St. Stanislaus: The Padre Pio of Poland - Living Divine Mercy (EWTN) Ep. 135 w/ Fr. Chris Alar, MIC

[Music] GL we hi I'm father Chris AAR the Maran fathers here at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy and it's always an honor to have you with us here on EWTN for living Divine Mercy now we Maran fathers were founded over 350 years ago in Poland as the first men's Community ever founded in that country and the first ever to Bear the title of the Immaculate Conception no wonder why God used us for divine mercy because God's greatest gift of Mercy ever bestowed on a creature was the Immaculate Conception so who is this saint St Stanislas Pinsky that was our founder well for that let us turn to Father Thaddius lton one of our Scholars who will tell you a little bit more about this important saint thank you Father Chris this is Father Thaddius today I want to talk about a topic that's dear to my heart and that is our founder St Stanislas pinski I have to admit when I first entered in 2007 that was the year of his beatification and there weren't a lot of things translated into English from his original Works he's from a different era the way he speaks is different and we may have a difficult time forming a relationship with him compared to a saint like St Padre peio now I know that some of you might have heard about father Gabriel Silo he was one of my fellow marians he's now working in the Philippines and he's full-blooded Italian so of course he's a guy who will talk to me about Padre Pio and the stories that he has and I have to admit I'm not an expert on Padre Pio when I was in Italy this past year I had wanted to see if there was a way to visit San giovan rundo but it was too far in terms of trains and fitting it into my schedule so I can't offer you tons of details but what I do know is I think everybody knows pad is The Miracle Worker he's a man who had the Stigmata a man who could bu locate I remember even stories about him appearing in the air for an an Air Force pilot in the midst of a battle uh there are so many accounts of people coming to him asking for prayers for people who were ill and even after he said a simple full prayer the person was restored to health and I could probably go on and on and on about the stories and it's wonderful that we have a saint like him someone who could read Hearts who could read someone's conscience when they were afraid in the confessional to admit everything and today I want to draw a comparison between Saints stas Pinsky and St Padre peio and I want to do that not to like one up St Padre peio or draw people away from pjo to get more people for St stanas but I think it helps get him a bit closer to what we understand when we talk about Holiness in terms of a priest but I was privileged years ago when I was visiting Poland for a conference for the association of Marian helpers uh in lehan that after that I could spend 5 days my personal retreat at the tomb of St stas in maranki gura cavaria about 50 kilm or maybe about 25 miles outside of Warsaw and it was a beautiful time because I was able to trans transition from having read all sorts of things about St Stanis and translated some of his Works to actually being there actually getting some living sense of what is the heart of this man like and I know sometimes we get this image of him being pretty Stern pretty severe and his examples can be pretty strong and in that I would also say he's a little like Padre p we have those stories too of people who were in The confessional and Padre Pio was pretty courageous in being able to call someone out and saying no I'm not going to allow you to confess or I'm not going to give you Absolution because I'm aware that you're holding something back and that you're not fully repentant so we know from pipio that there was a sternness but we also know that sternness came because he was such a loving father he's basically telling his children no I'm not going to pretend that you putting your hand on the fire and telling me that it doesn't hurt is true because I know that when you put your hand on the fire it's going to burn your hand off and I'm not going to let you keep doing that and I think of my own spiritual father who often has been pretty firm with me and with others and I accept it because I know that's a sign of his love it's how devoted he is for me to grow in Holiness and how zealous he is for me to reach Holiness and that that's what St Stanislas has if you read his Works he has the mystical temple of God which we could say was before his time because that was written not for priests or religious it was written for Lay people and in it he's emphasizing everybody who's baptized is a temple of the Most Holy Trinity and is called to live in authentic and deep Holiness and so we read in these lines not just St stain's instruction because he gives many analogies about the temple and the Altar and the incense but beyond that you can see his thoroughness how much he wants each person to know the Living God and not just on an intellectual level but if you read his Works he's very simple and that was something too that I think surprised me because you can find Saints today where perhaps you learn something new that you never knew before you could read St stenos and perhaps say oh yeah you know it's nothing like Terri knew that stuff that I already kind of understood and maybe he he drove it home in a more powerful way but that's part of the character of s stos sauce in fact one of the first kind of prongs of our charism after he founded the marians was to catechize the simple because religious in his day were the ones who went out to the poor communities they went out to the mission parishes where the dasis and priest often wouldn't reach because a lack of time or because a lack of interest and he wanted to teach the basic things which is you know for instance father Chris about living the faith his series about living and teaching the faith it's about teaching us what we in one sense should already know that's very much like St Stannis I emphasize this because St stanas is one who burns with Zeal for our Holiness and he's one who still accompanies us when I was there at his tomb it was beautiful for my heart because I could recognize the truth truth of what we say about the communion of the Saints he's not far off over there in heaven you know enjoying an eternal Bliss and looking down every now and then going oh that thus needs some help he's actively engaged Heaven is not distant from us he's a father who walks among his children and is very interested in our misery and in our difficulty and if I compare St stanos to Padre Pio in terms of Miracles oh I could list off too many to actually count and I'm not saying that to boast I'm saying that because first we have only to look to the Miracles that brought about his canonization and his beatification his beatification was when he raised a fetus back to life in his mother's womb even after it was clearly verified by Med medical science that this fetus had died and now I believe Sebastian's name is a healthy young boy and then for the canonization a woman who went through a severe infection in her lungs and had no chance of recovery proving by medical documents that all they could do was wait for her death and then brought back to life when I believe her uncle prayed a novena to St Stanislas now those are modern examples but perhaps the example that affects me the most because on a personal level those who know me know that I have a great Devotion to St Raphael the Archangel I often think of him as the Forgotten Archangel because in the battle today the spiritual battle we often think of St Michael which is fine but I love the Book of Tobit and I was happy to find out that St stanos had in his senle which is where we have the shrine of St stanos today maranki where he's buried he had an altar to St Raphael and there's a story that this one of the women who was more or less a a noble woman she had land but she didn't like St stanos that could be for a different teaching segment because St stanos went through so many persecutions uh again much like Padre Pew who was shut down by many authori St stanos was actually even beaten up by one of the first men who joined the Marin physically uh because they didn't like how strict he was and how he insisted that they actually live a religious life but I'll get to that in a different top in a different time so this woman persecuted St stos SAU and if I remember correctly she wasn't happy that he got the deed to the land for the senle for the first not the first but one of the first Maring houses because it was originally a swamp no one wanted it so St stanos took it and through much effort and work with him and the other marians they changed the swamp into good Farmland into quite usable land so she got a little jealous over this she thought hey he got this land for nothing and now it's good now she persecuted him but then her daughter got severely ill and actually died and she came and ask St Stannis for help and she understood to some extent that God might have had his hand in this not as slapping her and punishing her in a mean way but warning her of her sin and so the next morning St stanisa celebrated mass at the altar of St Raphael and upon one of the slabs of marble he asked that her corpse be laid and as he was reciting the Gloria she came back to life much like we know what happened with the fetus St stos while he was still alive raised this girl to life just by his prayers he didn't have to do some kind of magic or do some amazing things over her body it was simply by his prayer now there are many many other instances of St stanos House's miracle in fact in one of our books under the banner of the Immaculate there are two prayers that we know from St Stanis where he invokes the Trinity asking for people to be healed and that is something we still have as proof of how people would come to him asking for him to anoint with oil not just the anointing of the sick but as a special prayer and they would obtain healing from him now to other examples I could keep adding on St stanas was the Confessor to the apostolic Nunu who later became one of the popes that wound up approving the marians of the Immaculate Conception and from what we understand even King John III seski sought his help both for counsel and also for confession he actually came by our Maring house to seek simply St sanus and left behind a cope that we have today so we know he was a well-respected Confessor so why do I share all of this of course I love him he's my founder but he's also my father and I would encourage you to in your needs and your Necessities turn to him he also loves you he's willing to still work miracles to teach you to help you to lead you along the path path that leads to Heaven not only me as a Maran but all of you who are listening so I invite you to ask him for his prayers thank you for listening back to you father Chris well thank you Father Thaddius is always great to learn from you about the history of our Marian congregation and of the church and it's important to remember that St Stanislas pepinsky who many are starting to call St Stan is the pat and saint of those in Mortal danger now why do I bring that up okay so many of you have contacted us saying father please pray for my children or my husband or my siblings because they've left the faith there is nothing that puts us more in Mortal danger than being away from God through his church and when we're not practicing our faith we are in most mortal danger so a lot while a lot of people say well I pray to St Monica from for my child yes she is a good saint for that but many people that we love co-workers family and friends are not children there are as I said others in our lives and so this is the saint to pray to um that we can bring The Graces to them to come back to our faith so let us make St Stanislas P chinsky or as I said saint Stan that some are calling him that Saint to be able to go to to pray for those who are away from the faith not going to church because they are putting themselves in Mortal danger as we said and it is this Grace given to the church by making him this patron saint that you can get a lot of help so since all of us have somebody we know that are away from the faith let us pray St Stanislas pray for them amen now another thing that St Stanislas is known for is that many young people pray to him for intercession and we have a great story now about a very fine young man named will Henry whose faith and love of the Rosary led him to starting a business here's his [Music] story will has rare spiritual qualities that I think are rarely seen in somebody his age and I noticed that even four years ago when we had our first conversation he was 10 or 11 at the time and those qualities have continued to grow a deep Love Of Christ a deep love of the desire to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and a desire to do that in a way that's practical and helpful to others and so in our conversations over time I've just seen that grow and grow and grow will Henry is a very special person people ask me who is this will Henry I've been friends with will and his family for about four years now I started making these these Irish penal rosaries and will loved them so much and he said to me he's like these are just amazing you should have a business doing it I said man I don't have the time I you got a real business to run and he said well I'll do it so we got him you know set up with a wholesaler and business license and the whole bit and here we are rings of the Lord hello I'm will [Music] [Music] Henry I do have five children and watching each of them become who they're supposed to be has been a wonderful experience in the beginning we provided the starting Capital we did have will take out some money from his his savings so he had skin in the game we also um helped with some of the product approval logo design those type of things and setting up the business I'm proud of of his determination of his Spirit to take the love he has for business and combine it with his um love for his faith and just the growth that has happened has been a wonderful thing to watch the idea of starting rings of the Lord came to me really quickly and after I started the website got the materials learned how to make the rosaries it all fell into place and that's how rings of the Lord started so I get most of my business through my website and the pillar news agency really gave um my website a lot of publicity to the public and it really sent a lot of people to my website with the article they wrote on my business and I am very grateful so the title came from when we were brainstorming ideas for the business and what we would call it and the ring on the Irish penal Rosary really sticks out and is the most important part and uh Steven came up with the idea of rings of the Lord of course playing on Lord of the Rings I'm 12 years old and I'm Will's brother uh we play a lot of golf together um we do soccer and we make rosaries and we serve on Sundays I'm part of the assembly line of making rosaries at this point I consider myself a rosary expert we really just look to see what looks the most beautiful but also doesn't lose that durable feel in the hands so we can't really put some beads with other like uh Rings or crucifixes because they just don't fit and that durable look is really lost when that happens so we really try to put the materials together that look the best the first time I discovered the Catholic faith was really I've had it all with me my entire life um and I really just have loved being Catholic and I love going to mass I love having the Eucharist and as a part of my life and the rosary is another big part of my faith and it was really important to me so my faith has really always been around me and it's just continued to grow with time in many aspects of Our Lives including Will's business we are learning how to live the Mysteries of the Rosary will has experienced joyful times as well as sorrowful ones in the growing of his small business and of course when a film crew shows interest that's a glorious time what I do for recreation is a lot of golf I love playing golf and I love just being outside in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina so the only sibling that is involved in the company is Walker everybody else is either a little too young to really get the knots right but hopefully as they get older I can let them start making rosaries and helping me my family and I love to a chen church we do it every Sunday and it's really important part of our life and it really is the center of our life my confirmation sponsor Father John David and I we love to talk about the faith and we love to discuss it and it really uh helps me on my journey to the faith and becoming a better Catholic each and every day and it's really important uh that I have such a great priest in my life I think we need more young adults like will in the world today especially in the church so of what's going on that's so beautiful in our Catholic faith these days is the product of the desire the excitement uh and the enthusiasm of young people will has an unusual ability to to say that to do something about it he's supported by his family he's supported by his church and so what he's doing is is uniquely powerful yeah I think having more kids like will in this world would be really good because they show you there would be more initiative and more entrepreneurialship and more taking charge of one's life and making a substantive difference in the actual world around him that he actually can affect I'm amazed at the business and how it's doing I'm amazed more at will at his determination his perseverance the way he studies other businesses and reaches out to make uh interviews happen or to grow all of it is for the glory of God I could say that it was all me but I would be lying if that was case it really I got lucky and it was just because of the grace of God that that happened uh really I helped it get there but I couldn't have done it without the Lord behind me and I'm I I just can't be thankful enough for that blessing so while many business lessons are being learned perhaps the most important lesson is the aligning of Our Lives to The Mysteries of the [Music] Rosary well thank you well it's always great great to see a young person loving to live their faith now speaking of living their faith let's go to meet a Maran as we hear about Brother David and his path to the religious [Music] life I was born and raised Catholic but to be honest most of my life I really didn't understand or know the idea of vocation or even a religious vocation I went to Catholic schools for most of my life from kindergarten through the 12th grade through high school but I never really thought that God might be calling me to a religious life uh until later later in life I became a single father I had a girlfriend and she became pregnant and to be honest that was scary I wasn't planning on becoming a father to a young boy my son Jacob is now 23 years old I love him very much um and so I thought I was called to a generous single life in Christ I came back into the church my son was baptized and received his sacraments and I thought I was called just to be a single Layman being very active in my Parish which I was happy to do and I became involved in different Ministries within my parish and just grew in my love for the Lord and our lady in the church and the sacraments um and I had a successful career working for a Property and Casualty Insurance company for over 20 years and sometime in December of 20120 I got a phone call from my director saying that I was going to lose my job that they were eliminating my position and I immediately thought that during that phone call that this was a blessing from God that he had other plans for me in my life um my son at that time was 21 years old Jacob had moved out of my home had a job had his own apartment and I wasn't directly responsible for him and I could look and and discern and see what God wanted me to do with my life and so I started to seriously take this to prayer I spoke with my pastor I started to go on different commy retreats to visit the different religious orders so um you know I truly believe that God called me to the Marans for his purposes um and our lady has been following me along the way and blessing [Music] me so um my plans with the Marans now I'll be uh starting Seminary studies at Franciscan University in Stubenville Ohio studying philosophy and so those are my immediate plans um as just to prepare for priesthood I hope one day with God's grace His blessings to become an ordained transitional Deacon and then an ordained priest with the Marian so my formation continues with uh with studies Divine Mercy I just have to smile because uh Divine Mercy is all around us I mean it begins with our lives uh it's God's active compassionate love that reaches out to meet our suffering Humanity um our physical and our spiritual suffering so it's God's compassionate love and in my own life um he's been so loving and good to me and to all my family um bringing me here to the Marans um blessing me tremendously throughout my life on June 5th 2016 Pope Francis canonized the Polish priest father stanos of Jesus and Mary pepinsky who was the founder of the congregation of Mary and fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary along with St Maria Elizabeth hustel blot of Sweden St Stanislas was the first saint canonized during the extraordinary Jubilee year of of Mercy 2016 St Stanis is the latest in a series of great polish Saints canonized in the past 35 years including St maximilan K St Fatina and St John Paul the great St Stannis lived in the 17th century and is remembered as a propagator and defender of the title of Mary's Immaculate Conception nearly 200 years prior to the church's proclamation of the Dogma in 1854 he was a great advocate of praying for the dead and the dying he provided tireless assistance to pastors and nearby parishes and he was a zealous promoter of the faith among the Ley we want to come to know this great new saint of the church and also to discover ways in which St Stannis pinski can be an inspiration for all of us [Music] today most merciful Jesus whose very nature it is to have compassion on us and to forgive us do not look upon our sins but upon our trust which we place in your infinite goodness receive us all into the Abode of your most Compassionate Heart and never let us escape from it we beg this of you by your love which unites you to the father and the Holy Spirit oh omnipotence of Divine Mercy salvation of sinful people your a sea of mercy and compassion you Aid those who entreat you with [Music] humility well thank you everybody for joining us and learning a little bit more about the founder of the Maran fathers St Stanislas Pinsky and please be with us next week as we'll discuss something that's going to apply to all of us sooner or later and that is end of life issues and what is Catholic Church teaching and our guest host will be Father Mark Baron so until then may almighty God bless you the father and of the son and of the holy spirit [Music] amen e

Channel: Divine Mercy

Views: 27,026

Keywords: Fr. Chris Alar, Chris Alar, Living Divine Mercy, EWTN, Shrine of Divine Mercy, marians, marian fathers, Jesus, Divine Mercy, St. Faustina, Fr. Thaddaeus Lancton, Padre Pio, St. Stanislaus, Immaculate Conception

Id: dTJISCfrZoA

Length: 27min 51sec (1671 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 11 2024