The John-Henry Westen Show - Discernment Of Spirits, Prophecy In Times Of Confusion I Fr. Chris Alar

00:00:00.000 Remember, God can't talk to us if we're doing all the talking.

00:00:03.580 If we're doing all the talking, that's why in religious life, we have silent time.

00:00:09.340 And people say, I don't understand that. What's the purpose of having silent time?

00:00:13.320 It's so that you can hear God speak.

00:00:21.820 One of the things that we're facing today is discernment.

00:00:25.960 Discernment is a process of trying to figure out what's right.

00:00:29.180 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.

00:00:39.560 But also in terms of, especially today, who do we follow?

00:00:45.460 So there's all sorts of confusion in the church.

00:00:49.600 Our Lord said, when they strike the shepherd, the sheep will scatter.

00:00:52.740 Well, it certainly seems that from Rome, there are very confusing things are going on.

00:00:57.680 So people don't know anymore what's up and what's down.

00:01:01.280 Who do you follow?

00:01:02.120 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.

00:01:11.180 You're supposed to be a follower of Jesus Christ, but now it's confusing.

00:01:14.700 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.

00:01:28.520 And you can't somehow say today, no, I'm just following, you know, the teaching of the church and the Pope, of course.

00:01:36.920 Does that mean you're actually following Father James Martin, whom the Pope seems to agree with?

00:01:42.900 These are very confusing times.

00:01:44.400 So we need discernment.

00:01:45.820 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.

00:01:56.840 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.

00:02:06.440 It gives us some clarity.

00:02:07.540 Obviously, but how do we discern if it's true or not, or if we should be listening or not?

00:02:13.220 During the time of the children of Fatima, it wasn't yet approved.

00:02:17.460 So you can't always say, well, is it approved by the church?

00:02:20.940 How about all those people who were there with the children of Fatima?

00:02:24.500 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.

00:02:33.620 Father Chris Ailar is with us.

00:02:35.240 So stay tuned.

00:02:37.540 Hello, friends.

00:02:38.580 We have a great idea for you for Mother's Day.

00:02:40.580 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?

00:02:53.460 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.

00:03:03.180 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.

00:03:12.560 In fact, we at LifeSite are proud to launch our worldwide LifeSite Spiritual Bouquet for Mothers.

00:03:18.560 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.

00:03:29.440 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.

00:03:42.920 And Father James Altman will be praying especially for you and offering a very special blessing to all participants.

00:03:50.120 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.

00:03:59.120 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.

00:04:11.100 Mothers deserve our honor and respect, not being canceled.

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00:04:24.080 Thank you, and may God bless you.

00:04:27.360 Father, welcome back to the program.

00:04:29.160 Thank you, John Henry. It's great to be back. Always enjoy your show, and I'm honored to be here.

00:04:33.820 We are, as I said in the intro, in need of discernment.

00:04:39.040 But one of the big questions is how to do that, because things are so confusing.

00:04:43.920 And let's start with the big one, the confusion in the church nowadays.

00:04:48.780 How are we supposed to know what to do?

00:04:50.660 The first thing that Satan uses, he has three great tools.

00:04:55.680 That he uses it against mankind in his desire to give us the same fate he got, which was to be banished from God.

00:05:04.020 And his three tools are pride, which started all the way back in the garden.

00:05:08.220 The second is fear, which we experienced during COVID, Satan playing up on our fear.

00:05:16.160 And the third is confusion.

00:05:18.680 And now we see that everywhere from gender ideology to personal pronouns and everything in addition.

00:05:28.160 So we have to then tackle this confusion by understanding what is God teaching us through his church.

00:05:36.300 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.

00:05:45.300 And this is important because God has given us free will.

00:05:50.180 You know, he doesn't give us license.

00:05:52.620 J.K. Chesterton said it best.

00:05:54.280 He said, we're like little children on top of a mountain.

00:05:56.700 He said, God puts a fence around the top of the mountain to protect us from falling off the cliff.

00:06:05.240 But within that fence, he lets us run around and do whatever we want to do within that guideline.

00:06:12.780 And I thought, what a beautiful way to explain that G.K. Chesterton did.

00:06:17.220 Because that fence is the laws of God, the Ten Commandments, the teaching of the church.

00:06:24.440 But within it, we have freedom.

00:06:26.880 And I think it was Augustine that said, I loved it.

00:06:30.320 Love God and then do whatever you want.

00:06:34.740 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.

00:06:45.800 That's why the Blessed Virgin Mary was a perfect example.

00:06:48.800 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.

00:07:00.660 But he said that the Trinity cannot say no to Mary.

00:07:05.440 He said, so always invoke her intercession.

00:07:07.360 And I used to think, well, why?

00:07:08.660 And the answer is because her will is perfectly aligned with God's will.

00:07:14.020 And so, everything she desires ends up being God's will.

00:07:18.220 And so, this is really what's powerful.

00:07:21.320 And so, how do we know, though, what those things are?

00:07:26.080 How do we know how to discern if we're not sure?

00:07:30.480 Like two good things.

00:07:31.500 You and I have talked about before, marriage or the priesthood, for example.

00:07:35.240 Or marriage or entering a convent.

00:07:38.700 And, you know, we can make some big decisions that we need God's help.

00:07:42.660 You know, a lot of things God does not restrict us.

00:07:45.440 Like, do I want to use the nice dishes tonight at dinner or the casual dinner dishes?

00:07:52.620 You know, God gives us free will here.

00:07:54.500 He gives us freedom.

00:07:55.300 Let's not be scrupulous.

00:07:57.020 But in the larger decisions, he does give us guidelines.

00:08:00.760 I saw an article, one of my favorite philosophers is Peter Kreft out of Boston College.

00:08:06.660 How he's remained there over the years is a grace of God because he's a light in the darkness

00:08:12.460 of Catholic, sometimes secular universities.

00:08:16.240 But he said, you look at seven places, and here's what they are.

00:08:21.720 He said, number one, Scripture.

00:08:24.500 Scripture tells us flat out many times through the Ten Commandments and others what God's will

00:08:29.480 is very clear.

00:08:30.960 The second is church teaching.

00:08:33.180 Christ establishing his church in Matthew 16, 18 clearly gave his authority to the church.

00:08:40.520 And if the church gives you church teaching on things like contraception, abortion, you know

00:08:47.920 you're following God's will.

00:08:50.020 The third one is human reason.

00:08:52.600 He said, we can use our human reason to be able to determine if something is right or wrong.

00:08:59.860 Very clear.

00:09:01.360 We can use that reason God gave us.

00:09:04.000 The other one is the circumstances.

00:09:06.680 Now, sometimes it may be appropriate to speak up, and sometimes it may not be appropriate to

00:09:12.960 speak up.

00:09:13.640 So it depends when you're discerning whether to say something or do something.

00:09:17.240 You got to look at the circumstances.

00:09:18.940 So that was number four.

00:09:19.900 Then he said, your conscience.

00:09:23.660 You must, Thomas Aquinas told us, you must follow your conscience.

00:09:28.900 That's how God judges you.

00:09:30.840 Now, don't let that be a scapegoat, though, because you are also obligated to inform your

00:09:37.380 conscience.

00:09:38.320 So if you say, well, my conscience says, my conscience tells me it's okay to promote gay 1.00

00:09:45.760 marriage, or my conscience tells me it's good to use contraception because I can't have another 0.70

00:09:50.980 child.

00:09:52.140 Well, you haven't properly informed your conscience.

00:09:56.260 So this is an important part to know about conscience.

00:09:59.560 So that was fifth.

00:10:01.560 And then our innate sense of right, well, basically, that's what conscience is, is our innate sense

00:10:06.260 of right or wrong.

00:10:07.720 The sixth, he said, was our instincts, you know, to flight or fight or, you know, to say,

00:10:14.600 to talk, not to talk.

00:10:16.300 But his seventh was prayer.

00:10:19.000 Take it to prayer.

00:10:19.920 And in especially contemplative, silent prayer, listening for God's guidance.

00:10:26.320 Now, here's what Peter Kreeft said, and I thought this was fascinating.

00:10:30.740 He said, if even one of those seven voices, scripture, church teaching, the circumstances,

00:10:39.480 conscience, your instincts, and prayer, he said, if even one of those says no, don't do

00:10:45.680 it.

00:10:46.380 Don't do it.

00:10:47.040 He said, if none of those say no, then do it.

00:10:51.400 You then have properly discerned something that is very, very a big decision in your life.

00:10:57.400 So look, you know, look for that.

00:10:59.520 And for me, how I always knew if my decision was based on God's will was peace.

00:11:04.400 You know, you have that inner peace.

00:11:06.940 So I like to say, look at those seven sources, but also the fruit.

00:11:11.820 Do you have peace or do you have anxiety and a restlessness?

00:11:17.040 Remember, St. Augustus said, our hearts will be restless until they rest in you.

00:11:21.800 So a good measure to measure by that Peter Kreeft teaches us.

00:11:26.300 How does this apply then to the church today?

00:11:29.020 Because I think this is the big question for a lot of Catholics nowadays.

00:11:32.680 It's like, oof, how do we apply that to, you know, because there's different opinions

00:11:38.440 out there now.

00:11:39.020 Different opinions, even among the best of the clergy.

00:11:42.200 How do we discern what we are to follow when we have destabilization right from Rome?

00:11:49.120 First of all is you go right to the church teaching itself.

00:11:53.320 And we can find that, you know, in not only dogmatic revelation, but church doctrine, the

00:12:03.200 church's defined teaching, where I think the confusion comes, as just as our Lord said,

00:12:08.880 and many have prophesied, even Mary said, will become within the church, bishops against

00:12:15.780 bishops, priests against priests.

00:12:18.020 Um, I am shocked that we have certain bishops that are saying and doing what they're doing.

00:12:26.740 I mean, we don't even have to go into the German bishops at the synod, you know, pushing

00:12:30.740 for ordination of women and gay marriages.

00:12:34.560 This is clearly not in line with church teaching.

00:12:39.100 So we have to first inform our conscience of what church teaching actually is.

00:12:43.580 Right here in the United States, we have bishops kneeling down in honor of, uh, civil groups

00:12:51.680 that are causing revolts, um, and kneeling down in honor, um, you know, of course all lives

00:12:59.420 matter, but kneeling down to a group, uh, that has openly stated on their website, promotion

00:13:06.900 of abortion, transgenderism, gay marriage, destruction of the patriarchy, and Marxism.

00:13:15.420 Now, all five of those things has been condemned by the Catholic church.

00:13:21.000 Leo XIII, especially, wrote much on all those topics.

00:13:27.740 He wrote about Marxism and the dangers.

00:13:29.900 And yet we got bishops kneeling down in honor of BLM and, and, and, and supporting this

00:13:36.300 movement.

00:13:36.820 Are they even realizing that all five tenets of that movement are against church teaching?

00:13:44.780 It has nothing to do with racism.

00:13:46.680 This has nothing to do with racism.

00:13:49.520 This has to do with something that is bigger and, in, in, in, in, in, in called human life

00:13:55.580 that, that, that we are trying to support.

00:13:58.580 And so, we have to first educate ourselves on what the church really teaches.

00:14:03.880 And, you know, John Henry, I'm sure you guys are the same.

00:14:06.080 I get letters all the time saying this particular bishop said it was okay to use contraception.

00:14:12.380 Or this particular bishop said that it was okay in certain circumstances to have an abortion.

00:14:18.000 And we always have to write back, unfortunately, that bishop is not in line with Catholic teaching.

00:14:25.420 And so, we, we have to educate ourselves to what the church actually does teach.

00:14:30.680 And, and, you know, a lot of people are confused.

00:14:32.940 And so, I always say, if, if you're still confused, use the discernments of spirits.

00:14:38.640 You know, the Ignatian spirituality is a very strong thing.

00:14:42.940 And Ignatian taught us that there were three rules.

00:14:47.200 And if I may go into these real quick, they may help some of you.

00:14:51.220 Ignatian said, whenever you have to make a decision and you're not sure, you know, church

00:14:56.280 teaching is always the first place to start.

00:14:58.780 But there's no teaching on a church teaching that says I should be a priest or get married.

00:15:02.460 So, so, so I have to, I have to discern the spirit.

00:15:08.200 What, what is the spirit?

00:15:09.120 And sometimes you really do have two good choices.

00:15:11.880 You know, I was engaged to be married prior to becoming a priest.

00:15:16.620 I honestly believe that God left me that choice.

00:15:21.640 Yes, many times there are right answers and wrong answers.

00:15:24.900 But sometimes God leaves the choice to us.

00:15:28.200 Now, for instance, I use the example of the dishes.

00:15:31.080 Do you clear the plates before the cups or the cups before the plates?

00:15:35.920 Okay, I think God lives that to your free will.

00:15:39.400 But in a big decision, he has a plan for you and a telos.

00:15:44.900 This is the fulfillment of what his plan is for us.

00:15:48.800 Now, sometimes those can have multiple answers.

00:15:52.280 Like I really feel if God, if I would have made the choice to become a father and a husband,

00:15:58.440 God would meet me where I was at.

00:16:01.080 He would have said now, okay, you made the choice to be a husband and a father.

00:16:05.360 Now be the best husband and be the best father that you can be.

00:16:10.060 I had a woman once, John Henry, come to me for direction.

00:16:13.720 And she said, Father, I know I missed my call to be a nun.

00:16:17.240 I am absolutely convinced God wanted me to be a nun.

00:16:20.840 And you know what?

00:16:21.520 I'm not going to drop everything and I'm going to go become a nun.

00:16:24.460 She said, I'm married with three young children.

00:16:27.720 Well, no, that's no longer God's will for you to become a nun when you've made already 1.00

00:16:34.320 the choice to be married and have three children.

00:16:36.300 So God will meet you where you're at.

00:16:38.920 He will then say now to her, be the best wife, be the best mother that you can be.

00:16:45.100 I'm here with you.

00:16:46.300 But let's back up.

00:16:47.440 What did Ignatius tell us prior to making those decisions?

00:16:51.320 Well, it sounded like she failed because she didn't properly discern that decision before

00:16:56.420 she made it if that was God's will for her to be a nun.

00:16:59.560 Now she used to be the good mother and parent and spouse. 0.84

00:17:03.860 But here's what they are.

00:17:05.260 One, this is the rules of St. Ignatius.

00:17:08.200 Rule one is be attentive to false consolations.

00:17:13.120 What does he mean by that?

00:17:15.260 Sometimes the evil one can make something look good when it's really not.

00:17:19.700 I'll give an example.

00:17:21.080 Another person I was counseling, a young adult, she believed this person that came into her

00:17:27.100 life, was dragging her into drugs, pornography, not going to mass.

00:17:34.400 He wasn't working.

00:17:36.140 She was supporting him.

00:17:38.300 He had no real sense of a moral compass, but she kept saying, I think I can change him.

00:17:46.060 I think that's why God has him in my life.

00:17:49.740 And I said, okay, see over time how this leads you?

00:17:54.020 Well, after several months of counseling her, he still wasn't going to church.

00:17:59.160 He still wasn't stopping drugs. 0.74

00:18:01.580 He was talking her into promiscuity and fornication. 0.99

00:18:09.040 And it was getting worse. 0.96

00:18:10.600 Now, at some point you have to realize that God doesn't want you to be drugged down, but

00:18:18.040 yet the evil one can use it that this is a good thing.

00:18:20.560 This person is good in your life.

00:18:22.580 Don't be afraid.

00:18:24.020 To cut out something out of your life, it is taking you away from God.

00:18:29.180 Very important.

00:18:30.740 And so this seems like a consolation, but it's not necessarily.

00:18:34.800 It could be a very big danger.

00:18:37.940 Now, the second rule that St. Ignatius taught us was never make a major decision in times

00:18:46.840 of desolation.

00:18:47.720 Because in times of desolation, our mind and our free will or our moral or our judgment,

00:18:55.360 our ability to make good judgments is impaired.

00:18:57.480 That's why the church teaches alcohol is okay, but not to the point of overindulgence where

00:19:03.300 we're drunk because it affects our judgment.

00:19:06.760 And if you are in a time of desolation, you're going to make decisions that are not at that

00:19:14.800 time and place best for you that you would have otherwise made in times of consolation.

00:19:20.080 I use the example of my grandmother.

00:19:23.300 My grandmother was wracked with severe pain, arthritis, and a time in 1993, it reached its

00:19:30.820 worst point.

00:19:32.140 She took her life.

00:19:34.760 She made the decision to end her life.

00:19:37.600 That was a moment of extreme desolation, and she made a decision you can't reverse by taking

00:19:46.300 her life.

00:19:47.140 And so, I find a very personal connection with this rule.

00:19:51.800 Never make a major decision in times of desolation.

00:19:56.960 Pray to God that that consolation will come to give you clarity.

00:20:01.980 And I think that's very, very important.

00:20:03.960 The third rule is that the angel of light is not always the angel of light.

00:20:10.800 It could be the evil one masquerading.

00:20:14.720 The deceiver can act like things are helping us, but the real intention is to tempt us.

00:20:23.200 Like, for instance, I'll give you an example.

00:20:25.420 A lot of guys in our religious community can fall into this trap, self-righteousness.

00:20:30.940 All of a sudden, I'm praying more than you.

00:20:34.940 I'm up all night in the chapel.

00:20:36.560 Where were you?

00:20:37.480 I didn't see you.

00:20:39.100 I'm not saying my brothers do this, but I think religious life as a whole can have this

00:20:44.320 trap.

00:20:45.340 All of a sudden, now, you're judging others because they're not living up to your standards.

00:20:51.780 They're, you're expecting them to do the same as you.

00:20:56.440 So he'll encourage you, the evil one, to become judgmental.

00:21:01.980 Oh, they're not as holy as you are.

00:21:04.020 Remember the Gospel of John Henry with the tax collector and the Pharisee, where the Pharisee 0.97

00:21:11.040 says, I fast two days a week.

00:21:13.780 I give tithes.

00:21:14.760 But thank you, Lord, for not making me like this guy.

00:21:18.880 And then they go to the tax collector and he says, Lord, have mercy on me, a poor sinner.

00:21:24.620 Who was justified?

00:21:26.700 You know, the sinner, the tax collector.

00:21:30.080 And so we have to be careful because sometimes the evil one can make something pure to be good,

00:21:35.000 like taking on too many ministries is another one in our community.

00:21:37.880 If, if you take on too many ministries, all of a sudden now you're not giving ample time

00:21:43.540 and attention to any one of them.

00:21:45.380 And so he'll, he'll present this to you that you need to be perfect and only God is perfect,

00:21:51.660 but God challenges us to be perfect.

00:21:53.680 Yes, only though in love doesn't challenge us to be perfect in never making a mistake.

00:21:59.860 And, and, and, and if we find ourselves judging others and trying to be self-righteous,

00:22:04.320 we got to be careful.

00:22:06.140 So these are three great rules that St. Ignatius gives us in Discernment of Spirits.

00:22:13.220 Hello, friends.

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00:22:55.160 One of the other areas of discernment that I think, especially today, people are wondering about is discernment of prophecies.

00:23:06.120 People are taking a lot of consolation right now in the messages of Our Lady, Fatima, Akita, La Salette, Lorde,

00:23:16.480 because they had words for us which right now are so consoling.

00:23:21.860 It's like direct messages from heaven, which I think we seem to need right now because things are just so crazy.

00:23:28.780 Yet, when you're dealing with prophecy and when you're dealing with private revelation, you need to discern that.

00:23:36.240 And I'm not even talking about the ones that are already officially approved by the church because then it should be obvious.

00:23:42.060 Fatima should be so painfully obvious that if you ignore it, well, that's kind of strange on you.

00:23:47.240 But with regard to even Fatima, at the time when the children were receiving the apparitions, it wasn't approved.

00:23:56.760 In fact, in some ways it seemed to be even discouraged, yet the people went.

00:24:00.700 So there must be a kind of discernment, even about private revelation and things that happen,

00:24:06.520 that can be made by individuals outside of the guidance of the church when that's not there yet.

00:24:13.020 And we want to do that especially now because we know that there are false prophets as well who are wrong.

00:24:20.020 And as you already said, the devil can appear as an angel of light.

00:24:24.240 So we have to have that discernment.

00:24:26.240 So specifically with regard to prophecies and private revelation, what's a good guide?

00:24:32.160 The answer is, is there anything in the message, approved or not, that is contrary to the teaching of the church?

00:24:40.440 Is it contrary to the scriptures?

00:24:45.980 Is it 100% commensurate with the church fathers, with the magisterium, with scripture, with the saints?

00:24:58.380 Is it commensurate with that message?

00:25:01.480 Okay, because now somebody could come back and say, yeah, but Father, there's some things that the saints haven't touched on.

00:25:07.360 Like today, artificial intelligence, you know, these are the kind of things, transgenderism. 1.00

00:25:14.040 I mean, what did Thomas Aquinas say about transgenderism?

00:25:17.180 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.

00:25:27.440 So what we have to go here is two things.

00:25:30.260 One is anything contrary to the teaching of the church.

00:25:33.400 Now, just because it's not in the Bible doesn't mean you can't accept it.

00:25:38.620 Because like I said, what does the Bible say about artificial intelligence?

00:25:42.600 What does the Bible say about contraception?

00:25:44.620 What does the Bible say about nuclear war?

00:25:47.380 Nothing.

00:25:48.780 Because the date and time that the Bible was written, artificial intelligence was not an issue.

00:25:55.720 And so we have to first understand, just because it's not in the Bible doesn't mean it's not a moral issue.

00:26:03.620 It doesn't mean that we don't address it.

00:26:05.960 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,

00:26:15.320 certain encouragement or hope in the future that Our Lady is going to address these problems.

00:26:20.340 You know, the Immaculate Heart will triumph.

00:26:23.760 We have to have hope.

00:26:25.840 Now, the key is, one, to make sure, again, that there's nothing contrary to the teaching of the church.

00:26:32.060 It doesn't mean it has to be in the Bible or in the Magisterium documents, but not contrary to it.

00:26:38.420 That's the key.

00:26:39.860 And second, you must follow your conscience.

00:26:43.840 Thomas Aquinas said, you must follow your conscience, even if it is in error.

00:26:52.480 Wow.

00:26:53.260 People get surprised by that.

00:26:55.400 But as I said on one of our previous shows, John Henry, if we use that line of reasoning, we have to remember,

00:27:04.120 Aquinas also said we're morally obligated to inform our conscience.

00:27:09.560 Okay?

00:27:10.180 We are morally obligated to inform our conscience.

00:27:13.840 So if Mary appears and it's not approved and she says, well, in cases of rape or incest, abortion is totally allowed. 0.58

00:27:23.860 We have to go to the teaching of the church.

00:27:26.460 Okay?

00:27:27.000 And the churching of the church will tell us, no, that's not true.

00:27:30.120 If she comes and says that we need to, you know, fast on every Wednesday and Friday with bread and water,

00:27:37.900 like there's been some messages that she's done, that's up to you and your conscience.

00:27:44.180 If your conscience tells you, I should be praying for the holy souls in purgatory and fasting every Wednesday on bread and water,

00:27:52.020 and you medically are able and you're healthy enough to do it, then God is speaking to you.

00:27:58.640 You know, God is speaking to you in that apparition.

00:28:01.880 If your conscience is really convicted that Mary said at a particular apparition site that you need to fast every Wednesday,

00:28:09.280 you know, eat meat not on Fridays or abstain on Fridays, but I want you to fast on Wednesdays,

00:28:15.160 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,

00:28:23.840 heaven is speaking to you, heaven is making it very clear to you that this message is for you.

00:28:31.660 Now, there are many things I read, and I don't feel that level of effective response.

00:28:37.900 So please, if God is putting something that strong on your heart, for me, you know, personally, it was for persecuted Christians.

00:28:45.720 You know, to pray for persecuted Christians, what's happening in the Middle East, we don't hear about.

00:28:50.780 Why is our Holy Father not asking every Christian to pray and fast for Catholic priests in Nigeria?

00:28:58.480 Every day I turn on the news, there's another one being kidnapped or murdered.

00:29:02.640 My conscience personally spoke to me.

00:29:05.300 Now, there's no, when Mary appeared to one of the priests that we know in Nigeria,

00:29:10.920 and told her to pray and fast for these priests, I don't need the church approval for that.

00:29:16.760 That's speaking to me directly in my heart.

00:29:18.680 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.

00:29:27.720 If you don't mind, Father, that raises another question, because it's an amazing discernment process that you've given us.

00:29:33.780 But how do we hear?

00:29:36.660 So, I know I've got a hearing problem.

00:29:39.700 We're hearing aids.

00:29:40.620 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.

00:29:48.480 He mostly speaks to us in our hearts.

00:29:51.980 But a lot of people, me included sometimes, wonders, what does that mean?

00:29:59.280 What do you mean speaks in your heart?

00:30:01.160 How do you listen to your heart?

00:30:02.740 There are two very long, traditional spiritualities of the church, Carmelite spirituality and Ignatian spirituality.

00:30:12.040 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.

00:30:22.040 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?

00:30:40.240 Beautiful.

00:30:41.000 I've done my Ignatian retreats.

00:30:42.580 I think it's very fruitful.

00:30:44.620 But the Carmelite understanding of contemplation has resonated with me.

00:30:50.040 And remember, there's no right or wrong answer here.

00:30:53.060 The church does not say the Carmelite way is better than the Ignatian way or vice versa.

00:30:58.840 But the Carmelite understanding of contemplation is different.

00:31:02.840 It's simply going before the Lord in silence.

00:31:08.100 You need to set aside some time, even if you have to schedule it in, your date book.

00:31:13.980 You need to treat the Lord like a good personal friend that you put on.

00:31:19.140 I mean, I know this sounds very superficial, but put him in your date book.

00:31:24.860 Give him that time.

00:31:26.500 Maybe it's every Wednesday at 8 p.m.

00:31:28.740 I'm going to go to the church and do adoration.

00:31:31.880 Now, what that spirituality of contemplation, the catechism tells us, there's three levels of mental prayer.

00:31:38.160 Or I should back up.

00:31:41.340 There are three types of prayer.

00:31:43.340 We have vocal prayer, which is our traditional Hail Marys, Our Fathers.

00:31:48.380 Prayers we learned at an early age, we vocally recite them.

00:31:52.720 Very good.

00:31:53.700 Then we have more meditative prayers, like maybe the rosary.

00:31:57.460 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.

00:32:10.360 But then there's what is called contemplation.

00:32:13.080 And that simply is spending time in prayer saying nothing.

00:32:20.140 Basically, what it is, is kind of when I had a very close friend who was unconscious in the hospital.

00:32:25.260 So, I stayed at his bedside for a while, several days, and this person was unconscious.

00:32:34.020 They didn't say anything.

00:32:36.880 They were there, and I was there.

00:32:40.960 And somehow I knew, they knew I was there.

00:32:45.480 I didn't have to say a word.

00:32:49.420 I was just present.

00:32:52.220 So, when you go into adoration, if you're looking, remember, God can't talk to us if we're doing all the talking.

00:33:00.060 If we're doing all the talking, that's why in religious life, we have silent time.

00:33:06.760 And people say, I don't understand that.

00:33:08.560 What's the purpose of having silent time?

00:33:10.980 It's so that you can hear God speak.

00:33:13.480 You stop doing all the talking.

00:33:15.200 So, schedule some time in adoration, and go before the Lord in quiet, where you say nothing.

00:33:24.860 Maybe do what St. Therese did.

00:33:26.660 Take a picture of Jesus.

00:33:28.400 Take the divine mercy image, and just gaze upon it.

00:33:33.000 Like the divine mercy image right here behind me.

00:33:35.820 Just gaze upon it.

00:33:38.500 Let those rays sink in and say, Lord, I'm here.

00:33:42.180 Your servant is listening.

00:33:44.960 And I tell you, I denied my vocational call to the priesthood for 30 years.

00:33:52.340 And I finally heard it, because I never believed it could be true.

00:33:57.920 Not only did I hear it, but it went straight to the heart, whether it's in quiet, contemplation, adoration.

00:34:06.480 But you can't do that if you're not silent.

00:34:08.320 So, spend some time in silent prayer before the Lord.

00:34:11.840 You don't talk.

00:34:12.740 You don't say a word.

00:34:13.720 You don't even make an Our Father or a Hail Mary.

00:34:16.280 You simply gaze upon Him in love, and you let Him do the talking.

00:34:21.560 In fact, I'll finish with this.

00:34:24.080 There was a man with John V&A, and John V&A noticed how prayerful he was.

00:34:29.940 And St. John V&A asked him, what do you do when you're praying?

00:34:33.820 What are you saying?

00:34:34.520 And he said, nothing.

00:34:36.540 I just look at Jesus, and He looks at me back.

00:34:41.200 And that's when you'll hear Him.

00:34:43.740 And so, what a beautiful spirituality, because it's easy.

00:34:48.120 You don't do anything.

00:34:49.680 God does the work.

00:34:50.880 And that's true contemplation.

00:34:52.600 When that comes to you, it comes as, for instance, your example of the priesthood came as a conviction of a something to do.

00:35:04.060 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.

00:35:13.160 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?

00:35:34.420 There has to be one more step in discernment.

00:35:36.760 After you do the opening of the heart, and actually, I'll go back to Father John Harden that really laid this out well.

00:35:46.680 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.

00:36:02.880 First, Father John Harden said this, attitude, peace, and confidence.

00:36:10.920 What did he mean by that?

00:36:12.840 He said the first thing you've got to do is have the right attitude.

00:36:16.680 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?

00:36:23.580 Now, me, for 30 years, I would listen to God if it's what I wanted to hear.

00:36:28.900 So, you know, if I had an attitude, it was, yeah, Lord, I agree with you as long as you agree with me.

00:36:37.060 And we still fall into that.

00:36:39.180 But he said you've got to have the right predisposition.

00:36:43.140 You must have yourself opened to understanding what God's doing in you.

00:36:49.100 And you have to be willing, if he gives you the opposite answer of what you want to hear, to say okay.

00:36:56.340 So, number one is attitude.

00:36:58.620 And then he said once you open your heart and he guides you, you will have peace.

00:37:06.180 If you make a decision and it's filled with anxiety, depression, restlessness, most likely that's not of God.

00:37:18.080 Now, that doesn't mean you won't have crosses.

00:37:20.300 It doesn't mean you won't have suffering.

00:37:22.000 Look at Job.

00:37:23.180 Job was doing the will of God.

00:37:25.160 But my gosh, he was full of boils and, you know, his animals died and his family was punished.

00:37:31.180 I mean, not punished, but suffering.

00:37:32.520 And so, there will be trials, but that doesn't mean there can't be peace.

00:37:38.380 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.

00:37:45.260 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.

00:37:58.020 I've been called a Nazi because I stood up for preservation of religious liberty.

00:38:03.860 Now, how you connect Nazism with the preservation of religious liberty, I have no idea.

00:38:10.260 But I've been accused of all of that.

00:38:14.320 And so, I can have suffering and trials in the midst of a lot of peace.

00:38:18.760 Why did I have peace?

00:38:20.880 Because I knew I was teaching the truth.

00:38:24.900 And that's why I so much admire and appreciate LifeSite.

00:38:28.060 You guys have taken that, you know, you didn't waver from the truth.

00:38:33.620 Even at the expense of being canceled, you never wavered from the truth.

00:38:39.340 With that, you can have peace.

00:38:40.940 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.

00:38:51.940 And the third thing is you've got to have confidence that even if you are down a road that's very difficult,

00:39:00.180 even if you are being challenged beyond what you think is your limit,

00:39:04.500 you have confidence that what God is putting you through is in your best interest.

00:39:10.940 For me, this goes back to Faustina's message of trust.

00:39:15.960 Because St. Faustina's entire message was trust me.

00:39:20.660 Trust me, Jesus was telling her.

00:39:23.120 So, even if the Lord makes it look like he's going to cancel us,

00:39:27.460 destroy my name out in the public world because I'm a bigot and a hater and all that,

00:39:33.320 I have confidence that God's providence is overseeing it, and I trust him.

00:39:38.840 As long as I keep those three things in mind, I will persevere.

00:39:44.440 We have our elections coming up, and I might be assigned to go to Africa or to India.

00:39:50.960 Now, I might say, wow, I don't want to go.

00:39:54.700 But somehow, Lord, I trust you.

00:39:56.840 You got my best interest at heart.

00:39:58.800 That's how I know it's God's will.

00:40:00.200 And so, that to me is very important because when God speaks to superiors,

00:40:04.940 you can be known that it's, unless they ask you to do something sinful,

00:40:08.380 you know that it's God's will.

00:40:10.200 And so, for you out there, the laity, I would recommend a spiritual director.

00:40:14.320 Because what a spiritual director can do is help walk you through those processes.

00:40:19.220 And if you're obedient to your spiritual director, Jesus told St. Faustina,

00:40:23.200 listen and reveal yourself to your confessor and spiritual director.

00:40:27.380 If you hide from him, I will hide from you.

00:40:30.920 And so, what Jesus told St. Faustina was very important.

00:40:34.300 If you want to truly know God's will and you're having a tough time discerning it yourself,

00:40:38.880 get a spiritual director.

00:40:40.880 And you commit, you find that one that you can relate to.

00:40:44.820 And if they show you and lead you through being a prayerful priest,

00:40:49.180 they will show you God's will.

00:40:51.500 But the question is, will you be willing to follow?

00:40:53.680 And then, if you have confidence and trust in God, you will.

00:40:58.220 And then, you know completely you're doing God's will.

00:41:00.620 Even if your spiritual director messes up and accidentally takes you down a different road,

00:41:06.380 guess what, everybody?

00:41:07.900 God doesn't hold you accountable.

00:41:10.480 You will not be held accountable.

00:41:12.320 Because you were obedient to who he gave you as a spiritual director.

00:41:18.200 Guaranteed, you will get to heaven if you follow the commandments

00:41:21.840 and you follow a spiritual director to do the will of God as best that he teaches you

00:41:27.360 and you stay within the teachings of the church, not sinning.

00:41:30.920 God will reward that because you're being obedient.

00:41:34.420 And that's the greatest of the vows.

00:41:37.020 Poverty, chastity, obedience.

00:41:39.000 Obedience is the greatest.

00:41:40.680 And so, God will reward that.

00:41:42.400 Father, thank you so very much for taking us through these confusing waters.

00:41:47.080 And I think there's so much more clarity for people now

00:41:49.800 in terms of discernment on these very many things.

00:41:53.960 Well, thank you.

00:41:54.700 We appreciate it.

00:41:55.620 And God bless all the viewers here that are trying to find God's will in their life.

00:41:59.820 Amen to that.

00:42:00.600 God bless you, Father.

00:42:01.980 Thank you.

00:42:02.440 God bless you.

00:42:03.300 God bless all of you.

00:42:05.540 And we'll see you next time.

00:42:06.640 Hi, everyone.

00:42:15.280 This is John Henry Weston.

00:42:16.280 We hope you enjoyed this program.

00:42:18.060 To see more like it, be sure to hit the subscribe button below to get all the latest content from LifeSite News.

00:42:23.600 Check the links in the description to read more and connect with us on social media

00:42:27.160 so that you can stay up to date with all the latest life, family, faith, and freedom news.

00:42:31.640 Thanks for watching and may God bless you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - May 10, 2023

Discernment Of Spirits, Prophecy In Times Of Confusion I Fr. Chris Alar

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