The John-Henry Westen Show - September 14, 2023


St. Alphonsus Ligouri： A Saint For The 21s Century


Episode Stats


Length

31 minutes

Words per minute

158.74397

Word count

4,988

Sentence count

401

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Stephen Cox's St. Alphonsus for the 21st Century is a new book on the life and writings of St. Francis de Liguori, better known as St. Alphonsus the Redemptorist.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Ave Maria Mutual Funds. Seeking the moral high ground for 20 years.
00:00:10.000 Pro-life, pro-family, and Catholic values have guided us to the top.
00:00:30.000 St. Alphonsus, he says, a priest gives greater honor to God than all the angels and saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary that they've ever given because their worship cannot be of infinite value. He's talking about the sacrifice of the Mass.
00:00:44.000 Hey, my friends. You know what I love? I love it when authors, professors, or writers are really generous.
00:00:59.520 By taking a complex topic, summarizing it, and giving us the jewels out of all of their hard labor, their research.
00:01:10.880 And we've got a new book out on St. Alphonsus de Liguori, who has very, very extensive writings.
00:01:17.880 Except that we get to boil it down to the jewels, and it's done by none other than Stephen Cox, LifeSite News, his own writer.
00:01:26.580 And he's put out a book called St. Alphonsus for the 21st Century, which I'm sure you're going to love.
00:01:33.020 We're going to talk about it here on the John Hunter Weston Show. Stay tuned.
00:01:38.000 Stephen Cox, welcome to the program.
00:01:40.400 Thank you for having me, John Hunter. It's great to be here.
00:01:42.680 Let's begin, as we always do, at the sign of the cross.
00:01:44.420 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
00:01:51.740 Stephen, maybe we can start with why St. Alphonsus of Liguori?
00:01:55.960 Why did you start this book?
00:01:59.380 Yeah, so I would like to say that I chose St. Alphonsus, but I think more or less he chose me.
00:02:04.860 Ten years ago, when I was in my late 20s, I just happened by chance to...
00:02:09.780 I was living with a friend of mine at the time. We were former college friends.
00:02:13.500 And he moved back into town. And just one night, we were chatting in the living room.
00:02:18.200 And there was a stack of books. I said, what are all those? Because they were a foot tall.
00:02:22.540 And I said, where did you get those? And he said, oh, I just found them at some bookstore or something.
00:02:27.260 And we were talking about spiritual topics. And I just opened it up.
00:02:31.920 And it was St. Alphonsus. And it was all of his old books from the 1800s when they were printed.
00:02:36.600 He actually lived in 1696, lived till 1780s. But the books I had obtained were just so powerful.
00:02:44.100 And I was reading them. And the quotations that St. Alphonsus was using, I mean, he was quoting from church fathers, from almost every book of the Bible.
00:02:52.600 And I, within 10 minutes, just was so blown away by it.
00:02:56.500 And I said, where has this been my entire life? I mean, where, why don't priests preach like this anymore?
00:03:02.840 Why don't, we hear this from the popes, for that matter, just the sound grasp of the traditions of the church.
00:03:10.280 And so, over time, it just became a desire to really reach those family and friends who I had been trying to, you know, make more aware of the issues going on in the church, as well as this basic spirituality.
00:03:27.980 And I wasn't having great success. And so, I said, you know, I saw what St. Alphonsus did for me in my own spiritual life and understanding of our faith.
00:03:37.780 And so, I said, this has to be more well-known. And so, I think just providentially, using my God-given talents and all praise to God for any good this book does, it just kind of happened that way.
00:03:50.240 And so, here it is, finally, 10 years later, after a long journey.
00:03:55.300 Beautiful. What did you really hope to convey in here? I see it has a lot of prayers of St. Alphonsus that are usually not found.
00:04:04.560 Where did you get those from? And what do you think will be the takeaway for most people?
00:04:10.720 Yeah, so, a lot of the prayers that he has are in just the various writings that he's had published.
00:04:17.200 But everywhere I was reading, they were not in any one single space.
00:04:20.880 So, it was a challenge to find all of those, gather them together, and present them in one place for people who want to read them all in this spot.
00:04:29.340 Yeah. I think, to backtrack a bit, I think, you know, you have to go back to their founding of the Redemptorist Order by St. Alphonsus.
00:04:36.340 And he was one of eight children. Two of his brothers entered religious life. Two of his sisters entered religious life.
00:04:42.900 And he was not, he didn't become a priest. He didn't enter the seminary until he was 27.
00:04:49.100 Very successful lawyer. His father was grooming him into that career, and he was very successful at it.
00:04:54.200 And so, he was among the nobility in Naples at the time, again, the 1700s.
00:05:00.420 And his career was on that trajectory. His father wanted him to be married, arranged for him to be married.
00:05:06.160 But he gave that all up after losing a court case, a very profound and very important court case.
00:05:11.980 And so, to understand, I think, the parallels is St. Alphonsus gave all that up to go and found the Congregation for the Most Holy Redeemer
00:05:20.040 to preach to the peasants in the Italian countryside, basically. People laughed at him for doing that, for giving up his fame and his career.
00:05:29.580 And, you know, I look back at that, and St. Alphonsus gave that all up to preach to the most abandoned souls.
00:05:36.720 That's the motto of the Redemptorists. And you look around today, where are we at in the church's history?
00:05:42.260 We are so far away from the church's traditions. We're abandoned by our flock, our shepherds.
00:05:52.740 And so, there's a parallel there, I think, to be said. And, you know, that's why I think St. Alphonsus needs to be understood again today.
00:05:59.260 And primarily, I think, about what he says about the priesthood. So, we'll probably get into that in just a moment.
00:06:03.480 But that, I think, will probably be the biggest takeaway, St. Alphonsus' teachings on the priesthood, on religious life, seminarians.
00:06:11.660 And there's also a section in the book about women religious. And so, it's for everybody, really, this book, for everyone at different stages in their lives.
00:06:20.660 So, what is it about the priesthood that he says that's so striking today that makes it seem like we're, you know, where we need to head in his direction or back in his direction, if you will?
00:06:32.900 Right. Well, I mean, growing up, I went to Catholic grade school, high school, even college, and for grad school.
00:06:40.140 And the thing you often hear is the church today rails against clericalism, this undue power of just obeying whatever the priest or the bishop says, and that's it.
00:06:53.100 And today, there's sort of an improper exaltation of the laity when it comes to the church's divine mission.
00:06:59.400 But St. Alphonsus reiterates, and here's, I'll give you a direct quote.
00:07:04.600 He says, a priest gives greater honor to God than all the angels and saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary that they've ever given because their worship cannot be of infinite value.
00:07:14.960 And he's talking about the sacrifice of the Mass.
00:07:17.600 And he goes on, the power of the priest surpasses that of the Blessed Virgin because she cannot absolve even one sin.
00:07:23.920 Okay. And so when I first understood that, I mean, that is something that St. Alphonsus says, confession frees the soul from the claws of the devil, from the snares of hell.
00:07:40.160 And when a priest does that, that's something Mary could not do, the angels cannot do.
00:07:46.840 And that understanding of the priesthood, as well as what St. Alphonsus says about when the priest says the words at the consecration in Mass, God himself obeys him.
00:08:01.520 He will descend to the altar at Mass, and so the priest must be pure.
00:08:07.860 The priest must deny himself in all sorts of ways, his tastes, his preferences, and live only to pleasing God.
00:08:16.760 I think when you hear about that, and when you really read it in the book, when it presents itself, you think about, you know, what's the state of the clergy today?
00:08:26.420 What is the state of the church today? I mean, priests don't wear their cassocks, something St. Alphonsus says priests should be doing at all times.
00:08:36.200 Priests should not, should be ignoring, here's another quote, his own conveniences, his interests, and amusements.
00:08:43.400 I mean, really what it gets down to is we have to have a proper hierarchical understanding, not an egalitarian, flattened, sort of synodal church.
00:08:52.980 We have to have that proper understanding of the priesthood, what they do, and their power, because, and priests have to understand that too.
00:09:02.680 There's a quote in the book that St. Alphonsus says,
00:09:08.820 The good morals and the salvation of the people depend on good pastors.
00:09:15.980 If there is a good priest in charge of the parish, you will soon see devotion, flourishing, and people praying.
00:09:21.300 Hence the proverb, like pastor, like parish.
00:09:23.740 So, if there's not, as it is the case today, people are not praying.
00:09:28.440 People are not going to mass.
00:09:29.460 We're not going to confession.
00:09:31.060 Priests are not even telling people to go to confession before they receive communion.
00:09:34.420 This is all upside down, and complete opposite of what St. Alphonsus advised in so many ways.
00:09:41.920 Listen, dear friends, long gone are the days where you and I could just simply trust what the nightly news broadcasted,
00:09:48.100 or consider what we read in the local newspaper as the truth.
00:09:51.960 The mainstream media deceives the world, telling them bold-faced lies, and often using fear to scare and control the masses.
00:09:59.600 Now, how many of you are already seeing your friends and family back to grabbing their masks,
00:10:05.060 or scheduling another vaccine due to the uptake the media is covering about COVID or something else?
00:10:11.240 Well, we've had enough.
00:10:12.960 We can't let the mainstream media shape our culture and influence our family and friends.
00:10:16.820 We must make sure that the truth is available to all,
00:10:20.500 to remind and warn the world of the lies that are continuing to be spread.
00:10:26.520 So, today, at LifeSite, we kick off our fall campaign,
00:10:30.360 and I need your help to strengthen LifeSite's voice for truth.
00:10:34.260 To keep LifeSite News fully operational in the United States, Canada, and around the world,
00:10:38.840 we must raise $500,000 by October 1st.
00:10:42.600 So, please pause this video now, pray right now about making a contribution,
00:10:48.340 and then do as you are called to do by the Lord.
00:10:52.160 Thank you for your attention, and now, back to the program.
00:10:56.520 What was it about St. Alphonsus's life that probably taught you the most?
00:11:07.500 Oh, that's a great question.
00:11:08.460 I think what his leaving the world behind, his success he's been having in the world.
00:11:15.180 Again, he was a civil and canon lawyer.
00:11:16.840 He got his degrees when he was 16.
00:11:18.200 He was raised to be amongst the most high-ranking laymen in the whole entire kingdom.
00:11:27.200 His father was the captain of the Royal Gallies, so the Navy.
00:11:31.360 He was very high-ranking.
00:11:32.640 He was invited to and actually did attend events and celebrations for the Holy Roman Emperor at the time.
00:11:39.980 And he had everything you could want.
00:11:42.140 I mean, his father, again, tried to arrange marriage for him twice.
00:11:45.440 And it was at this famous court case involving the Grand Duke of Tuscany when he was 26.
00:11:52.220 And he lost the case, despite everyone in the kingdom knowing what this case was about.
00:11:59.960 And he had been having so much success.
00:12:01.840 And it was scuttled not through, or he lost the case, rather, not through his own negligence,
00:12:07.360 which is just something that historians actually suggest or say happened quite a bit.
00:12:12.220 Actually, there's been recent scholarship that discovers that the judge was actually bribed with a pair of bears, of all things, at the time, again, in the 1720s.
00:12:22.540 And that a cardinal was involved with some of this.
00:12:25.580 And the Medici, the very famous Italian Medici family, lawyers were his opponents.
00:12:32.240 And so they became successful.
00:12:35.600 And Alphonsus, when he was decided against, when he was ruled against, in an entirely unjust manner.
00:12:41.340 Again, he had, I think, the court, it was on, the justice was on his side.
00:12:46.280 And he said, courts, I will never see you again, world I know thee now.
00:12:52.600 And that spoke to me so much about just understanding all this vanity.
00:12:59.360 And it's helped me put into perspective everything in life, in my professional life and everything else.
00:13:08.020 And so it's like, you have to see what the saints are so, what they give up, oftentimes, but we don't always remember.
00:13:15.140 So that's impacted me the most about his personal life, which I resonate with very much.
00:13:19.300 So here's something interesting.
00:13:22.980 This guy at 16 was finished his law degree.
00:13:26.520 Now, I don't care what kind of system they had.
00:13:30.880 At 16?
00:13:31.840 That means he was a genius of some sort.
00:13:35.760 He was given the most prestigious tutors in the entire country.
00:13:40.060 He had relatives who were also clergymen.
00:13:43.020 He was a master harpsichordist, so he knew how to play instruments.
00:13:46.820 He painted.
00:13:48.060 He wrote poems and hymns, as we mentioned earlier.
00:13:51.740 One of his most famous ones is from Starry Skies, Thou Fallest.
00:13:55.980 It's still a very famous song in Italy.
00:13:58.320 Andrea Bocelli sings it around Christmas time every year.
00:14:01.840 So look it up.
00:14:02.660 And I've included those in the book.
00:14:04.640 So people who want to learn more about not just the spirituality of St. Alphonsus, but also his understandings on...
00:14:11.500 I mean, he was very much a genius and gifted by God.
00:14:15.460 And again, he gave that all up to become a priest.
00:14:21.160 And he wrote...
00:14:22.580 He didn't begin writing...
00:14:23.380 Really quick, Don Henry, interesting facts here.
00:14:25.400 He didn't start writing...
00:14:26.880 He didn't publish his first work until he was in his late 40s.
00:14:29.520 Okay.
00:14:30.220 And he lived till 91.
00:14:32.660 So, you know, he wrote over 110 books, pamphlets, treatises on spiritual, moral, doctrinal, Marian topics.
00:14:42.880 And some of these are not small works.
00:14:45.820 His Glories of Mary is over 600 pages long.
00:14:48.380 And so he was entirely gifted with just a soaring intellect.
00:14:54.740 He is a doctor of the church.
00:14:55.780 It should be made known.
00:14:57.840 So, yeah.
00:14:58.780 But he gave it all back to God.
00:15:00.000 That's the beautiful thing of the story is he didn't keep it to himself to make money, to become a famous lawyer.
00:15:06.580 He gave it all back to God.
00:15:08.240 And that's something that's...
00:15:10.220 It's all in the book.
00:15:10.800 So, you learn about his private life as well as some of his other pastoral accomplishments.
00:15:16.960 What I found truly fascinating was that despite his absolutely brilliant intellect, he actually made it his mission to go and talk to the outcasts, to the poor, to the...
00:15:29.540 But they, you know, how would they understand him even?
00:15:32.000 Well, this is the great thing about St. Alphonsus, is that there is a section in the book about preaching.
00:15:39.460 He said, I never gave a sermon that the littlest old lady in the back of the church could not understand.
00:15:46.380 Okay.
00:15:46.500 So, he revolutionized preaching at the time.
00:15:49.900 So, he never used bombastic speech, high language, something that the lady could not understand, which was actually in vogue at the time.
00:15:58.600 And easily something that someone of his learned stature could have done.
00:16:04.000 I mean, he, again, as you mentioned, he was a genius.
00:16:07.920 But he made it simple.
00:16:09.780 He met the people where they were.
00:16:12.020 And that attests to his Christ-like nature.
00:16:16.520 I mean, Christ did not use complex language and, you know, all sorts of confusing sentences.
00:16:21.900 It was very direct, very simple, straightforward.
00:16:23.540 And St. Alphonsus recommends that for priests today.
00:16:26.380 And I hope they will adopt it very much.
00:16:29.040 Now, you mentioned about wearing cassocks.
00:16:33.820 And that's a big deal today.
00:16:37.000 A lot of priests, even very good holy priests, they will sometimes, particularly when traveling, let's say, not wear their cassocks because it's, you know, they get spit on or it's uncomfortable.
00:16:47.480 It's hot.
00:16:48.140 It's difficult.
00:16:51.820 What did St. Alphonsus say about that?
00:16:54.500 Well, he understood from the day he was ordained.
00:16:59.280 He actually wrote up a list of bullet points about what his purpose in life is now.
00:17:05.080 And he said, I am a priest.
00:17:07.860 I am greater.
00:17:08.960 He understood that the priesthood itself is above the glory of the angels.
00:17:16.180 They can do things the angels cannot.
00:17:17.980 So priests have to live with angelic purity and be role models for everyone at all times.
00:17:23.600 There's no break.
00:17:24.940 You are a priest forever, according to scripture, even in the next world after we die.
00:17:29.360 The famous saying is the highway to hell is paved with the skulls of bishops and priests.
00:17:36.980 And that's the case for St. Alphonsus.
00:17:39.040 He understood that your entire life from that moment on is a continual sacrifice to God.
00:17:45.920 And the cassock represented that clerical state that you cannot escape. 1.00
00:17:51.300 And so he always said, here's some several quotes from him.
00:17:55.540 He said, priests must flee from worldly conversations, be quiet and gentle at home.
00:18:00.640 They should be edifying in church.
00:18:02.940 Priests should always guard against everything that can offend their eyes and their ears.
00:18:07.680 Games of amusement are but little suited to a minister of God.
00:18:11.080 He said, modesty in all things, modesty in looks, modesty in gait, modesty in conversation.
00:18:17.000 OK, so it was a really complete self-denial of the total denunciation of the will for Alphonsus.
00:18:26.220 He did that when he was made a bishop as well.
00:18:29.180 And later in life at age 66, he offered that up.
00:18:32.600 He did not want to be appointed a bishop in his late 60s.
00:18:35.820 He was very ill in his later years.
00:18:38.340 But he understood that it's a complete crucifixion.
00:18:41.880 And that, I think, is really missing from the priesthood again today.
00:18:47.360 And again, as he said, like pastors, like parish, we're seeing that trickle down to the faithful.
00:18:52.960 And it's very sad.
00:18:54.820 But St. Alphonsus, there's a reason he's a saint.
00:18:56.660 There's a reason he's a doctor of the church.
00:18:58.120 And I think those attest to that fact.
00:19:03.240 One of the things that he talks about in the book is about religious vocations.
00:19:08.720 What does he say about that?
00:19:11.180 Because we see very little of, other than the priesthood, the religious life today.
00:19:18.880 You know, it's, I still remember trying to find any nun that I could show to my kids because it was like they were non-existent.
00:19:27.880 Now, mind you, I'm in Canada and maybe that's a different story elsewhere.
00:19:31.020 But it was a challenge.
00:19:33.520 So what did he say about religious life?
00:19:35.960 So firstly, he does give advice to parents on this topic.
00:19:42.080 And he actually gives some pretty strong advice.
00:19:45.920 He tells mothers to not let their daughters especially be around young men who have strong feelings for them.
00:19:53.560 He tells fathers especially because he understood that the male is the head of the household.
00:19:57.160 To not allow their children to frequent places of occasions of sin.
00:20:03.040 And to every day pray with their children to end the day with recollection about how the day went.
00:20:09.660 And to encourage their child, if they have the inclination to do so, to religious life.
00:20:16.420 He says, sinning against religious vocation.
00:20:19.500 In other words, to deny a child a potential vocation is a double sin, he says.
00:20:24.000 Not only is this sin against charity, but also against piety.
00:20:27.200 Okay.
00:20:27.420 By denying the church a potential soul to live in its service.
00:20:32.140 And St. Alphonsus' parents understood this.
00:20:34.940 But his father, not so much.
00:20:36.860 His father definitely wanted him to go into the career.
00:20:38.720 And he even, when Alphonsus told him he wanted to be a priest, he locked him in the room, in his room.
00:20:46.400 It was not a good several years.
00:20:49.120 He actually received formation for three years, from 27 to 30, living at his parents' house.
00:20:55.200 And it was very, sometimes conflict emerged between him and his father.
00:21:02.740 Who, again, later in life accepted his son's vocation.
00:21:06.620 But he says to seminarians to always visit the Blessed Mother.
00:21:12.960 And to pray.
00:21:13.980 So pray the rosary every day.
00:21:16.080 And to visit the Eucharistic Adoration.
00:21:18.140 Okay, so these are the two very big things that St. Alphonsus says, especially for laity, but especially to seminarians and priests, is to make frequent visits to Eucharistic Adoration as often as possible.
00:21:28.640 He also says to obey your superior, unless there is any sort of dramatic, sinful command.
00:21:37.420 And he said, always be humble.
00:21:39.260 Be willing to be humiliated in your community.
00:21:42.260 And it actually makes the interesting point that in all the communities that there are, religious vocations, even if there are saints among them, God's going to allow some irritation to happen just based on the variety of souls, personality differences, and things like that.
00:21:58.960 But St. Alphonsus says it's for the seminarians' own good that that happens, because it keeps them mindful of the fact that heaven is not on earth, that dealing with others and offering that suffering up is part of the priestly life.
00:22:16.200 And to pray always, prayer is oxygen for the soul, I've read elsewhere, St. Alphonsus agrees with that.
00:22:23.420 And he mentions that entirely in his writings.
00:22:26.180 He says the priest has to devoutly pray his office.
00:22:29.500 And again, the seminarians, as well as nuns, need to understand, to offer all of that up, and to be committed to their vocation, and to say, unless I want to be a saint, don't enter unless you want to be a saint, is what he says.
00:22:46.600 If you don't have the attitude of giving all to God, don't enter.
00:22:51.500 And he says, actually, one last point, John Henry, to the young women, he tells them married women, he actually advises several of the young women who asked, he wrote letters to him, he wrote thousands of letters, his letters are beyond scope.
00:23:07.100 He said, look at married women, they have to deal with husbands, children, in-laws, birthday, all these things. 1.00
00:23:13.300 The happiest women on earth are those in the convent.
00:23:15.720 And he says, if more women understood this, everyone, every woman would be a nun.
00:23:20.160 And I think that's keen advice for young women today, to consider that.
00:23:28.320 It's such a glorious vocation, and St. Alphonsus encourages both young men and women in his writings.
00:23:33.800 So, yeah, he definitely gives great advice to seminarians and those who want to pursue the priesthood.
00:23:42.300 Hey, my friends, now is the time to stand up and fight.
00:23:44.900 We are just about to have the Synod on Synodality, and everything that you've seen indicates that it's going to be an absolute disaster.
00:23:55.060 We have Father James Martin as a personal appointee of the Pope speaking at it.
00:24:00.640 We've got Cardinal Cupich, Cardinal Tobin.
00:24:03.900 These picks of the Pope to engage in this Synod are indicative of where we're going.
00:24:10.280 We're going into heresy, and at these times of great crisis, the church, especially those called in the laity to work for the glory of Christ and his church, are called to gather and strategize.
00:24:26.620 Back in 2014, LifeSite launched something called Rome Life Forum.
00:24:30.580 It was a gathering at that point of some 75 life and family leaders from all around the world to strategize as to what we could do.
00:24:38.960 And when we gathered, the majority of people were most concerned about what?
00:24:43.460 About Pope Francis, about what was going on in Rome.
00:24:47.380 But this was 2014, but the life and family leaders saw it first.
00:24:53.700 Now, a decade on, we are confronted with some of the most severe challenges the church has ever faced.
00:25:00.420 And so, our tradition at LifeSite is to continue with Rome Life Forum, which has continued every year until we had to take a break over COVID because we weren't permitted.
00:25:10.420 But we're starting it up again.
00:25:12.500 Please come, if you feel so called, to Rome.
00:25:15.140 October 31st and November 1st, the very end of the Synod on Synodality.
00:25:22.640 And we'll be there to strategize with his eminence, with his excellency, and with many life and family leaders from around the world.
00:25:31.880 For LifeSite News, this is John Henry Weston.
00:25:34.160 And may God bless you.
00:25:34.820 Now, he has a big volume on Our Lady called The Glories of Mary.
00:25:41.820 What did you glean from there?
00:25:43.360 What's your takeaway from there?
00:25:45.500 Yeah, so I could have written an entire chapter on that book alone.
00:25:49.540 I decided to write just four subchapters in the last chapter.
00:25:53.480 He clarifies that Mary, the name of Mary, is of divine origin, okay?
00:26:00.740 It has a name.
00:26:02.640 That name itself is holy.
00:26:05.280 And Mary was created by God.
00:26:08.840 She is, he says, like the moon to the sun.
00:26:11.580 Whereas God is the sun, perfect, bright, illuminating.
00:26:15.480 Mary is the moon.
00:26:16.560 She reflects that beauty.
00:26:18.020 At night, especially.
00:26:19.160 And he says the soul in sin is in darkness.
00:26:22.480 But he can turn to Mary, he can turn to Mary for hope, for help, and getting back to God.
00:26:30.020 And he says we should make Mary our mother because look at the example that Christ gave us.
00:26:34.880 He lived his private life until he was 30 under Mary and Joseph's tutelage, under their obedience.
00:26:40.880 And so he has special remarks for laity, but especially priests too.
00:26:44.920 He says, priest, mother is the Mary of priests.
00:26:48.420 At the cross, Christ said to St. John, behold your mother, the mother of priests, and the mother of all of us as well, St. Alphonsus says.
00:26:59.240 So he also makes the point that at judgment, God is going to, Christ is going to judge us according to justice, right?
00:27:09.020 And Mary will be there to plead with him to be our intercessor of mercy.
00:27:16.140 She's the queen of mercy.
00:27:17.160 So she will be there if we've prayed again throughout our lives and put ourselves under her patronage by not sinning.
00:27:25.820 She will be there to be our advocate.
00:27:28.000 And St. Alphonsus most importantly says, though, to be a child of Mary, we have to give up sin.
00:27:33.620 We have to be worthy of her protection by following in the footsteps of her son, Jesus Christ.
00:27:40.760 So we can't expect Mary to intercede for us during our last hours or when we're judged if we haven't been availing ourselves to her protection.
00:27:50.500 And, you know, one thing he personally did, Mary appeared to him on several occasions when he was preaching one time in Italy.
00:28:00.880 He elevated off the ground one time when he was giving a sermon on her.
00:28:04.780 The laity said his face shone very sparkling.
00:28:09.200 Our Lady of Perpetual Help, she was actually the icon of her was given to the Redemptorist Order by Pope Blessed Pius IX in the 1800s.
00:28:18.500 So they're the actual protectors of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
00:28:23.260 St. Alphonsus fasted on Saturdays throughout his whole life.
00:28:28.060 He wore chains around his neck to make eating an act of mortification.
00:28:33.880 He sprinkled bitter herbs on his food.
00:28:37.440 And he always instructed his priests to give sermons on Mary.
00:28:43.200 And he always said those were some of the most edifying sermons the priest ever gave.
00:28:47.860 So he was very devoted to the Blessed Mother and encouraged great devotion to her.
00:28:53.640 Beautiful.
00:28:55.400 Want to get to before we close, where can we get the book and where can we follow what you're doing?
00:29:02.520 Yeah.
00:29:02.760 So St. Alphonsus for the 21st Century, if you just type that into Amazon, it's published through there.
00:29:08.200 And one thing to mention is that Archbishop Vigano has lent his endorsement to the book.
00:29:14.960 So I'm very gracious to him.
00:29:18.120 Fr. Alphonsus Maria, he's a redemptorist priest, a traditional redemptorist priest who preaches missions.
00:29:24.760 He's endorsed the book as well.
00:29:26.140 And so I'm very grateful to them, as well as the typesetter, Kenneth Lieblich.
00:29:32.200 Michael Schrauser did the cover.
00:29:33.540 And I have to mention my friend Alex Barbas.
00:29:34.900 They helped so much with this book.
00:29:37.360 So thank you for them.
00:29:39.140 You can obviously find the book on Amazon, like I said.
00:29:42.540 You can follow my work on Twitter, at Stephen Cox.
00:29:45.620 And obviously here at LifeSite News, where we're doing so many great things.
00:29:49.500 And thank you again, John Henry, for having me on and being able to bring St. Alphonsus to our readers and the church in this world.
00:29:56.600 Again, I think his main message, I think hopefully everybody, again, can buy the book.
00:30:01.720 You're going to find different things that come out at you at this book.
00:30:05.280 You know, if you're a fallen away Catholic, you don't know how to pray.
00:30:08.000 You're going to understand his writings on prayer.
00:30:09.860 It's really going to help you pray more.
00:30:12.220 If you're a college student pursuing or thinking about a vocation, there's something in there for you.
00:30:16.920 There's something for parents and so many others.
00:30:19.020 So I think that's what God wants in this time is for those principles to come back and to really help the church.
00:30:27.740 Beautiful.
00:30:28.460 Stephen, thank you for the great work that you've done.
00:30:31.000 God bless you.
00:30:34.020 And God bless all of you.
00:30:35.740 We'll see you next time.
00:30:44.280 Hi, everyone.
00:30:45.080 This is John Henry Weston.
00:30:46.200 We hope you enjoyed this program.
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00:31:01.680 Thanks for watching.
00:31:02.680 And may God bless you.
00:31:03.420 Much for watching.
00:31:21.060 Thank you.