Discernment Of Spirits, Prophecy In Times Of Confusion I Fr. Chris Alar
Summary
Discernment is a process of trying to figure out what s right and what s not right in the world. Discernment comes in many forms, and discernment is one of the most important forms of discernment we can have. In this episode, Father James Altman talks about discernment and how to discern in the confusing times we live in.
Transcript
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Remember, God can't talk to us if we're doing all the talking.
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If we're doing all the talking, that's why in religious life, we have silent time.
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And people say, I don't understand that. What's the purpose of having silent time?
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One of the things that we're facing today is discernment.
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Discernment is a process of trying to figure out what's right.
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We have discernment in spirits, in things to do and not to do that, you know, whether you're deciding to get married or you're called to do something else or date this person or not.
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But also in terms of, especially today, who do we follow?
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So there's all sorts of confusion in the church.
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Our Lord said, when they strike the shepherd, the sheep will scatter.
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Well, it certainly seems that from Rome, there are very confusing things are going on.
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So people don't know anymore what's up and what's down.
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Well, I follow, like in the early church, you know, I'm a follower of Paul or of Peter or of, you know, of Jude or any of the apostles.
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You're supposed to be a follower of Jesus Christ, but now it's confusing.
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Now, am I following Archbishop, you know, Corleone or Bishop Schneider or Cardinal Burke, you know, if we're trying to stay in the Orthodox crowd, then there's a whole bunch of others that we could say we're following.
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And you can't somehow say today, no, I'm just following, you know, the teaching of the church and the Pope, of course.
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Does that mean you're actually following Father James Martin, whom the Pope seems to agree with?
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And we need discernment as well in terms of prophecy, because today we have a lot of prophecy going around and no surprise, we all feel like we're in the end times.
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And so looking at the prophecies, the messages from heaven that have come through Our Lady, particularly over the past 100 years or so, it's very consoling.
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Obviously, but how do we discern if it's true or not, or if we should be listening or not?
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During the time of the children of Fatima, it wasn't yet approved.
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So you can't always say, well, is it approved by the church?
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How about all those people who were there with the children of Fatima?
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To suss this out, we have with us someone who's been with us before, and he's been so great at answering especially all the hard questions that we asked him back again.
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Did you know that massive companies like DoorDash, Etsy, Fry's Food, Jay's Jewelers, and even Hallmark are emailing their customers for the opportunity to opt out of Mother's Day announcements for this month?
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This is the latest erasure of women, and especially mothers, by the radical globalist agenda, entirely against LifeSite's pro-life and pro-family mission.
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And that's why, during the month of May, LifeSite honors mothers around the world who have lovingly brought the culture of life into their homes and neighborhoods.
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In fact, we at LifeSite are proud to launch our worldwide LifeSite Spiritual Bouquet for Mothers.
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To dedicate your mother or a mother that you know into LifeSite Spiritual Bouquet for Mothers, simply click on Spiritual Bouquet for Mothers in the link below.
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Be sure to add your name and hers, and by adding your names, you add new spiritual life into our bouquet that will be offered up in prayer by our entire LifeSite staff.
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And Father James Altman will be praying especially for you and offering a very special blessing to all participants.
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So, in addition to Father Altman, remember the whole LifeSite staff will offer up in prayer every single person added to LifeSite's Spiritual Bouquet for Mothers.
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So, don't miss your chance to add your name and a mother that you know, or your own mother, and you can see the bouquet and prayer accompanying it in the link below.
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Mothers deserve our honor and respect, not being canceled.
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Click the link and enter LifeSite's Spiritual Bouquet for Mothers for you and your mother.
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And together, we will opt in to the culture of life.
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Thank you, John Henry. It's great to be back. Always enjoy your show, and I'm honored to be here.
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We are, as I said in the intro, in need of discernment.
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But one of the big questions is how to do that, because things are so confusing.
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And let's start with the big one, the confusion in the church nowadays.
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The first thing that Satan uses, he has three great tools.
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That he uses it against mankind in his desire to give us the same fate he got, which was to be banished from God.
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And his three tools are pride, which started all the way back in the garden.
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The second is fear, which we experienced during COVID, Satan playing up on our fear.
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And now we see that everywhere from gender ideology to personal pronouns and everything in addition.
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So we have to then tackle this confusion by understanding what is God teaching us through his church.
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And a big part of that is not just what's written in doctrine, but also knowing a discernment of spirits of his will for your life.
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And this is important because God has given us free will.
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He said, we're like little children on top of a mountain.
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He said, God puts a fence around the top of the mountain to protect us from falling off the cliff.
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But within that fence, he lets us run around and do whatever we want to do within that guideline.
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And I thought, what a beautiful way to explain that G.K. Chesterton did.
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Because that fence is the laws of God, the Ten Commandments, the teaching of the church.
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And I think it was Augustine that said, I loved it.
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And so, because what that means is that if you truly desire to please God, your will will then become perfectly in line with his will.
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That's why the Blessed Virgin Mary was a perfect example.
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You know, Father Stephen Shire, who was a priest that I met, he had an experience where he had died and went before the judgment throne of Christ, ended up being revived.
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But he said that the Trinity cannot say no to Mary.
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And the answer is because her will is perfectly aligned with God's will.
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And so, everything she desires ends up being God's will.
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And so, how do we know, though, what those things are?
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How do we know how to discern if we're not sure?
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You and I have talked about before, marriage or the priesthood, for example.
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And, you know, we can make some big decisions that we need God's help.
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You know, a lot of things God does not restrict us.
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Like, do I want to use the nice dishes tonight at dinner or the casual dinner dishes?
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But in the larger decisions, he does give us guidelines.
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I saw an article, one of my favorite philosophers is Peter Kreft out of Boston College.
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How he's remained there over the years is a grace of God because he's a light in the darkness
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But he said, you look at seven places, and here's what they are.
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Scripture tells us flat out many times through the Ten Commandments and others what God's will
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Christ establishing his church in Matthew 16, 18 clearly gave his authority to the church.
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And if the church gives you church teaching on things like contraception, abortion, you know
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He said, we can use our human reason to be able to determine if something is right or wrong.
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Now, sometimes it may be appropriate to speak up, and sometimes it may not be appropriate to
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So it depends when you're discerning whether to say something or do something.
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You must, Thomas Aquinas told us, you must follow your conscience.
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Now, don't let that be a scapegoat, though, because you are also obligated to inform your
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So if you say, well, my conscience says, my conscience tells me it's okay to promote gay
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marriage, or my conscience tells me it's good to use contraception because I can't have another
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Well, you haven't properly informed your conscience.
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So this is an important part to know about conscience.
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And then our innate sense of right, well, basically, that's what conscience is, is our innate sense
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The sixth, he said, was our instincts, you know, to flight or fight or, you know, to say,
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And in especially contemplative, silent prayer, listening for God's guidance.
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Now, here's what Peter Kreeft said, and I thought this was fascinating.
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He said, if even one of those seven voices, scripture, church teaching, the circumstances,
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conscience, your instincts, and prayer, he said, if even one of those says no, don't do
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You then have properly discerned something that is very, very a big decision in your life.
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And for me, how I always knew if my decision was based on God's will was peace.
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So I like to say, look at those seven sources, but also the fruit.
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Do you have peace or do you have anxiety and a restlessness?
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Remember, St. Augustus said, our hearts will be restless until they rest in you.
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So a good measure to measure by that Peter Kreeft teaches us.
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Because I think this is the big question for a lot of Catholics nowadays.
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It's like, oof, how do we apply that to, you know, because there's different opinions
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Different opinions, even among the best of the clergy.
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How do we discern what we are to follow when we have destabilization right from Rome?
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First of all is you go right to the church teaching itself.
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And we can find that, you know, in not only dogmatic revelation, but church doctrine, the
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church's defined teaching, where I think the confusion comes, as just as our Lord said,
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and many have prophesied, even Mary said, will become within the church, bishops against
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Um, I am shocked that we have certain bishops that are saying and doing what they're doing.
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I mean, we don't even have to go into the German bishops at the synod, you know, pushing
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This is clearly not in line with church teaching.
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So we have to first inform our conscience of what church teaching actually is.
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Right here in the United States, we have bishops kneeling down in honor of, uh, civil groups
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that are causing revolts, um, and kneeling down in honor, um, you know, of course all lives
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matter, but kneeling down to a group, uh, that has openly stated on their website, promotion
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of abortion, transgenderism, gay marriage, destruction of the patriarchy, and Marxism.
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Now, all five of those things has been condemned by the Catholic church.
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Leo XIII, especially, wrote much on all those topics.
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And yet we got bishops kneeling down in honor of BLM and, and, and, and supporting this
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Are they even realizing that all five tenets of that movement are against church teaching?
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This has to do with something that is bigger and, in, in, in, in, in, in called human life
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And so, we have to first educate ourselves on what the church really teaches.
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And, you know, John Henry, I'm sure you guys are the same.
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I get letters all the time saying this particular bishop said it was okay to use contraception.
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Or this particular bishop said that it was okay in certain circumstances to have an abortion.
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And we always have to write back, unfortunately, that bishop is not in line with Catholic teaching.
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And so, we, we have to educate ourselves to what the church actually does teach.
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And, and, you know, a lot of people are confused.
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And so, I always say, if, if you're still confused, use the discernments of spirits.
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You know, the Ignatian spirituality is a very strong thing.
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And Ignatian taught us that there were three rules.
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And if I may go into these real quick, they may help some of you.
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Ignatian said, whenever you have to make a decision and you're not sure, you know, church
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But there's no teaching on a church teaching that says I should be a priest or get married.
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So, so, so I have to, I have to discern the spirit.
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And sometimes you really do have two good choices.
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You know, I was engaged to be married prior to becoming a priest.
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I honestly believe that God left me that choice.
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Yes, many times there are right answers and wrong answers.
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Now, for instance, I use the example of the dishes.
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Do you clear the plates before the cups or the cups before the plates?
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Okay, I think God lives that to your free will.
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But in a big decision, he has a plan for you and a telos.
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This is the fulfillment of what his plan is for us.
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Now, sometimes those can have multiple answers.
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Like I really feel if God, if I would have made the choice to become a father and a husband,
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He would have said now, okay, you made the choice to be a husband and a father.
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Now be the best husband and be the best father that you can be.
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I had a woman once, John Henry, come to me for direction.
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And she said, Father, I know I missed my call to be a nun.
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I am absolutely convinced God wanted me to be a nun.
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I'm not going to drop everything and I'm going to go become a nun.
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She said, I'm married with three young children.
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Well, no, that's no longer God's will for you to become a nun when you've made already
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the choice to be married and have three children.
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He will then say now to her, be the best wife, be the best mother that you can be.
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What did Ignatius tell us prior to making those decisions?
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Well, it sounded like she failed because she didn't properly discern that decision before
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she made it if that was God's will for her to be a nun.
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Now she used to be the good mother and parent and spouse.
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Rule one is be attentive to false consolations.
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Sometimes the evil one can make something look good when it's really not.
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Another person I was counseling, a young adult, she believed this person that came into her
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life, was dragging her into drugs, pornography, not going to mass.
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He had no real sense of a moral compass, but she kept saying, I think I can change him.
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And I said, okay, see over time how this leads you?
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Well, after several months of counseling her, he still wasn't going to church.
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He was talking her into promiscuity and fornication.
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Now, at some point you have to realize that God doesn't want you to be drugged down, but
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yet the evil one can use it that this is a good thing.
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To cut out something out of your life, it is taking you away from God.
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And so this seems like a consolation, but it's not necessarily.
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Now, the second rule that St. Ignatius taught us was never make a major decision in times
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Because in times of desolation, our mind and our free will or our moral or our judgment,
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our ability to make good judgments is impaired.
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That's why the church teaches alcohol is okay, but not to the point of overindulgence where
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And if you are in a time of desolation, you're going to make decisions that are not at that
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time and place best for you that you would have otherwise made in times of consolation.
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My grandmother was wracked with severe pain, arthritis, and a time in 1993, it reached its
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That was a moment of extreme desolation, and she made a decision you can't reverse by taking
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And so, I find a very personal connection with this rule.
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Never make a major decision in times of desolation.
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Pray to God that that consolation will come to give you clarity.
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The third rule is that the angel of light is not always the angel of light.
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The deceiver can act like things are helping us, but the real intention is to tempt us.
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A lot of guys in our religious community can fall into this trap, self-righteousness.
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I'm not saying my brothers do this, but I think religious life as a whole can have this
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All of a sudden, now, you're judging others because they're not living up to your standards.
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They're, you're expecting them to do the same as you.
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So he'll encourage you, the evil one, to become judgmental.
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Remember the Gospel of John Henry with the tax collector and the Pharisee, where the Pharisee
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But thank you, Lord, for not making me like this guy.
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And then they go to the tax collector and he says, Lord, have mercy on me, a poor sinner.
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And so we have to be careful because sometimes the evil one can make something pure to be good,
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like taking on too many ministries is another one in our community.
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If, if you take on too many ministries, all of a sudden now you're not giving ample time
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And so he'll, he'll present this to you that you need to be perfect and only God is perfect,
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Yes, only though in love doesn't challenge us to be perfect in never making a mistake.
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And, and, and, and if we find ourselves judging others and trying to be self-righteous,
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So these are three great rules that St. Ignatius gives us in Discernment of Spirits.
00:22:14.420
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One of the other areas of discernment that I think, especially today, people are wondering about is discernment of prophecies.
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People are taking a lot of consolation right now in the messages of Our Lady, Fatima, Akita, La Salette, Lorde,
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because they had words for us which right now are so consoling.
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It's like direct messages from heaven, which I think we seem to need right now because things are just so crazy.
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Yet, when you're dealing with prophecy and when you're dealing with private revelation, you need to discern that.
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And I'm not even talking about the ones that are already officially approved by the church because then it should be obvious.
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Fatima should be so painfully obvious that if you ignore it, well, that's kind of strange on you.
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But with regard to even Fatima, at the time when the children were receiving the apparitions, it wasn't approved.
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In fact, in some ways it seemed to be even discouraged, yet the people went.
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So there must be a kind of discernment, even about private revelation and things that happen,
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that can be made by individuals outside of the guidance of the church when that's not there yet.
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And we want to do that especially now because we know that there are false prophets as well who are wrong.
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And as you already said, the devil can appear as an angel of light.
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So specifically with regard to prophecies and private revelation, what's a good guide?
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The answer is, is there anything in the message, approved or not, that is contrary to the teaching of the church?
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Is it 100% commensurate with the church fathers, with the magisterium, with scripture, with the saints?
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Okay, because now somebody could come back and say, yeah, but Father, there's some things that the saints haven't touched on.
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Like today, artificial intelligence, you know, these are the kind of things, transgenderism.
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I mean, what did Thomas Aquinas say about transgenderism?
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I mean, it's a difficult topic because it's developed so much over the last more recent times that we won't have, we don't have a guideline.
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One is anything contrary to the teaching of the church.
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Now, just because it's not in the Bible doesn't mean you can't accept it.
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Because like I said, what does the Bible say about artificial intelligence?
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Because the date and time that the Bible was written, artificial intelligence was not an issue.
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And so we have to first understand, just because it's not in the Bible doesn't mean it's not a moral issue.
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And just because the church hasn't made an official statement on it either doesn't mean that we cannot look to it for, like you said,
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certain encouragement or hope in the future that Our Lady is going to address these problems.
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Now, the key is, one, to make sure, again, that there's nothing contrary to the teaching of the church.
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It doesn't mean it has to be in the Bible or in the Magisterium documents, but not contrary to it.
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Thomas Aquinas said, you must follow your conscience, even if it is in error.
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But as I said on one of our previous shows, John Henry, if we use that line of reasoning, we have to remember,
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Aquinas also said we're morally obligated to inform our conscience.
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We are morally obligated to inform our conscience.
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So if Mary appears and it's not approved and she says, well, in cases of rape or incest, abortion is totally allowed.
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And the churching of the church will tell us, no, that's not true.
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If she comes and says that we need to, you know, fast on every Wednesday and Friday with bread and water,
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like there's been some messages that she's done, that's up to you and your conscience.
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If your conscience tells you, I should be praying for the holy souls in purgatory and fasting every Wednesday on bread and water,
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and you medically are able and you're healthy enough to do it, then God is speaking to you.
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You know, God is speaking to you in that apparition.
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If your conscience is really convicted that Mary said at a particular apparition site that you need to fast every Wednesday,
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you know, eat meat not on Fridays or abstain on Fridays, but I want you to fast on Wednesdays,
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and you are really convicted by this, and you really feel this in your heart to the point that you feel guilty if you don't,
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heaven is speaking to you, heaven is making it very clear to you that this message is for you.
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Now, there are many things I read, and I don't feel that level of effective response.
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So please, if God is putting something that strong on your heart, for me, you know, personally, it was for persecuted Christians.
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You know, to pray for persecuted Christians, what's happening in the Middle East, we don't hear about.
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Why is our Holy Father not asking every Christian to pray and fast for Catholic priests in Nigeria?
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Every day I turn on the news, there's another one being kidnapped or murdered.
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Now, there's no, when Mary appeared to one of the priests that we know in Nigeria,
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and told her to pray and fast for these priests, I don't need the church approval for that.
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So, hopefully, we use that as a guideline, your own conscience, that will help guide you into doing what you know God is asking you to do.
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If you don't mind, Father, that raises another question, because it's an amazing discernment process that you've given us.
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But it's not that kind of hearing, because I'm sure God does speak to some people as he has, audibly, but that's as rare as rare.
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But a lot of people, me included sometimes, wonders, what does that mean?
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There are two very long, traditional spiritualities of the church, Carmelite spirituality and Ignatian spirituality.
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In the Ignatian spirituality, they use the term contemplation to be more about inserting yourself in maybe a gospel scene where Christ, let's say, is in the boat.
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The storm hits, and Jesus is sleeping, and the Ignatian exercises will help guide you through what they call contemplation of picturing yourself in the scene, and what would you say, how would you react, and what would you learn from Christ in that situation?
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But the Carmelite understanding of contemplation has resonated with me.
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And remember, there's no right or wrong answer here.
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The church does not say the Carmelite way is better than the Ignatian way or vice versa.
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But the Carmelite understanding of contemplation is different.
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You need to set aside some time, even if you have to schedule it in, your date book.
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You need to treat the Lord like a good personal friend that you put on.
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I mean, I know this sounds very superficial, but put him in your date book.
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I'm going to go to the church and do adoration.
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Now, what that spirituality of contemplation, the catechism tells us, there's three levels of mental prayer.
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We have vocal prayer, which is our traditional Hail Marys, Our Fathers.
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Prayers we learned at an early age, we vocally recite them.
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Then we have more meditative prayers, like maybe the rosary.
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It can be a meditative prayer where I meditate on pounding the nail, you know, into Jesus's hands, you know, in the sorrowful mysteries, you know, in the fifth sorrowful mystery.
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And that simply is spending time in prayer saying nothing.
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Basically, what it is, is kind of when I had a very close friend who was unconscious in the hospital.
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So, I stayed at his bedside for a while, several days, and this person was unconscious.
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So, when you go into adoration, if you're looking, remember, God can't talk to us if we're doing all the talking.
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If we're doing all the talking, that's why in religious life, we have silent time.
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So, schedule some time in adoration, and go before the Lord in quiet, where you say nothing.
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Take the divine mercy image, and just gaze upon it.
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Like the divine mercy image right here behind me.
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Let those rays sink in and say, Lord, I'm here.
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And I tell you, I denied my vocational call to the priesthood for 30 years.
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And I finally heard it, because I never believed it could be true.
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Not only did I hear it, but it went straight to the heart, whether it's in quiet, contemplation, adoration.
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So, spend some time in silent prayer before the Lord.
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You don't even make an Our Father or a Hail Mary.
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You simply gaze upon Him in love, and you let Him do the talking.
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There was a man with John V&A, and John V&A noticed how prayerful he was.
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And St. John V&A asked him, what do you do when you're praying?
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And so, what a beautiful spirituality, because it's easy.
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When that comes to you, it comes as, for instance, your example of the priesthood came as a conviction of a something to do.
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Sort of like you described it in your heart, but they come as ideas in your mind as well that seem to come just at that time.
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Once they're there, once this, you know, you're in adoration or you're in prayer, you're looking at an image of the crucifix or a lady or whatever, and you get this conviction or idea or whatever it is that you believe is from the Lord, do you run with that or do you discern first?
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After you do the opening of the heart, and actually, I'll go back to Father John Harden that really laid this out well.
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He said there's three things you've got to do on the peripheral to be able to open yourself up to receive the voice of God in prayer and to be able to discern the spirits properly, like Father Timothy Gallagher says in Discernment of the Spirits.
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First, Father John Harden said this, attitude, peace, and confidence.
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He said the first thing you've got to do is have the right attitude.
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You've got to open up your heart that if God tells you something you don't want to hear, are you going to listen?
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Now, me, for 30 years, I would listen to God if it's what I wanted to hear.
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So, you know, if I had an attitude, it was, yeah, Lord, I agree with you as long as you agree with me.
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But he said you've got to have the right predisposition.
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You must have yourself opened to understanding what God's doing in you.
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And you have to be willing, if he gives you the opposite answer of what you want to hear, to say okay.
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And then he said once you open your heart and he guides you, you will have peace.
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If you make a decision and it's filled with anxiety, depression, restlessness, most likely that's not of God.
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But my gosh, he was full of boils and, you know, his animals died and his family was punished.
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And so, there will be trials, but that doesn't mean there can't be peace.
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You know, I've had some of the greatest peace when I was going through the greatest trials because I knew I was doing God's will.
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One of my greatest trials is being criticized and called a hater or a bigot because I teach the Catholic Church teaching on marriage, on abortion.
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I've been called a Nazi because I stood up for preservation of religious liberty.
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Now, how you connect Nazism with the preservation of religious liberty, I have no idea.
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And so, I can have suffering and trials in the midst of a lot of peace.
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And that's why I so much admire and appreciate LifeSite.
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You guys have taken that, you know, you didn't waver from the truth.
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Even at the expense of being canceled, you never wavered from the truth.
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And the third thing that John Harden said is if you open your heart, the attitude, you then, God directs you, you will have peace.
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And the third thing is you've got to have confidence that even if you are down a road that's very difficult,
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even if you are being challenged beyond what you think is your limit,
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you have confidence that what God is putting you through is in your best interest.
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For me, this goes back to Faustina's message of trust.
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Because St. Faustina's entire message was trust me.
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So, even if the Lord makes it look like he's going to cancel us,
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destroy my name out in the public world because I'm a bigot and a hater and all that,
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I have confidence that God's providence is overseeing it, and I trust him.
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As long as I keep those three things in mind, I will persevere.
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We have our elections coming up, and I might be assigned to go to Africa or to India.
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And so, that to me is very important because when God speaks to superiors,
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you can be known that it's, unless they ask you to do something sinful,
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And so, for you out there, the laity, I would recommend a spiritual director.
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Because what a spiritual director can do is help walk you through those processes.
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And if you're obedient to your spiritual director, Jesus told St. Faustina,
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listen and reveal yourself to your confessor and spiritual director.
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And so, what Jesus told St. Faustina was very important.
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If you want to truly know God's will and you're having a tough time discerning it yourself,
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And you commit, you find that one that you can relate to.
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And if they show you and lead you through being a prayerful priest,
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But the question is, will you be willing to follow?
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And then, if you have confidence and trust in God, you will.
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And then, you know completely you're doing God's will.
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Even if your spiritual director messes up and accidentally takes you down a different road,
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Because you were obedient to who he gave you as a spiritual director.
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Guaranteed, you will get to heaven if you follow the commandments
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and you follow a spiritual director to do the will of God as best that he teaches you
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and you stay within the teachings of the church, not sinning.
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God will reward that because you're being obedient.
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Father, thank you so very much for taking us through these confusing waters.
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And I think there's so much more clarity for people now
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in terms of discernment on these very many things.
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And God bless all the viewers here that are trying to find God's will in their life.
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00:42:23.600
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