protection that the evil one does not play games with our unguarded imagination as we sleep because we are all over the place now this is good general advice to like i said always you know avoid trying to always find meaning and direction in our dreams but sometimes they can tell us some things like if we're restless now saint joseph was so pure and so attuned to the things of god he received direction in his sleep you know i used to say god why don't you do that for me i want to know your will i remember when i was deciding trying to struggle every day it was torment do i get married or become a priest do i get married do i become a prie it was torture one day i would get up i was convinced that god's will in my life was to get married the next day i wake up i was convinced god's will for me was to become a priest now i'm like god you're not the god of confusion you got to clarify this why don't you just give me a dream like saint joseph i remember vividly praying that well it's probably because my dreams my emotions my imaginations weren't safeguarded they weren't fully attuned with god and he couldn't use that as a tool for me yet i find that very interesting and so saint joseph was so attuned to god that he could receive direction in his sleep for him there was no question even if things were difficult like we said fleeing to egypt or moving mary into his home in matthew's gospel there's four places that refer to the dreams and sleep of saint joseph one of them is called believe it or not you may not even know this the annunciation of saint joseph we think of the annunciation of mary where saint gabriel came the angel gabriel came but the annunciation of saint joseph kind of parallels mary's enunciation it's not surprising as we've always said that devotion when you're when when devotion to saint joseph began to grow in the catholic church we got to see this fact in art and in statues reflecting joseph in his sleep you know it's interesting there are many paintings and even statues of jesus or joseph dreaming in his sleep let's take a look this is one of them that you can get right on shop mercy father don when he wrote consecration of saint joseph this is one of his favorite statues the one of saint joseph sleeping now if you're lazy and slothful don't use this as an excuse you know i'm not going to get up and go to work because i'm going to be like saint joseph i'm going to sleep all day no we don't use that as an excuse do you know that pope francis has a devotion to the sleeping joseph he actually this is interesting he has a statue of saint joseph the one we just showed of him sleeping and he has a statue with a little drawer at the base of it so see joseph is sleeping like on this drawer and when he has a special intention he writes it down and places it in the drawer asking saint joseph to dream of his petition before god and for god to give direction through his intercession so this devotion has begun to spread wildly in the last couple years especially since the year saint joseph so entrust your intentions to it you know that expression i'll sleep on it you know where that comes from it comes from saint joseph see we have such prevalent effect of christianity on culture and we don't even know it we want to reject god at every turn but you'll turn right around and say you know what thank you for asking me that i'll sleep on it that comes directly from the tradition of saint joseph sleeping on it so you don't even know all the times you're invoking christian tradition that's where that expression comes from so if you let saint joseph sleep on your petitions there is no doubt you will benefit why not i mean god entrusted his own beloved son and the mother of his son to the care of saint joseph we should too you know we should do no less regarding those in our lives entrusting them to saint joseph all right so we're wrapping up today is saint joseph's day today is march 19th again even if you're watching this days later don't worry he's still there today saint joseph is the patron saint of fathers both biological and spiritual fathers like priests he's also the patron saint of those who grow up without a father did you know that think of all those poor young men and girls in depressed areas that don't have fathers estranged abandoned and so often as a consequence of the devil's war on the family we see brokenness this is a war that the devil has waged on the church in the family those are the two biggest areas a war which fatherhood is under attack you've heard me say this but i'll say it again in my secular life my favorite tv shows were simpsons home improvement everybody loves raymond king of queens married with children i love those shows but in every one the father is a bumbling buffoon idiot it's almost culture's way are trying to destroy the patriarchy there's a huge quote-unquote movement that wants to destroy the patriarchy and they're getting funds from millions of corporations millions of dollars in funds their goal is to destroy the patriarchy why do we want to destroy the paid the fatherhood i don't understand let's look at our next slide this is a symbol of the holy family this is it the saints tell us if you want to attack god you need to attack fatherhood god is father if you want to attack the priesthood you attack fatherhood that's what's happened to the priesthood in the scandal we've lost our sense of fatherhood if you want to attack the family you need to attack fatherhood the father is the head of the family the powers of darkness have not given up on this they keep coming wave after wave of attack pray to saint joseph pray to saint joseph you know our last slide is one of sister lucy as she talked about this end game strategy of satan let's put up on the slide and read what she says sister lucy of fatima said the final battle between the lord and the reign of satan will be about marriage and the family don't be afraid because anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be fought and opposed in every way because this is the decisive issue however our lady has already crushed its head powerful saint joseph we need him now more than ever and that's why i think the year of saint joseph was declared the huge success of father don calloway's book consecration to saint joseph i personally believe god placed it at that strategic time in history all the other battles that have been fought god used the saints and strong christians as the infantry what do you do on your relay team you always put the fastest runner as the anchor right now all those other races have gone on he's got st joseph as the anchor now mary's the coach she's she's she's directing it all with the hand of god but st joseph is running that anchor leg because the final battle of god and satan will be over marriage in the family and who is the head of the holy family saint joseph it's amazing to think of the holy family who was the greatest of course jesus who was the next greatest of course mary who was the third i don't say least because his power isn't little but the by far in third different or third level was saint joseph but yet who was the head of the holy family joseph and so if we want to withstand this battle and this final attack of satan on human humanity and mankind we need to invoke saint joseph all that we've talked about today saint joseph and father what about blessed mother mary she's hand in hand it's her spouse all right so with that i want to say thank you to all of you for joining us in 89 in what i feel incredible opportunities for us to come together as a marian family i announced at mass yesterday that i will be taking a leave of absence um i explained yesterday at the end of mass i have a very heavy heart um there's a lot of issues going on in my family and and thank god for father kaz who is such a beautiful shepherd is allowing me to go home i'm not leaving um i will be back every couple weeks to celebrate mass i'll be back every couple weeks to um to to do filming for our ewtn show that will not stop we will also continue first saturdays i will be flying in every month for first saturdays and we invite all of you who came here personally to come with us and you who are watching to come and join us personally every first saturday that is so important i also be here for first fridays so every first friday at 8 p.m and every first saturday of the month at 11 a.m we're going to continue those live now the rest of the weeks we're going to do something special we're not going to quit we're going to show you each and every saturday at the same time 11 o'clock you'll be happy to hear this much shorter clips of parish missions that i have done in the past from the recordings that i have done in the past on our dvds our cds but we've not done these as part of explaining the faith yet on these 89 talks bits and information are similar sometimes but we're going to show those for the next 13 weeks so actually be more like 17 weeks because we have the first saturdays in between so for the next let's say three months if you come here live to the shrine we'll be showing that down in memorial hall which is down in the basement so you can come and still watch the video here live with other people but you online will still get it and here's what i am excited about i will join you live on the chat for each of those saturday videos now i think there's one i may not be able to because i'm speaking i've still maintaining some conferences and pilgrimages i'm not canceling my pilgrimage to greece in the footsteps of of saint paul if you'd like information uh to join me on that pilgrimage that'll be in october um you can just google footsteps of saint paul with stephen ray i am keeping that i'm also keeping with deacon herald silver's a pilgrimage to the shrines of france and now we have to try to make sure we can fit in this visit to continue so i will be keeping that pilgrimage i cancelled all other pilgrimages i've canceled all other missions i've canceled all other conferences to be able to care for my mom i ask for your prayers and know you're in our prayers my dad is in was in the hospital and is finding it difficult to take care of her we're finding very difficulty getting care they live in a rural area and there's just been a lot of problems my sister now has informed us she can't continue taking care of my mom so i feel called by the lord to go pray for my sister pray for my family we're praying for you but please i'm not i'm not leaving um i don't want rumors out there that what happened to father chris he left the priesthood he finally ran back to north carolina um you know that kind of thing no no no um i love my priesthood i i can't imagine ever doing anything else i i can't ever imagine not being a priest this is my love this is the catholic faith is everything in the world to me and so while i'm signing off as this being the last of the live um uh explaining the face for right now please don't leave us please don't abandon us we're going to continue to provide videos our awtn show will continue every wednesday at 6 30 called living divine mercy we will continue with our live stream masses brother mark father brother ken we have father kaz will continue we have a new great priest here father gabe he'll be joining in the live streams um it will continue please don't abandon us in this mission of mercy and we will continue to pray for you and again on every saturday even though we're not doing it live for a couple months i will be joining you live on chat as we show these parish missions from around the country that i have done in the past so i think we will keep up um i think we will do okay and st joseph help us please pray for us um so with that i want to sign off um but i did have um there my staff is yelling at me that i have not announced um a lenten special if brother mark can show um two more slides uh my book called understanding divine mercy our staff has put up for a lenten special um you can see on your screen um only 9.95 if you would like the book it's at shopmercy.org and when you check out if you enter the code word faith you can get that for only 9.95 it's a lenten special that we're doing for that and if if you can't afford one you know i will i will send it to you you know if you really truly can't afford it just contact peter james my assistant his name is peter's email is peter james one word at marion.org if you cannot afford that i will send you a copy um and so um but otherwise 9.95 if you can't afford it um and we'll get you that out to you can also call 1-800-462-7426 prayers.org it's a very simple website but you can call or visit you can join us we we would love to have you part of our marian family you this to me is everything we don't care if you ever give a dollar that's not what it's about we want you to be with us in prayer our marian family has grown since this covid has started and i think that's god bringing a greater good all you have to do is visit mic prayers.org it takes but 10 seconds it doesn't cost anything but if you join us you can share in all the spiritual benefits of all our rosaries prayers masses penances just like you were a marian of the immaculate conception that's a great deal because you get the same grace as i do as being a marian from all of our rosaries prayers masses penances as i said just simply by being a marian helper and i tell you um signing off for the last time or at least temporarily for the last time um this really was in my heart when uh as i said in the last week i've had such a heavy heart and the emails the letters and the comments of encouragement and love and support from all of you have been incredible and it really hit me hard what a family we've become i read every single letter email and comment that you send me now i apologize because it's physically impossible to respond to everyone i'm trying you might get it two years later but um i have you know thousands of emails that i haven't gotten to yet i've read them all but the response sometimes is not as easy but the prayers the support the comments of all of you have been incredible and now i know i'm a priest and i know why i'm a marian when reading those you see what a true family is you see how god has done a greater thing with covet has brought together a great group of people that want to love and serve him it's a tremendous gift to me and so i wanted to take this opportunity just to say thank you to all of you um who've been and will continue to be part of our marian family i'm excited because i will get to come back every couple weeks father kaz has given me the green light um so it's going to be a lot of travel but i'm super excited to be able to spend time with my mom but i'm super excited to be able to come back so you will see me at masses popping up periodically you will see me on first saturdays you will see me on the chat every saturday that i'm not here physically but i'll be joining you on the chat so there's a lot of good stuff to look forward to but most of all let's keep praying pray for the ukraine ukraine pray for russia pray for this conversion of russia pray for the consecration and um i know i keep saying this is it but don't forget on march 25th um the church will be joining together in a consecration prayer of ukraine and russia and i will be joining that myself because the holy father has invited all the priests and bishops to be part of this what an incredible opportunity for us to pray for peace in the world and remember jesus said mankind will not have peace until he turns with trust to his mercy and so this is our opportunity to turn with trust to his mercy well god bless all of you this is not goodbye but it is a big thank you and we'll see you throughout and keep coming to the shrine though because every saturday as i said we'll still play these and we'll see you next saturday as i log on with the chats for you and until then may almighty god bless you and through the intercession of saint joseph may he protect you and the blessed mother guides you in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen you

Channel: Divine Mercy

Views: 222,295

Keywords: Divine Mercy, Mercy, Jesus, Christ, Marian, priest, grace, pray, prays, praying, chris alar, alar, fr. Chris, fr. alar, Catholic, Church, God, fr. chris alar, blessed virgin, blessing, worship, Salvation, Marians, Marian Fathers, St. Joseph, Terror of Demons, Sleeping St. Joseph, Holy Family, Cotignac, March 19, May 1

Id: PV_BZO4rdpw

Length: 85min 5sec (5105 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 19 2022