Latest / Arena Ablaze Podcast / Who Is Mary? The New Eve and Ark of the New Covenant

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Who Is Mary? The New Eve and Ark of the New Covenant · Arena Ablaze Podcast

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Welcome into the arena.
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This is the Arena of Blaze podcast, where
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our goal is to inspire men to join
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us passing through the gate of Mary and
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being found worthy to wield the most powerful
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sword the world will ever know in the
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spiritual battle that rages all around us, the
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Holy Face of Jesus.
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I'm your willing host, Marco Sandoval.
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Today we will be talking about the Blessed
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Virgin Mary.
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This is near and dear to my heart.
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I'm very nervous because I'm like a doting
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son here who's going to try and speak
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about something that is so vast, so deep,
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and so precious to me that I don't
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want to not do it justice.
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So stick with me here.
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If you find value in this conversation, please
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like and subscribe to receive alerts when we
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release new content.
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Also, please leave comments and suggestions.
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I appreciate any feedback we can get to
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take the conversation in a direction that is
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most beneficial.
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Our true algorithm is the Holy Spirit, and
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let's begin by renewing our total consecration to
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Jesus through Mary that we may do everything
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in, with, through, and for Mary as her
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instrument so that she may lead us to
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more perfectly do everything with, in, through, and
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for Jesus.
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I, Marco Sandoval, a repentant sinner, renew and
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ratify today in your hands, O Immaculate Mother,
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the vows of my baptism.
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I renounce Satan and resolve to follow Jesus
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Christ even more closely than before.
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Mary, I give you my heart.
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Please set it on fire with love for
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Jesus.
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Make it always attentive to his burning thirst
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for love and for souls.
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Keep my heart in your most pure heart
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that I may love Jesus and the members
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of his body with your own perfect love.
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Mary, I entrust myself totally to you, my
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body and soul, my goods, both interior and
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exterior, and even the value of all my
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good actions.
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Please make of me, of all that I
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am and have, whatever most pleases you.
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Let me be a fit instrument in your
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immaculate and merciful hands for bringing the greatest
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possible glory to God.
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If I fall, please lead me back to
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Jesus.
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Wash me in the blood and water that
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flow from his pure side and help me
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never to lose my trust in this fountain
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of love and mercy.
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With you, O Immaculate Mother, you who always
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do the will of God, I unite myself
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to the perfect consecration of Jesus as he
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offers himself in the Spirit to the Father
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for the life of the world.
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Amen.
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All right, so today we'll be talking about
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the Blessed Virgin Mary.
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It struck me today is the feast day
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of St. Augustine.
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St. Augustine is near and dear to my
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heart and to my conversion of heart.
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I think the Confessions of St. Augustine was
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maybe the third deep spiritual book that I
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read.
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It just really touched me with the things
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that I was struggling with in my life.
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St. Augustine had the same struggles.
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Today I was looking at it and thinking
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about it in terms of this conversation, and
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there's an iconic image of St. Augustine where
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it has a veritas, which is truth in
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Latin, and then it's kind of shining light
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onto his mind, his head, and it's going
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through his head, and he's holding his heart
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on the opposite side, and his heart's inflamed,
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so it's kind of showing that the truth
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is passing through his mind and inflaming his
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heart.
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And I thought, that's a really cool image.
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I think often about trying to be an
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instrument that helps other men set their heart
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on fire.
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I think as men we tend to be
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in our mind a lot.
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Trying to understand, seeking to understand, knowledge, and
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I think that gets in the way of
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setting our heart on fire often, so I
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think that image is interesting for St. Augustine.
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It worked, that truth, insatiable appetite for truth
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affected his mind and set his heart on
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fire, but I don't know that that's always
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the case for men.
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For me, it was Mary.
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It was my relationship with Mary, my love
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for Mary, that came through the 33-day
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consecration primarily.
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And so with St. Augustine, if you know
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more about the story, his mother, St. Monica,
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prayed and prayed and prayed for years for
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his conversion and the conversion of his father.
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Just tears of a mother, prayers of a
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mother, so much so, I think when he
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finally converted, she was with him, and I'll
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probably not get the story perfectly, but shortly
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thereafter she passed away, but she lived to
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see her son converted.
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So I was reflecting on that, thinking of
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those prayers of a mother and the role
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that that played.
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It's not present in that image.
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It's as if truth was the role, but
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the mother's prayers, working in concert with the
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truth, to me set his heart on fire.
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So that's kind of an image of the
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Blessed Virgin Mary's role in all of our
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life.
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As she says in the Magnificat, her soul
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proclaims God.
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Her soul magnifies the Lord.
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So I think often of a magnifying glass.
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When we were young, we would get a
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magnifying glass in the sun, and we'd catch
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grass on fire.
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Something like that.
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It magnifies the sun's heat and intensity so
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much so that it can create fire in
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the natural world, and that's a lot what
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I see that image when Mary says her
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soul proclaims the Lord and magnifies the Lord.
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I see that.
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So I thought that was interesting.
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As I wade into this, as I said
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earlier, I'm kind of nervous about it.
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I come at this as a layman.
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I'm not a theologian.
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I didn't go to school to learn this.
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I'm not being paid for this.
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I'm doing this as an act of stewardship,
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an act of alms.
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I'm giving alms for this, so this is
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my time, talent, and treasure to be able
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to speak these words.
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So I think that makes it to where
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I come from a little bit different place.
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How does a layman come to these truths
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in their life?
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As I mentioned earlier, the 33-day total
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consecration to Jesus through Mary, I think that's
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really what opened my heart up to Mary,
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which engaged my curiosity and imagination for her,
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and really got me started asking the question,
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Who is Mary?
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And seeking after that truth and reality of
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who she is.
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I think one thing that's good in contemplating
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her is her many titles.
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She has so many titles.
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I don't have a list of them here,
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but I would encourage you, you can easily
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Google the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
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and it will come up with basically the
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litany for all her different titles to pray
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for us.
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And there are so many titles.
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Mirror of Justice, Gateway of Heaven, there's just
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so many.
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Star of the Sea, that are just so
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beautiful.
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So I think going through those titles and
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kind of just praying over them, pondering over
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them, there's so much fruit that comes from
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that.
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What I'm going to talk about is how
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I encounter and experience Mary.
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And for me, my path was Mary in
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Scripture, Mary in the apparitions, and Mary, just
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my encounter of Mary.
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I say all the time, and probably will
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always say, that devotion to a thing makes
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your heart grow more tender towards it.
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That's Father Carney who brought that idea to
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me.
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And I can see that so clearly in
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my relationship with Mary.
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And this journey to her is that true
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devotion to Mary through the 33 days made
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my heart grow more tender and seek after
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her more.
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That just coming on the other side of
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the 33 days, I'm looking for her everywhere.
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I mean, it was really the apparitions largely.
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Our Lady of Lords, where she says, I
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am the Immaculate Conception, that spun St. Maximilian
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Kolbe's imagination crazy.
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He wanted to understand what she meant when
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she said that.
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And then Our Lady of Fatima is another
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one for me.
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That's the one that's really just so vivid.
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And to where I go and search through
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those accounts, I want to know every word
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that she said, what she looked like, how
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the children described her.
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There's just so much beauty and imagination for
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me in those things.
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The words that are spoken by the Angel
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of Peace and Mary herself are so packed
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with fruit.
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And then I just love the way the
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children describe what they saw, how she looked,
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what she was wearing, what it felt like
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when she opened her hands and the light
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passed through them.
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I just love those things.
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And we'll get into those more in the
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future.
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But I figured I would start with the
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Scripture.
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This was like the first thing I wanted
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to do is read the Bible by the
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time I was 40.
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And so I started my way through from
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front to back.
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And one of the things in retrospect, when
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I was encountering Mary, I would go back
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to the Exodus and Leviticus.
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And I'm an engineer.
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As an electrical engineer, I'm used to specifying
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designs.
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I'm used to trying to put into words
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what you physically want done, want somebody to
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build for you.
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So when I went through those Scriptures of
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Moses going on the mountain and speaking to
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God for 40 days and then coming down
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with his face aglow, and basically he had
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what God had given him that he wanted
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to give to the Israelites, that he wanted
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them to make, all these different artifacts of
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the temple, the Ark of the Covenant, the
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Tent of Meeting, all the different things, and
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how they were to do sacrifices.
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He laid all that out.
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It struck me because I've often thought, I
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get my creative nature from God.
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All of us are that way.
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The best parts of us are echoes of
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God's personality.
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He's poured his gifts into us.
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So I know he's a creator.
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I know he's an engineer and a designer
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and a builder.
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All you have to do is look at
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the world around us to see that, to
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see his fingerprints, so many different elements of
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his creation that work similarly.
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I see that all the time in many
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different ways.
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And you can see his fingerprints all over
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this covenant that Moses brought down from the
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mountain.
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So when he's going into the intricacy of
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how the Ark of the Covenant is to
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be made, where the gold is supposed to
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be, what material it's supposed to be made
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out of, what the rings were going to
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be like and the dimensions, and it just
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varied meticulously.
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So those were chapters that were kind of
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slow and hard to read at the time.
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It's just a lot of information.
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But in hindsight, it gives me, I feel
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a window into the character of God and
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how he works.
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And as I encounter things in my life
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after that, I look back and remember those
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readings and think, oh, I see, I know
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something about God, and I see how he
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works in these other ways.
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So then when I apply that to Mary,
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I think about, okay, that's the Ark of
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the Covenant.
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Now God's going to fashion an instrument to
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bring his Son into the world.
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He's going to bring God incarnate into the
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world.
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And so it just makes perfect sense to
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me that as immaculately as he laid out
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the Ark of the Covenant, he is going
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to so much more immaculately put together Mary
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in perfection because she's going to be carrying
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perfection itself in the womb, right, the meeting
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place of the Holy Spirit in her womb.
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So Mary is also the perfect witness to
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the Trinity.
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I mean, she's the daughter of God.
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She's the spouse of the Holy Spirit, and
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she's the mother of Jesus.
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So, I mean, those are huge things.
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Her nature and the Holy Spirit came together
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to conceive from her body, but also from
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the divinity of the Holy Spirit to conceive
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Jesus Christ in her womb and to draw
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his flesh from her.
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So to me, it has to be immaculate.
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It's impossible for me to wrap my mind
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around Jesus being knitted in the womb of
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a creature that had a fallen nature that
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was corrupted by sin.
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That just doesn't make any sense.
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And you'll know from the Old Testament that
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most of the time people who came in
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contact with God or saw God did not
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survive the encounter.
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It seems to me that that was always
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because of the fallen nature and the corrupt
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nature of man after the fall and God's
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just perfection.
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In many cases, your soul would be like
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a magnet sucked out to God.
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I mean, that's kind of the way I've
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always looked at it.
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So I am the immaculate conception.
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A lot of times that gets confused with,
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you know, non-Catholics will think we're talking
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about Jesus in that term.
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And Jesus certainly is immaculate, but that echo
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is back to Mary because she is the
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immaculate container that's going to carry, but it's
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even more than carry.
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Jesus's flesh and blood are going to be
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drawn from.
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His divinity is going to come from the
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Holy Spirit, but his manifested flesh is going
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to come from Mary and there can be
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no corruption in that process.
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So that's just kind of how I come
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around to that.
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That's my experience of reading the Bible and
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then thinking about Mary walking through the 33
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days and as a layman wrapping my mind
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around the immaculate conception.
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You know, I would go on to say,
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you know, let's see here.
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I like how it says God said to
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Moses.
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All those chapters where they're building and they're
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doing the sacrifices, they're understanding what it means
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to worship God rightly, the covenant.
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He says, you know, most of those chapters
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are started in God said and God told
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Moses and God told Moses and Aaron.
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So every single thing was passed from God
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as a gift to man, Moses and Aaron.
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I just think that's fascinating.
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Oftentimes man tries to put his hands on
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things and make them his own, but everything's
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a gift from God.
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Even in the way he wants to be
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worshipped, man didn't come up with that.
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God told us exactly how he wanted to
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be worshipped.
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So I always see that as a merciful
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thing.
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In God's mercy, he wants us to be
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involved in his creation, in his salvation.
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He involves us because he loves us, and
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I think that's a great, beautiful thing.
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So when we come, when we walk through,
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I'm going to, I like to begin with
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the end in mind.
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That's kind of a well-known way of
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looking at things.
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Jesus says he's the Alpha and the Omega.
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So I'm going to start in Genesis, and
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we're going to start Genesis 3.
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These are going to be the scriptures to
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me that shed light on who Mary is.
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So from Genesis 3, the Lord God then
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asked the woman, What is this you have
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done?
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The woman answered, The snake tricked me, so
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I ate it.
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Then the Lord God said to the snake,
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Because you have done this, cursed are you.
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Among all the animals, tame or wild, on
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your belly you shall crawl, and dust you
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shall eat all the days of your life.
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I will put enmity between you and the
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woman, and between your offspring and hers.
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They will strike at your head while you
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strike at their heel.
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To the woman he said, I will intensify
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your toil and childbearing.
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In pain you shall bring forth children.
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Yet your urge shall be for your husband,
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and he shall rule over you.
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To the man he said, Because you listened
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to your wife and ate from the tree,
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about which I commanded you, you shall not
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eat from it.
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Cursed is the ground because of you.
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In toil you shall eat its yield all
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the days of your life.
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Thorns and thistles it shall bear for you,
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and you shall eat the grass of the
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field.
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By the sweat of your brow you shall
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eat bread, until you return to the ground
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from which you were taken.
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For you are dust, and to dust you
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shall return.
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The man gave his wife the name Eve,
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because she was the mother of all the
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living.
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So to me this is the first scripture
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where we see Mary.
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And this is just packed with so much.
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I love Genesis.
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I love the Old Testament.
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It's amazing how often I go back to
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Genesis to understand what's going on in life
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around me.
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I find it very illuminating that the fall
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is essentially Satan arrives in the garden and
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he shows up to divide.
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He is the divider.
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He is dividing, first, the woman from God.
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He is basically questioning God.
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He is saying, did God really say that?
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And then he divides her from God.
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And then very quickly after that, he is
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dividing the husband and wife.
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He is dividing the man and woman.
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I think a lot of us can relate
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to that in the world today.
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Our families are under attack.
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Father Ritberger says good families are especially under
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attack right now.
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So this comes straight from the garden.
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This is Satan's game.
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He is first and foremost trying to divide
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each one of us from God.
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And secondly, he is trying to divide us
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from our spouses and destroy our families.
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And that starts right here.
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So I find that interesting.
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And then it's the woman.
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This is consistent language throughout the Bible.
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Jesus uses the term woman.
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God uses woman from the beginning.
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So this passage where he says, I will
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put enmity between you and the woman.
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I will put hatred between you and the
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woman and between your offspring and hers.
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This is basically the prophecy of Mary.
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That Mary is going to come along.
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There is going to be enmity between Mary
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and Satan.
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That enmity is read often as original sin.
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We have original sin because of the fall.
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But God is going to remove that original
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sin for this new woman.
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A lot of times people have a problem
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with that.
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But I would point out that Adam and
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Eve were created immaculately.
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They did not have original sin from the
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beginning.
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Of course God can create.
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He is not under the yoke of Satan
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because Satan created the fall and caused original
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sin and death to enter the world.
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It does not mean that God has to
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abide by Satan's rule.
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God chooses to make a new Eve without
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sin.
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And a new Adam which is Jesus we
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know.
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So to me that enmity is read as
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this new woman is going to be as
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Eve was in the beginning.
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She is not going to have sin.
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So there is going to be enmity between
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you and her offspring is going to be
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the same.
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He is going to come from something that
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does not have the corruption of the original
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sin.
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And then between your offspring and hers and
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they will strike at your head while you
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strike at their heel.
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So again they, this woman and her offspring
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are going to strike at the head of
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Satan and vice versa.
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So that is just a great hope to
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me.
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I mean it is a great promise that
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God says right from the fall He prophesies
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our redemption and our salvation in the future
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that is beautiful.
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And the role that we are going to,
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that the woman is going to play in
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it and that Jesus is going to be
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ultimately, He is ultimately going to be the
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one who saves us.
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But the role that the ark is going
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to play in that as well.
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And that they are going to strike at
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Satan's head while he strikes at their heel.
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So the partnership, the togetherness that there is
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going to be present between mother and son
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for the offspring, which I would count myself
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as an offspring of Mary.
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Those of us who are believers in Christ,
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He no longer calls us friends but He
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calls us brothers.
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So at the cross He gives Mary to
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John as His mother.
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So we are the children of Mary when
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we become brothers of Christ or the body
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of Christ.
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Like the same thing, the church is the
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body of Christ.
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So being the body of Christ, Christ's body
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came from Mary, we are Mary's children.
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I take that very seriously and that we
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have both Christ and Mary striking at Satan
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is just a wonderful thing.
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So as that continues on, it is just
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interesting to me that it is toil and
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childbearing and pain.
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And then for the man it is going
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to be work.
23:53
It is going to be by the sweat
23:54
of your brow.
23:56
St. Joseph comes along later as the foster
23:59
father of Jesus and he is just a
24:01
pure worker.
24:02
He is just an honest carpenter.
24:05
It is almost as if God is stitching
24:11
back together these things that were torn apart
24:16
by the fall.
24:18
So I think that is beautiful.
24:20
So then we go to the end.
24:23
We are going to jump to the end
24:24
now, which I love.
24:28
Mary arrives again here.
24:30
So we are Revelation chapter 12, the woman
24:33
and the dragon.
24:34
A great sign appeared in the sky.
24:37
A woman clothed with the sun, with the
24:40
moon under her feet, and on her head
24:42
a crown of twelve stars.
24:44
She was with child and wailed aloud in
24:47
pain as she labored to give birth.
24:49
Then another sign appeared in the sky.
24:51
It was a huge red dragon with seven
24:54
heads and ten horns, and on its head
24:56
were seven diadems.
24:57
Its tail swept away a third of the
24:59
stars in the sky and hurled them down
25:01
to the earth.
25:02
Then the dragon stood before the woman, about
25:05
to give birth, to devour her child when
25:08
she gave birth.
25:10
She gave birth to a son, a male
25:12
child, destined to rule all the nations with
25:14
an iron rod.
25:16
Her child was caught up to God in
25:17
his throne.
25:19
The woman herself fled into the desert where
25:21
she had a place prepared by God that
25:23
there she might take care of for 1260
25:27
days.
25:28
Then war broke out in heaven.
25:30
Michael and his angels battled against the dragon.
25:34
The dragon and its angels fought back, but
25:37
they did not prevail.
25:38
There was no longer any place for them
25:40
in heaven.
25:41
The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is
25:44
called the devil and Satan, who deceived the
25:47
whole world, was thrown down to earth, and
25:49
its angels were thrown down with it.
25:52
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven
25:54
say, Now have salvation and power come, and
25:58
the kingdom of our God, and the authority
26:00
of his anointed.
26:01
For the accuser of our brothers is cast
26:04
out, who accuses them before our God day
26:07
and night.
26:08
They conquered him by the blood of the
26:10
Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.
26:13
Love for life did not deter them from
26:15
death.
26:17
Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell
26:19
in them.
26:20
But woe to you, earth and sea, for
26:22
the devil has come down to you in
26:24
great fury.
26:26
For he knows he has but a short
26:28
time.
26:29
When the dragon saw that it had been
26:31
thrown down to the earth, it pursued the
26:33
woman who had given birth to the male
26:35
child.
26:36
But the woman was given two wings of
26:38
the great eagle, so that she could fly
26:40
to her place in the desert, where far
26:43
from the serpent she was taken care of
26:45
for a year, two years and a half
26:48
year.
26:48
The serpent, however, spewed a torrent of water
26:51
out of his mouth after the woman to
26:53
sweep her away with the current.
26:56
But the earth helped the woman and opened
26:58
its mouth and swallowed the flood that the
27:00
dragon spewed out of its mouth.
27:02
Then the dragon became angry with the woman
27:05
and went off to wage war against the
27:07
rest of her offspring.
27:09
Those who keep God's commandments and bear witness
27:12
to Jesus, it took its position on the
27:15
sand of the sea.
27:17
So I love that.
27:18
It's beautiful.
27:20
I'm an imaginative guy.
27:22
I just love these images.
27:23
When I see, you know, when she's clothed
27:27
with the sun, that takes me to Fatima.
27:29
Like immediately in my mind, the miracle of
27:31
the sun in Fatima.
27:32
Just such a beautiful image.
27:34
The moon under her feet.
27:37
Her head, a crown of 12 stars.
27:40
It's just a beautiful thinking of that.
27:43
An image of the Blessed Mother looking that
27:47
way.
27:48
Just breathtaking to me.
27:51
And then it's just so important to see
27:53
the fury and hatred that Satan has for
27:57
her.
27:59
I mean, she's the instrument that brought through
28:01
which Jesus entered into the world.
28:06
I've heard it said that Lucifer, before he
28:09
fell, you know, Lucifer, light.
28:12
Like he wanted to be the light bearer.
28:15
He wanted to bring God incarnate into the
28:18
world.
28:18
And when he discovered that that was not
28:20
his role, that God had a different plan,
28:23
that's when he chose not to serve.
28:26
He said non servium.
28:28
He wouldn't serve God.
28:30
It was beneath him that Mary would have
28:34
this role.
28:35
And so that's kind of what set off
28:37
this war that's being described here with St.
28:39
Michael and the third of the angels being
28:42
thrown down to the earth.
28:44
So I just, to me it's so important
28:47
to understand that this is real.
28:52
We're not doing battle against flesh and blood.
28:54
Our brothers and sisters, we're in a war
28:57
for their souls.
29:00
That it's Satan and these angels that prowl
29:03
the world trying to lead others astray.
29:08
And, you know, it's how we have these
29:10
advocates.
29:11
We have Jesus Christ, God incarnate.
29:14
We have Mary, who is our advocate, who
29:20
is very close to her son, who, if
29:24
we're going to do battle with these things,
29:26
we need all of these powers, St. Michael,
29:28
to help us to be able to have
29:33
a chance.
29:35
Let's see, so I've got one more here
29:38
in Revelations because while we're here, I'm like,
29:41
why not?
29:43
It goes on to talk about the king
29:46
of kings, which is Jesus.
29:47
This is another passage that sends my imagination
29:51
crazy.
29:53
So there's a lot of talk in our
29:55
world today about no kings and whether Christ
29:59
the king is an appropriate term.
30:02
So I love this passage from Revelation.
30:06
This is Revelation 19.
30:09
The king of kings, verse 11.
30:13
Then I saw the heavens opened and there
30:15
was a white horse.
30:17
Its rider was called Faithful and True.
30:22
He judges and wages war in righteousness.
30:25
His eyes were like a fiery flame, and
30:29
on his head were many diadems.
30:31
He had a name inscribed that no one
30:33
knows except himself.
30:35
He wore a cloak that had been dipped
30:37
in blood, and his name was called The
30:40
Word of God.
30:42
The armies of heaven followed him, mounted on
30:45
white horses and wearing clean white linen.
30:49
Out of his mouth came a sharp sword
30:51
to strike the nations.
30:52
He will rule them with an iron rod,
30:55
and he himself will tread out in the
30:58
winepress the wine of the fury and wrath
31:01
of God the Almighty.
31:03
He has a name written on his cloak
31:05
and on his thigh, King of kings and
31:09
Lord of lords.
31:11
I love that.
31:13
So that's the son, right?
31:15
That's Mary's son, Jesus, Jesus the warrior.
31:22
You know, Jesus also has many ways that
31:25
he presents himself, but I love that, the
31:28
cloak dipped in blood, the precious blood of
31:31
Christ, the blood that seals us and protects
31:34
us and saves us.
31:36
I just think that's such an important image,
31:40
you know, that us as believers here fighting
31:43
in this fallen world, we need to look
31:47
up, we need to remember that the victory
31:51
is assured and how powerful those are that
31:58
we follow, how powerful our God is, how
32:04
really the power that Satan and the fallen
32:07
angels, the demons of this world have, they
32:10
really have no power.
32:11
God's already defeated them.
32:12
Any power that they have in this world
32:15
is because God allows it, often for our
32:19
salvation, which is an interesting concept, but it's
32:25
a comforting one.
32:27
I could speak to that many times throughout
32:30
my life, most of what you deem as
32:33
being bad things that happen to you.
32:36
At the time, it's easy to fall into
32:40
self-pity.
32:41
Why is God allowing this to happen to
32:43
me?
32:43
Why am I going through this?
32:45
But having persevered through the trial, having clung
32:49
to God, having clung to Mother Mary, and
32:54
praying, you know, praying for not your way
32:57
but God's way, when you get through it
32:59
and you look back, you see how much
33:01
fruit you gained out of those trials, and
33:03
that's the whole point.
33:04
That's why God allows evil in the world,
33:07
because he uses it for his greater good.
33:12
It's just a beautiful, comforting thing.
33:15
No matter what you go through, knowing that
33:16
you're a warrior for Christ, and knowing exactly
33:21
how much of a warrior Christ is, that
33:24
we don't see now, but who he truly
33:27
is, gives you so much courage for the
33:31
battle.
33:33
So, I think those are important.
33:35
The very beginning, the very end, and then
33:37
I'll end with this one here.
33:40
This is the announcement of the birth of
33:43
Jesus.
33:43
So this is Luke 1, 26.
33:46
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was
33:49
sent from God to a town of Galilee
33:50
called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a
33:54
man named Joseph of the house of David.
33:57
And the virgin's name was Mary.
33:59
And coming to her he said, Hail, favored
34:01
one, the Lord is with you.
34:04
But she was greatly troubled at what was
34:06
said and pondered what sort of greeting this
34:08
might be.
34:10
Then the angel said to her, Do not
34:11
be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor
34:14
with God.
34:15
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and
34:17
bear a son, and you shall name him
34:19
Jesus.
34:20
He will be great and will be called
34:23
Son of the Most High.
34:25
And the Lord God will give him the
34:27
throne of David his father.
34:28
And he will rule over the house of
34:30
Jacob forever.
34:32
And of his kingdom there will be no
34:34
end.
34:34
But Mary said to the angel, How can
34:37
this be, since I have no relations with
34:40
the man?
34:41
And the angel said to her in reply,
34:43
The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and
34:46
the power of the Most High will overshadow
34:49
you.
34:50
Therefore the child to be born will be
34:51
called Holy, the Son of God.
34:54
And behold, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived
34:58
a son in her old age, and this
35:00
is the sixth month for her who was
35:02
called barren, for nothing will be impossible for
35:05
God.
35:06
Mary said, Behold, I am the handmaid of
35:09
the Lord.
35:10
May it be done to me according to
35:12
your word.
35:13
Then the angel departed from her.
35:16
So this is the Annunciation.
35:20
There's so much in these.
35:22
I have no chance to really unpack obviously
35:26
everything that's in here and all these scriptures
35:29
that I've walked through.
35:30
I'm just trying to give a layman's witness
35:32
to it.
35:33
But when I read this, one of the
35:37
things that comes to me is this isn't
35:41
a perfect situation.
35:43
Mary's already betrothed.
35:47
It's a trial.
35:49
It's a trial.
35:52
That's a great mystery.
35:54
It's a great mystery.
35:56
I would say in the very beginning where
36:01
it talked about we are from ashes and
36:03
to ashes we'll return.
36:04
I try to keep that in front of
36:07
mine often.
36:08
Memento mori, remember your death.
36:12
That we are from the soil.
36:14
We are from the earth, and we're going
36:15
to go back to the earth.
36:16
So humility.
36:17
Humility is so important to stay close to
36:20
from where we came, stay close to that
36:23
concept that all good things come from God
36:26
alone.
36:29
We're from the soil.
36:32
We have the gift of the Spirit from
36:34
God.
36:36
And all our good fruit, all good gifts
36:39
and talents that we have, they're all from
36:41
God, and they're all going to go back
36:43
to God.
36:44
And so keeping that front of mind, I
36:48
think that's the importance of trial is that
36:51
through trial we'll find humility.
36:55
And through humility we can receive the Holy
36:58
Spirit and be most fertile like the soil
37:00
so that the seeds of the Spirit can
37:03
grow in us and bear God's fruit in
37:05
God's time.
37:07
And so, yeah, this coming to you and
37:12
God has a plan for you that is
37:15
a divine plan.
37:16
It's not an earthly plan.
37:18
It doesn't fit into the confines of what
37:20
the earth deems to be right.
37:24
God's ways are higher.
37:26
And so how shocking that probably would be,
37:30
you know, and the angel saying that you
37:34
have found favor with God, you know, hail
37:36
favored one.
37:38
I can't get into Bible, let's see, all
37:44
the different translations of the Bible.
37:48
You know, that's quicksand in itself because so
37:54
many people like to argue about the different
37:56
translations.
37:57
There are other translations where basically that whole
38:02
thing is the beginning of the Hail Mary,
38:04
so people will ask about the Hail Mary.
38:06
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is
38:08
with thee, blessed art thou among women, and
38:10
blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus,
38:12
that's the beginning half of the Hail Mary
38:14
prayer.
38:16
And, you know, that comes straight from the
38:18
scripture reading.
38:20
Hail favored one, the Lord is with you.
38:23
And it also comes from, you know, in
38:25
the future we'll talk about the visitation, but
38:27
Elizabeth says, you know, blessed is the fruit
38:29
of thy womb.
38:30
How is it that you come to me?
38:34
Divine inspired words, you know, the Holy Spirit
38:36
comes upon both of them and they speak
38:38
that way.
38:40
So this is the Hail Mary prayer which,
38:42
you know, this will continue on to talk
38:44
about the Rosary in a future episode, but
38:47
this is the beginning of the sword of
38:49
the Rosary right here being spoken.
38:53
You know, finding favor with God, you know,
38:57
a lot of times that will be translated
38:59
as full of grace.
39:01
As I already kind of unpacked, the full
39:04
of grace makes sense because the lack of
39:07
grace comes from the fall and original sin
39:09
and the fullness of grace is absolutely required
39:14
for this new arc to bring God incarnate
39:18
into the world.
39:19
I just can't, there's no other way that
39:22
God would, you know, would choose to bring
39:25
his son, fully divine and fully man into
39:29
the world except through a vessel that was
39:31
full of grace.
39:32
So, you know, this is where these words
39:34
come from.
39:35
And I like her response.
39:40
You know, her response is, you know, Behold,
39:43
Ece.
39:44
Kind of what we talked of in the
39:45
beginning.
39:46
Ece, behold, I am the handmaid of the
39:48
Lord.
39:49
Like, she is lowly.
39:50
She's placing herself in a place of humility
39:54
and she's just saying, behold, I will do
39:58
whatever you ask me to do, basically.
40:00
So I love those words from that, too.
40:06
You know, he basically lays it out that
40:11
the son's going to be from the Holy
40:13
Spirit.
40:13
It's going to be from God.
40:15
And he prophesies to her, you know, as
40:17
a sign that Elizabeth also is conceived and
40:21
that she was deemed to be barren but
40:23
nothing's impossible for God.
40:26
You know, he's saying, hey, here's a sign.
40:29
I mean, even though she never asked for
40:31
it.
40:31
And that's one thing that's really important to
40:33
take away from this exchange to me is
40:35
that, you know, when God brings something to
40:40
you, you know, Mary's response is, you know,
40:45
how can this be?
40:47
What am I to do?
40:49
When?
40:50
Where?
40:51
But it's never why.
40:53
And I think that's something that is a
40:55
great witness to take away from Mary is
40:57
that it's not for us to know God's
41:00
ways.
41:01
The why is really not that we're not
41:03
on a plane to know why.
41:05
We're on the plane of how do I
41:07
respond?
41:08
What do I do to serve your will?
41:11
Where do you want me to go?
41:13
When do you want me to do?
41:15
And, you know, that is a consistent three.
41:18
Here I am, Lord.
41:19
Send me.
41:20
Send me to do your will.
41:22
And Mary's a perfect witness to this.
41:24
And this kind of gets to me to
41:26
the real, you know, as Mary, the honor
41:34
that Mary deserves from us comes from the
41:39
fact she's a great hero because she's one
41:46
of us, right?
41:48
Jesus is God made man, but sometimes I
41:51
think it's hard to relate because he's divine.
41:54
So it's like he's God.
41:55
Of course he can always make the right
41:57
decisions.
41:58
I mean, he's God.
41:59
He knows what's going to happen.
42:01
And sometimes it's hard to relate to God
42:04
in the flesh.
42:05
But Mary is a different case because Mary
42:08
is us.
42:10
She's fully us.
42:12
She's fully us as we were intended to
42:14
be, right?
42:15
She's the new Eve.
42:18
So she's easier to relate to.
42:21
She's a humble.
42:21
She's a servant.
42:23
She's a handmaiden of God.
42:26
She knows what it is to be fully
42:28
human, just lacking in original sin.
42:32
So sometimes I think people get almost self
42:37
-conscious of that.
42:38
They try to bring Mary down onto our
42:42
level to relate to her more fully.
42:45
But I think to me it's much more
42:47
beneficial to just look at Mary as somebody
42:54
who is just like us and who knows
42:58
what it is to be human and who
43:01
is our advocate, who responded in a way
43:04
that we all should emulate our response to
43:07
be, not asking why, not raising ourself up,
43:13
just being lowly and giving our fiat and
43:18
letting God's wondrous plan work in our life
43:22
however he sees fit.
43:24
So I think that's probably all I would
43:28
say.
43:29
I think the last point I would just
43:31
make is these titles of Mary, Mediatrix of
43:36
All Graces and Co-Redemptrix, that comes directly
43:40
from these scriptures, and we'll unpack that a
43:44
little bit more, but I think of that
43:45
often.
43:47
She's the Mediatrix.
43:49
She gave her fiat.
43:51
God so loves us and respects our free
43:53
will that he was only going to work
43:55
through us with our consent, and Mary gave
43:59
that consent on behalf of all of us.
44:01
So she's the Mediatrix.
44:02
That's where it comes from to me.
44:04
She said yes, and through her yes, she
44:08
mediated our salvation.
44:10
Jesus does it.
44:11
Jesus is God.
44:12
Mary is not.
44:13
But she mediates, and he kept her in
44:16
that position.
44:17
It's kind of a consistent theme also throughout
44:19
the Bible that God always, through his mercy
44:23
and love for us, he chooses.
44:25
So intimate he wants to be with us
44:28
that he uses his creation and he uses
44:32
us to do the work of his salvation.
44:35
And in this way, he uses Mary to
44:37
mediate, to do his work of grace in
44:41
the world.
44:41
God, Jesus, is the source of the grace,
44:44
but Mary passes that grace down into the
44:47
world.
44:47
That's part of his plan, and it's a
44:50
beautiful thing.
44:51
It's a beautiful thing because she knows us.
44:53
She knows the human condition.
44:54
She knows the human heart.
44:56
She has so much love for us as
44:57
her children that her entire, really to understand
45:03
fully her being, the only way you can
45:05
understand Mary's entire full being is through Jesus,
45:11
that she was the instrument to bring Jesus
45:14
in, and she's the instrument to do the
45:16
work of God as the perfect witness of
45:20
the Trinity.
45:22
All right, I think that wraps it up
45:25
for this first one.
45:26
That's a lot.
45:28
It's a deep, bottomless topic.
45:32
Again, it's just a layman who is so
45:35
in love with the Blessed Virgin, who's placed
45:38
so much of his life in the Blessed
45:39
Virgin's hands, who seeks every day, every hour
45:43
to be an instrument in her hands for
45:45
the sole purpose that I know she leads
45:47
me closest to her son, closest to her
45:50
spouse, closest to her father.
45:54
I hope you get some good fruit out
45:57
of this, and if you've got questions or
45:58
comments, please leave them so I can answer
46:02
them, and the more questions I get, it
46:04
just causes me to grow and learn more
46:07
and more.