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Show 141: Heaven · The Uncensored Catholic

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The all welcome today's show. We will get into the subjects of heaven today,
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So get ready for that one. You know, that's one of the
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what would you say, one of the deeper topics of Christianity, something that
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all of us should spend a whole lot of time thinking about, and Father
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Spiago does a great job with it as always. But first of all,
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we're going to talk about Christian science. Now, Christian science is nowhere near
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as popular as it was in the early mid nineteen hundreds. That was a
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time when there were people really into seances and Edgar Casey and a lot of
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stuff, and Christian Science kind of build on that to an extent. The
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main thing that really made them stand out though they refused to seek medical care
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from doctors. They thought everybody could be healed by prayer, and that Christian
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should only be healed by prayer. And that eventually kind of developed into a
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theory of like a positive attitude which prevents you from getting sick. Now,
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there was small Christian science community in the town where I was born, in
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the mountains. I've known several throughout my life, all really nice people.
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Really have not experienced an any Catholicism from them. It's not to say that
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it wasn't founded on it, because there was a lot in the beginning.
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They don't seem to be many of them left anymore. In fact, that
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little Christian Science reading room or whatever they called it in the town where I
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lived, which was a resort town, it was pretty actually upscale resort town.
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It's closed. I think it's like a little shopping there now or something.
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And you rarely ever see a Christian Science I think they call them reading
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grams, and do any think they call them churches? But we'll get into
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debt. It's interesting something you need to know about because there they're very big
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in the temperance movement. A lot of their philosophy and doctrine really did kind
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of infect other churches. So let's talk about that. So the person asked
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what of Christian Science and the pre censor. Christian Science was founded by Mary
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Baker Eddie in eighteen seventy five. Mary Baker was born in eighteen twenty one.
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She married mister Asa Gilbert Eddie and after securing a divorce from After securing
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a divorce from mister Patterson, whom she had married after the death of her
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first husband, Colonel Glover, so I guess she was married three times.
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Despite its title, the religion is really but an unscientific heresy. It denies
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the existence of suffering, matter, human beings, sin, death, and
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a whole lot of other things which we know quite well to exist. Very
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important to know that a lot of parallels there, say Buddhism and such in
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the denial of suffering and everything. But in a much more puritanical mindset,
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the person says, does not Christian science rely upon prayer through belief in Christ's
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words? Whatever you ask in my name should be granted, And they answer,
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I am afraid that it requires more belief in Miss Eddy than in Christ.
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It relies also far more on auto suggestion and self persuasion than upon prayer.
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Psychiatry was a big influence on Christian science, by the way, After
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all, favors must be asked in the name of Christ, and therefore in
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conformity with the will of God. But God expects us to use the natural
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means he has put at our disposal. His ordinary law for our health is
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to use is the use of natural remedies and medical aid. Yes, natural
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remedies. I love saying that as an herbalist. Erbalism is very Christian.
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It was the only medicine there was, was practiced by all the Christian Catholic
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hospitals that christianize Europe, all the Benedictines and Jesuits and Carmelites and all that
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had our herb gardens. Franciscans. Yeah, maybe not the Carmelites. Maybe
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they did, I can't remember. It doesn't really matter. So they said,
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God expects us to use the natural means he's put at a disposal.
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His ordinary law for our health is use of natural remedies and medical aid.
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It is absurd to say that He provided these things uselessly and does not intend
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us to use them. If we deliberately neglect God's ordinary means, we cannot
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expect him to help us in some extraordinary way of our own devising. And
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of course the reason they believe that is because they have a Protestant Bible.
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You know, Han Martin Luther not started cutting out books in the fifteen hundreds.
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They still have a Catholic Bible, and which would have the Book of
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Sirac, which says Despi is not the physician, He's been given his skill
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and the medicines he uses from God. So person says, do not Christian
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scientists produce miracles just as at Lords. No, that's quite a charge,
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huh. Any answer, No, they exploit the natural powers of auto suggestion,
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but no curate Lords which could be could be due to auto suggestion is
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ever accepted and registered officially as a miracle. Auto suggestion will not mend a
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broken leg. Also, it will not avail for infants who have not attained
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the age of reason. Yet Lords has seen the cures have broken and deformed
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bones and the recovery of little children who could not possibly have suggested to themselves
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back to help. Christian science cannot produce any really authenticated miracles. All right,
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now we will get into the more deep matters of the day, coming
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from Father Sparagua's exhaustive explanation of the Catechism. So yeah, you know,
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like I said, most of the Christian science reading rooms I think is they
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have closed. From what I can tell, at least in North Carolina.
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I don't think you're going to find a lot anymore. The people that still
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practice and read the Christian science books. They wrote volumes. You're going to
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find them and use bookstores. You're going to find them in libraries. We're
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going to have to deal with this heresy for a very long time. But
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you know, the people that do actually practice that tend to be really nice
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people. They you know, I think a lot of it really came out
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of the Quaker belief The Quakers believed in always having a pleasant disposition. They
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believe that any show of anger, grief, sadness, et cetera was an
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insult to God and would cause other people around them, perhaps to lose faith
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or to be unhappy. So, you know, one of my favorite writers
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is actually ru Stout. She was reck Stout's sister. She was a real
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pioneer of permaculture, delightful lady, but she was Quaker and she really explained
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that in her book, if you would be happy. They were brought up
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not to show any displeasure in anything, And I do think that's really where
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Christian science kind of got that idea. You have to remember, though,
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Jesus wept, you know, just the shortest sentence in the Bible, when
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Jesus hears about lazarus death. Jesus wept, And for that matter, Lazarus
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died, and Jesus could have prevented it. Yes, he rose him back
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from the dead to prove a point that he could do it. But Jesus
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said, you're going to suffer, and I mean God gave us a grief
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and sadness and sickness, So really will rely on God and not upon our
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own ability to you know, have a stiff upper lip, act tough,
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or delude ourselves into thinking we're not really sick. I really saw that at
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a certain Southern Baptist university when one of the main teachers in the divinity or
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theology department whatever they trade preachers. There's another word for it's not coming to
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mind anyway, his wife and children were killed, and of course he was
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devastated, but he was told by everyone there that as a Christian he should
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be glad they were in heaven, and he wasn't really allowed to grieve and
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kind of pretty much had a breakdown, had to leave the school because you
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know, humans react in a human way and God made us that way.
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And if Jesus wept over the deaths of Lazarus, you know, I mean,
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if there was no suffering that was real, what's the Book of Job
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all about, I mean, you know, And Jesus said, if you
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follow him, you will suffer, take up your cross and do it.
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Don't actly the cross doesn't exist, so anyway, you probably won't encounter it
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a lot. No reason to get into an argument with somebody if they believe
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that. Like I said, they're kind of dying out. It was much
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more popular a few decades ago, but I think it's just really more people
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that think that way now would be found in the Mormon Church, and the
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ods is a great, bigger threat than the Christian science ever was. The
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Quakers are basically gone. There's still a few friends meetinghouses around. The Shakers
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are entirely gone. The Mennonites are dying out now. We really do find
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those heresies more among the Mormons. And you know, I dated a Mormon
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girl for a while. We were madly in love, but her parents would
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allow her to Mary a Catholic. And the stories she told me about her
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sisters and their marriages. I mean, there's a lot of spousal and child
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abuse going on in that so called religion, and they're supposed to just smile
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the whole time, never act like anything happens, and they deny when they're
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mentally ill. If they have depression, it's really not good. It may
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look pretty on the surface, but when you get into it, it's it's
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a well, it's a cult, it's what it is. It's a cult
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that presents itself as everybody just being you know, happy and smiling all the
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time, like they've been lobotomized or something. But no, at its heart,
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it's a false religion. It's a heresy, and it's a cult.
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I don't even know. Yeah, I mean it's a heresy in that they
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say they have the Bible, and equal to it is the Book of Mormon
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written by Joseph Smith. But she claimed just like an angel gave him to
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amount of heaven. I mean, it was totally made up, mainly just
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to justify as bigamy. And again, I mean the whole religion's kind of
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found on spousal abuse. So anyway, now we'll get on too much more
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pleasant topics. It still hurts to think about that one in all honesty,
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all right, So heaven, Heaven is the abode of everlasting joy. Christ
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gave his apostles on Mount Tabor some foretaste of the joys of heaven Matthew seventeen.
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The heavens opened had the baptism of Christ Matthew three sixteen. Saint Stephen
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saw the heavens opened. That was as he was being stoned to death.
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In Acts seven fifty five, Saint Paul was wrapped into the third Heaven.
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That's Corinthians twelve to two. Heaven is both the place and a state.
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Many divines teach that it is somewhere beyond the stars. Though this view is
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not of faith, yet it has some foundation, for Christ came down from
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heaven and ascended again to heaven. Heaven is also a state of the soul.
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It consists in the vision of the Godhead Matthew eighteen ten and in the
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peace and joy of the Holy Spirit Romans fourteen seventeen. So the angels and
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saints do not leave Heaven when they come to our assistance. Christ is king
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of Heaven. He called himself king before Pilot, though he manifested that kingdom
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was not of this world. John twenty eight thirty six. He was acknowledged
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as king by the penitent thief. Lord. Remember me when thou comest into
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Thy Kingdom Luke twenty three forty two. Heaven in heaven, the angels worship
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Christ he Brews one six. Heaven is our true home. On this earth,
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we are but strangers Tewod Corinthians five six. The joys of heaven are
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unspeakably great. The blessed are free from even the slightest pain. They enjoy
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the vision of God and the friendship of all the inhabitants of Heaven. Of
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the joys of Heaven, Saint Paul writes, eye has not seen, nor
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ear, hath heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man.
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What things God hath prepared for him that love him them that love Him one
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Corinthians two nine. This happiness may be felt, but not described, says
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Saint Augustine, and David addresses God. They shall be inebriated with the plenty
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of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thy
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pleasure. That's from Psalms thirty five or so. The present life, says
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Saint Gregory the Great, in comparison with everlasting bliss, it's more like death
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than life. We shall enjoy there the same delights as God himself Matthew twenty
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five twenty one. For we shall be made partakers of the divine nature second
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Peter one four and like to God. First John three to two. We
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shall be transformed in heaven like iron in the fire. In heaven, there
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are many mansions. John fourteen two. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a
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banquet. Matthew eight eleven, Luke fourteen sixteen. My word, you get
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used to these Roman numerals after a while. I was never good with that
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at school, but you know, becoming Catholic, but learning a lot of
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Latin and Roman numerals and such as that. And still if you give me
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one that's more like you know, five or six x's and i's and seas
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long, I'm like, well, I believe it or not, even though
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I'm reading out loud to you right now, something I've had to learn over
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many years. I'm dyslexic. May surprise you. Yes, I'm an author.
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I'm dyslexic. I had to learn to read without inverting letters. And
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there's the brain can ever come many challenges, essentially guesses at the words,
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and I usually get them right ninety nine percent of the time, whether it's
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numbers and in math or like Roman numerals, those inversions can get pretty tricky
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because I can't put them in context. If they're you know, more than
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three or four or five, Like when you get to Psalms I x x
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x I I that's sort of like a nightmare for a dyslexic. I mean,
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you know, seriously, but anyway, where was I in heaven?
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You know many mansions. There's in heaven. There's let's see, in heaven,
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there are many mansions. The kingdom of heaven is liken to a banquet
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in which our Lord himself waits upon the guests. That's Luke twelve thirty seven.
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In heaven there is no bodily, only spiritual food. Tobit twelve nineteen.
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There is great light for Timothy six sixteen. There are heard songs of
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the angels Psalms with a lot of Roman numerals. The Saints are robed in
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white. That's revelations or apocalypse as they used to call it, seven fourteen.
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They are crowned by the Lord Wisdom five seventeen and have perfect freedom and
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are set over all God's works Matthew twenty four forty seven. Something else.
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Protestants don't really understand that the Saints are actually given responsibility to help in the
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salviafic mission. If, oh, if, oh, my God, thou
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dost give us such beautiful things here in our prison. What wilt they'll do
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in thy palace? Exclaimed Saint Augustine. Lastly, the joys of heaven are
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not sensual. Matthew twenty two thirty tells us that the bless are free from
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all suffering. It is easier to Saint Augustine's name the evils from which the
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bless are free, than to count up their joys. They neither hunger nor
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thirst. Death shall be no more, no mourning or sorrow. Those are
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both quotes from revelations or references. I guess, and the night will be
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no more as is one. The blessed see the face of God Matthew eighteen
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ten. They see God as he is John three to two, and the
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face and face to face First Corinth the Ens thirteen twelve. Nor do they
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see God as it were but an image. But He is as present to
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the understanding as a vision object to the eye of which sees it. The
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blessed enjoy this vision not by any power of their own, but by the
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special divine operation called the light of glory, And in consequence of this they
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become like to God that's on John three to two. This vision of God
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is the source of untold happiness. The blessed say, or the blessed,
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I guess, say Saint Bonaventure, rejoice more over God's blessedness than over their
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own. If the contemplation of creation is so sweet, says Saint Charles Borromeo,
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how much more so must the contemplation of the creator with the knowledge of
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God is necessarily linked the love of God. An increase of one means the
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increase of the other. Hence this great joy banishes all sadness. The blessed
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in heaven also love one another. They are as one John seventeen twenty one.
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The love of the elected Paradise, says says Blessed Suso, is so
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great that the souls removed at an infinite distance from one another, love with
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greater affection than that which exists between parent and child. It is love alone,
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says Saint Augustine, which separates the children of the Eternal Kingdom from the
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children of tradition. What happiness to meet again our relations and friends after so
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long and painful a separation. In other words, the saints in heaven love
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us more than they do on earth, because their love is perfected with the
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love of God. The joys of heaven last forever. Christ says, the
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just will enter into everlasting life. The Holy Spirit will be united with them
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for forever John fourteen sixteen. This joy no man can take from them John
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sixteen twenty two. No one can snatch them from the hand of the Father
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John ten twenty nine. Great kings and princes support their dependence even when they
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are no longer capable of rending service. Surely, God, who is king
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of kings, will not be less generous. His reward is eternal, the
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only one worthy of him. Were it not so, the joy of heaven
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would be incomplete from fear of its coming to an end. The happiness of
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the blessed varies according to their merits. The Master and the Gospel of Saint
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Luke nineteen sixteen gave the servant who had uses ten talents to gain another ten
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talents, the command of ten cities, and to the one who had successfully
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used five talents the command of five cities. Thus God acts, and so
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doing acts with greatest justice. Saint Paul says, he who soeth sparingly shall
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also reap sparingly, And he who sooethin blessings shall also reap of blessings at
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second Corosathien ninety six. The justice in heaven the Triune God. Yet some
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see him more perfectly than others, according to their merits. One is the
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glory of the sun Christ, another the glory of the moon Mary, and
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another the glory of the stars. The saints first Corinthians fifteen four. The
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knowledge and love of God are greater in one saint and less than another,
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And the same is true of the joys of heaven. Men are intended to
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take the place of the fallen angels, and of these there are some from
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all nine choirs of angels. The degree of glory in heaven depends on the
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amount of sanctifying grace which a man has at his death Ecclesiastes eleven to three.
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In other words, the degree of glory is greater in proportion as a
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man as has at his death more of the Holy Spirit, or more of
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the Love of God in his heart. The degree of glory in the blessed
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or blessed can be cannot be increased nor diminished throughout eternity. Yet there are
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accidental delights, as for instance, when a special honor is paid to a
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saint. Our Lord revealed that there is a particular in joy in heaven when
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a sinner is converted. That's Luke fifteen seven. The canonization, beatification,
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the feast day of Saying on earth, the prayers, the Holy sacrifice,
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and other good works which faithful persons perform on earth in honor of a saint
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are a special source of joy to that saint. Saint Gertrude saw such.
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On such occasions the Saint clothed in more resplendent raiment and surrounded by a glorious
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escort, they seemed also to be raised to a greater state of bliss.
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Get among the bless, that there is no envy. They are all children
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of one father and have received their portion from him. Matthew twenty two,
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No. Twenty to use the homily illustration of the home illustration of Saint Francis
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to sell. Two children receive from their father a piece of cloth to make
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a garment. The smaller child will not envy his brother the bigger garment,
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but will be quite satisfied that with the one that fits him. So it
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is in heaven, and more than this, each one rejoices over the happiness
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of the other, as so it was also in some measure his own.
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And I remember Saint Teresa was so said that he was her sister, explaining
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the greater degrees of joy and such in heaven. Took out a small glass
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at a large glass and filled them both. And see they said, see
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they hold different amounts, but they're each full. It was a nice you
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know, she did everything in her childlike way, and I think that was
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a very good illustration. Let's see, only those souls interer heaven which are
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free from all sin and from the penalty due to sin. According to the
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Council of Florence, the souls only of those who, after baptism have not
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sinned, or who, if after they sinned, have done perfect penance on
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earth or in purgatory, can enter heaven. Nothing defiled can enter heaven.
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That's Revelations twenty one twenty seven. Moreover, none can enter heaven before death
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for the death of Christ. Moreover, none can enter heaven before the death
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of Christ. They had to remain in limbo. Heaven is won by suffering
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and self denial. Saint Paul writes, by many tribulations must we enter the
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Kingdom of God Acts fourteen twenty one and Christ's words are he that loveth his
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life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world keepeth
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it unto eternal life. John twelve twenty five. I e. He who
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goes after all the joys and pleasures of this world will be damned, and
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he who despises them will be saved. There is no blessedness without self denial.
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The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure or a costly pearl. Whoever
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possesses it must give his awe for it. That's from Matthew thirteen forty four
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forty six. He must give up in an ordinate attachment to things of this
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world. The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence Matthew eleven twelve. Narrow is the
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gate, and straight is the way that leads to life Matthew seven fourteen.
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He wins the prize in the race who runs swiftly and steadily and refrains from
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all things First Corinthians nine twenty five. He who would be among the blessed
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must or the blessed. I guess in that case, it's always hard to
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know. I'm almost growing up in a Baptist church. Everything was blessed,
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but that's like Old English, but sometimes it actually is blessed. I don't
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know who would be among the blessed. Must no that would be blessed,
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I don't know. Must make a martyr, at least in attention. Must
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be a martyr, at least in intention. The greater effort we make to
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secure salvation, the greater will be our joy for the just heaven. For
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the just heaven begins already on earth. While we seek life eternal, we
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already enjoy it, says Saint Augustine. The just have the have true peace.
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That's John fourteen twenty eight. They have the peace of God, which
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surpasses all understanding Philippians four to seven. Hence there are they are joyful even
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when fasting Matthew six seventeen, and in the midst of suffering Matthew five point
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twelve. The just possessed the Holy Ghost. Hence they are, even while
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still in this earth, united with God one John four sixteen. Christ ever
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dwells in their hearts Ephesian three seven. They have with mm the Kingdom of
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God. Luke seventeen twenty one. Think of the rears and now will suffer
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with joy, says Saint Augustine. The sufferings of this world are not to
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be compared with the glory which shall be manifested to us Romans eight eighteen.
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If we think of the joys of heaven, the things of this world will
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appear worthless. Saint Gregory the Great, he who stands on a hilltop,
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says Saint John Christostom, either does not see the object in the valley,
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or they appear to him to be very small. All right, yeah,
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I think we'll wrap it up there. Next time we will do we'll discuss
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Hell, and there will be one more day after that. Let we discuss
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purgatory, and we will have actually finished up this section. So you know,
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a lot to look forward to in heaven. I hope we all get
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there, and in the words of Saint Padre Pio, pray, hope and
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don't worry, and I will talk to you next time.