Latest / Claymore: Become Who You Are / #529 Padre Pio, A True Story, and The Beauty, Power and Mystery of Love

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#529 Padre Pio, A True Story, and The Beauty, Power and Mystery of Love · Claymore: Become Who You Are

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Become who you Are podcast, a production of the John Paul II Renewal Center.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I'm Jack Riggert, your host.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you're with me.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I want to tell you a story.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Today we were doing a high school retreat and it was going to be four sessions and I had the boys for the first session.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: So we were talking about how a young man would treat a young lady if he really loved her.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: What was love?
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: And we talked about the beauty and the power and the mystery of our human sexuality, what it meant to be a gift to another person, to be drawn into the beauty, to see the beauty, the power, the beauty of a young woman and to know that that's the raw material for love and it draws a man out of himself to maybe even have the courage to talk to that young lady.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: But the reality is the beauty, the outer beauty of a woman, is nothing compared to the inner beauty of her heart.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Intimacy into me, see, that's what a woman's beauty does.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: It draws us to her and then, hopefully, you look into her eyes and then see into her heart.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: That's where the real mystery lies.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: As we're unpacking this, a hand goes up and he goes.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Mr Riggert, can I ask you a question?
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: I said yeah, sure, and he said so what you're saying is sex is not just sex, right?
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I said duh, yes, sex is not just sex.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: On a serious note, though, and I told him this, I said you know, it's an injustice what's happening to you guys?
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I said you were robbed of your innocence at such an early age that awe and mystery of what authentic love and our human sexuality is all about.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: And I asked him the question.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I said how many of you have done one of these two things first, have you held the young girl's hand first?
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Or did you see hardcore pornography first?
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: And to a man?
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: They did.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: You see hardcore pornography first?
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: And to a man?
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: They all had seen hardcore pornography, some of them still these are sophomores in high school still haven't touched, you know, reached out and touched the young girl's hand first and the beauty and the power of that right.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: So I said hey, dear young friends, you know, just like John Paul II, let's just get real.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Huh, I said you know you're, you're created for, but also capable of living in this dimension of the gift that John Paul talked about so often, this theology of the body, this dimension of the gift to be a gift to one another.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: You know, we're called into a love story and that dimension is, is higher than mere obligations known from the commandment.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: This is not about rules.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: This is the awe and wonder that's much deeper, much more fundamental in us.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: It bears witness to a fuller expression of that plan of life that we begin to construct when we're young.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: It's the awe and wonder of love.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: I said there's three core things about every man.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: He knows life is supposed to be an adventure.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: It's going to be a battle.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: You think about when I was a kid we didn't have all the video games, so we actually went out in the yard with our wooden swords and our rubber gun pistols to go out on an adventure.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: And what is that battle really?
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: First, it starts in the human heart.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: You have to battle your own heart.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: You have to overcome lust and selfishness, the lies of the world, the evil in the world.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: And what's the third thing?
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: So, adventure, you're going on an adventure.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: We're seeking the truth.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: We know it's gonna be a battle.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: We just have this instinctively.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Look at all the video games all these guys are playing.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Right, it's all about battles.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: But they're fake battles.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: They're illusions to get you into the story, to think you're a hero.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: But to become a real hero you got to step into the real world.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: And then what is it all about?
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: It's the third thing.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: It's about beauty, especially the beauty of love, adventure, battle to overcome the human heart first of all, lust and selfishness to step into beauty, to see beauty and to know you're to be a gift to others.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: You know, in these video games you guys get caught up in, you think that you're the hero of the story, killing all these people and stuff.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: And then what do you do?
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: You get caught up in, you think that you're the hero of the story, killing all these people and stuff.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: And then what do you do?
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: You get caught up in pornography.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: And then when you actually go out into the real world, you can't even speak to a woman you don't even know what that's like.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: And to see her beauty not as something to grasp and take and use, but to be their actual hero, even if she doesn't know you're a hero.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: To start to offer that beauty up to God and to be purified.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: To purify that.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Don't push your passions and desires down.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: They've been twisted and distorted by the evils of this toxic culture.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: But you go to God so untwisted.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you for the beauty of that woman that I see, the beauty of the sun, the beauty of this creation, untwisted, undistorted, so that I can become a man of love.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: It's really, it's not brain surgery, it's the two great commandments to love God and then to be filled with divine life and love and to go out into the world.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: You know all of these young people I meet and all of us.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: We all want to find the right person, but nobody wants to become the right person.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: So when you find the right person, you're not only ready for them to make a commitment to them, but when they see you, they're also attracted to you as the right person.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Otherwise, we just lower the bar, lower the bar, lower the bar and we're using one another right.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: So, at the end of the day, how do you do this?
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: How do you do this?
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: So I told them the story of the rich young man.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: You got to detach from so many things.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Today, we're always on these phones, these screens all day long.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Look, technology can be a good thing, but it also can get you addicted to all this stuff.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Way too much time spent on videos and social media and a waste of time, spend a little time on there, but then actually go out into the world.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: And we talked about all kinds of ways to do that.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: But first of all you're going to have to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: So I told him about the rich young man.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: This one it's in Matthew 2, but this one's from Mark 10, verse 17.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: And as he was setting out on his journey this is Jesus a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: And Jesus said to him why do you call me good?
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: No one is good, but God alone.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: You know the commandments Do not kill, do not commit adultery.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, don't defraud.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Honor your father and mother.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: And he said to them teacher, all these I have observed since my youth.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: So this is very interesting, right?
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: This young man is trying to be good, obviously following the rules, but at the end of the day he knows it's more than the rules somehow in his heart, and he hears Jesus, he sees Jesus, he's attracted to Jesus.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: What more?
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Something's missing right.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: This is so important.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: He's looking at this young guy who's seeking the truth, seeking all these things that I just unpacked earlier, and he loved him.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Can you see the beauty of Jesus looking at all of us with love?
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: And he said you lack one thing.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: And he's going to talk about this detachment.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Now he's going to be talking about the wealth.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: This is a wealthy young man, but this is the same detachment we have to make from these social media accounts, these phones, these electronics, et cetera.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Again, they could be good, they could bring good things into your life, but we just waste and waste and waste time, right, and our life is going by very quickly.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: This is the time when you're young, to build up this foundation, right, this base.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: And so he says you lack one thing.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Go and sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: And then come and follow me.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Come and follow me.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: This is what Jesus says to all of us.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: He'll say this over and over in the gospels right?
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Walk away from all of this.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: You know these things that have relative importance and see what's got absolute importance.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Come and follow me, you'll find out.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: I am the teacher and I'm calling you into a friendship, into an intimacy with me, and I want to walk with you.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: At that saying, the young man's countenance fell.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: He lowered his head and he went away, sorrowful, for he had many great possessions.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: And isn't this what we do, jesus?
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: You know, I just want to play a video game, I want to do this, I want to do that, you know, and I don't have time for you.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Look, life is full of all kinds of things, but I want to work and I want to walk with my mentor.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: I want to know what the truth is.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: How should I live?
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: So, especially in your youth, this is such an important time, you know, not a time to waste, but a time to see what is life about.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: So you know, before you know it, you're going to be stepping into life, you're going to make decisions that are going to affect your whole life.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: So then we broke up, okay, so we break up into small group.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: So I'm sitting on a carpet Thankfully, it seemed padded I had my back against the wall.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Seating in front of me were about a dozen of these teenage boys from this large group All, again high school sophomores assigned for me for this small group discussion and I threw the forum open for comments and almost immediately a hand goes up and one of the boys asked so how do we know that Jesus really loved us and died on the cross for us?
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, it happened so long ago.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: How do we know that someone didn loved us and died on the cross for us?
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, it happened so long ago.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: How do we know that someone didn't just make all this up?
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: That's a fair question, I said, and I can answer it in a number of different ways.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I replied, but let me answer it for you the way my dad, an old World War II veteran who's still living, did for me when I was about your age.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Dad, like many American GIs, especially those stationed in Italy, came home with stories about Padre Pio.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Pio was born in Italy, was ordained a priest in the Capuchin order at the age of 23 years old.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Even as a young man, he loved to pray, and especially loved to pray the rosary.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: He felt that Jesus was calling him to offer his life right to be a gift as a victim for poor sinners and souls in purgatory.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: One day, at the age of 31 years old, while Padre Pio was praying before Jesus at the crucifix, the marks of the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, appeared on his hands, his feet and in the side.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: These painful wounds would bleed whenever Padre Pio said mass and would last for 50 years.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: In addition, he had the gift of healing by location.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: He could be in more than one place at a time.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: He would fight demons, he would fight the devil himself in his room.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: The monks next to him in the next cells could hear him, could hear the battle going on, and the next day he would be actually bruised and stuff.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: You know, the spiritual battle that we end is very, very real.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: When we disconnect from that, when we don't understand that and we play these games you know Satan loves that, you know to keep us distracted from himself.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Well, anyways, padre Pio could read hearts, especially those that went to him for the sacrament of confession.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: He went to confession to Padre Peele.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: He could tell if you had a good confession or not.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: So after the war ended, dad and a couple of his friends bought a small airplane that they were flying from Chicago to a small airstrip near the Benedictine Monastery in Atchison, kansas.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Once there they would jump in an old car.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: They would go there so often.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: They had an old car.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: They kept at an airfield there a small airstrip, and they would head to the Benedictine Monastery where Brother Steve, a childhood friend and now a Benedictine monk, had received permission for them, my dad and his friends, to hunt on a vast property.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: They had a big property there.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: In the evening they would join those monks and some priests for dinner, a little bit of wine, and on one such trip dad mentioned his devotion to Padre Pio to brother Steve, who replied you know, jack, his name is also Jack.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: He said if you want to know more about Padre Pio, you should talk to Father Columban.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: He's a new priest here.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: He's also a World War II vet who met Padre Pio when he was stationed in Italy.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Well, my dad was thrilled to hear that and he wanted to meet Father Columban right away.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Brother Steve told dad where to find him and off he went down a series of connecting hallways to the other side of the monastery, finding the door to father columban's room slightly ajar.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: He knocked and then father columban looked up with a warm smile and he said yes, what can I do for you?
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Excuse me father, brother steve mentioned that you were a veteran of world war ii and that you knew something about padre peel.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: My dad said you know that his face changed when he mentioned Padre Pio and he said to him he goes.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: I was also in the war and I was hoping you'd have a few minutes to speak to me about Padre Pio.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: And again Father Columban's face changed.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: His eyes closed for a moment and he became reflective and he said yes, soldier, I know a little bit about Padre Pio.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Come and sit down, he began.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: I was a master sergeant in charge of a squad.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: We had been in many battles, first in North Africa and again as we pushed through the boot of Italy.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: One day, as we were camping near the town of San Giovanni Rotondo, a couple of men from my squad approached and said hey, sarge, aren't you Catholic?
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: There's a priest here, his name is Padre Pio, not far away from here, and we heard he can read hearts and minds and a few of us want to go to confession to him in the morning.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Why don't you come with us?
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: No thanks, said Sarge.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: I haven't been to mass or confession since I was a kid.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: I don't even consider myself Catholic anymore.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: One of the soldiers spoke up Sarge, I think you're afraid to go to confession to Padre Pio.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: You have too much to confess.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: I think you're scared After what they've been through, he said, after what we've been through as a platoon in this war.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: He said are you kidding?
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I'm not scared of anything.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Columban replied I tell you what.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I'll go with you, and not only that, I'm going to tell that priest everything I've done, all my sins.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I'm going to blow him right out of the confessional.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: He didn't know padre peel very well.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: The next morning we took a jeep to san giovanni rotundo and we got in this long line for confession that extended all the way up a hill toward the monastery.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: The line was moving really slowly for confession and after about an hour I realized that we're not going to make it to confession before we were due to head back.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Disappointed, myself and the guys that were with me got out of line.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: We started down the hill and almost right away someone at the top of the hill yelled Padre Pio wanted the American GIs to come to the front.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: The pilgrims can wait.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Astonished, we looked at one another and then headed up the hill.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: I found myself at the front of the line and when it was my turn, I knelt down in front of Padre Pio.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: I opened up to him and confessed everything, just like I said I would.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: When I finished, padre Pio was silent and I wasn't sure what came next.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Then, softly, warmly, padre Pio said Son, when you were a young boy you dreamed about becoming a Catholic priest.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Persevere and you'll become a Catholic priest.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Then he blessed me, forgave me my sins, gave me penance and told me who to see.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: When I got back to the States, I walked out into the fresh air.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Tears were streaming down my face.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: I had not thought about that dream since I was a kid and I had told no one but my parents.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: My life changed that day and, as you can see, my long-forgotten dream became a reality.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: I became a Catholic priest.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: But that day wasn't the end of the story.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Our outfit would not pull out for a month and we went back to Mass.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: On many occasions, in fact, I was asked to serve as one of Padre Pio's altar boys there, I witnessed Padre Pio suffer the passion with Christ when he consecrated the Eucharist at Mass.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: His wounds would begin to bleed, his walking became painful, he would perspire.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: He would stop for long pauses in silence on the altar.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Anyways, as you can see, I made it home, joined the monastery and I've been here ever since.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: It was not long after Sergeant Colombo met Padre Pio that a young priest who was destined to become John Paul II also journeyed to San Giovanni Rotundo.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: There he spent a weekend in the company of Padre Pio.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: At that time swarms of people did not know about Padre Pio, and it wasn't so crowded like it became later on.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: So the young Father Wootewa, who would become John Paul II, had an opportunity to speak at length with the Franciscan who called himself the humble friar who prays.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: At a point, father Wotewa asked Padre Pio which of his wounds from the stigmata caused him the most suffering.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Padre Pio divulged it's my shoulder wound, which no one knows about.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Padre Pio divulged it's my shoulder wound, which no one knows about, has never been cured or even treated.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: After the most diligent analysis of Padre Pio's life, it was revealed that Father Tio was the only person that Padre Pio had ever told about his most painful and bloody wound, it seems.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: While researching this myself, I was to find that, according to pious legend, st Bernard of Clairvoy asked Jesus which was his greatest unrecorded suffering and wound that inflicted the most pain on him.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: On Calvary, and as he was suffering his passion, and Jesus answered, I had on my shoulder, where I bore my cross on the way to the way of sorrows, a grievous wound which was more painful than any of the others and which was not recorded by men From the 19th century.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: There was a mystic, anne Catherine Emmerich, and we have this observation from her and her vision of our suffering Lord.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: When he was crucified, she said there was a frightful wound on the shoulders which bore the weight of the cross.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Unlike his more noted wounds on his feet, hands and side, this one, as he said, was not recorded, and that didn't make it any less painful, though she said Young man.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: I said to the boy now back to these young guys that I'm with there's not a serious historian in the world that would deny that Jesus walked upon the earth or even that he died on the cross.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: The question is did he rise from the dead?
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Is he God and can he change my life?
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Read about Padre Pio, read about St John Paul II, st Bernard of Clairvoy and Catherine Emmerich.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: The saints, the mystics, they're all there.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Get off your video games just for a little while.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Don't spend so much time monkeying around with that stuff.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Go out into nature, start to pray.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Read the saints, read a little scripture.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: You're going to be called into the awe and wonder and then you're going to see the beauty of a woman and you start to see her differently.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: You start to see her as God loves right.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Read about those people where their hearts have been transformed by Jesus Christ.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: You're going to find Padre Pio has affected people all over the world.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: You're going to find people like Father Columban all around you.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Start to talk to people that you run into I run into people all the time whose hearts have been totally changed by Jesus Christ.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: The reality of that when you experience it in your own heart, hence during youth.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Of that, when you experience it in your own heart, huh Hence during youth, during your time, when you're young.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Jesus puts that question to you, just like the young man when he came to Jesus, wondering what should I do?
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Not only to himself and to other people, to your parents, to your teachers.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: What should I do, what should I be?
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: But he also puts it to God, puts it to the creator, put it to Jesus Christ, ask him that question what must I do?
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: And you put it into this context of this interior sphere of your heart.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Just like the beauty of a woman, there's much more beauty going on inside than you even see on the outside.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: There's much more on the inside of you, going on the awe and wonder of what it means to be a person.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Therefore, ask Jesus Christ, what must I do?
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: What's the plan for my life?
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Do you have a plan for my life?
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Can you walk with me and then be creative, huh, and say Father, what's your will?
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Jesus, what's your will?
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Our blessed mother it's hard to read again the saints and the mystics.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: It's so beautiful, right.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: And then finally, you have to start to really understand your baptism and confirmation.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: It's like a seed that's been given to you, you've been given this grace, but it's laying there, dormant, because you have free will.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: It has to become efficacious.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: It's like a small mustard seed or say a walnut, small, round walnut that grows into this magnificent tree.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: This is what you're called to to grow into a supernatural, magnificent tree, to look again at life with adventure, to know it's going to be a battle to overcome that, especially the lust and selfishness of your own human heart Around you.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: You see, everybody that's not in this battle, that's just lust and selfishness.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: You see it all over the world.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: This is what's taken down, even civilizations.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: But you don't have to become that.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: It's getting in touch with your heart.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: You know, you're called to more.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Now that seed, it's really pointing to the Eucharist.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: If you understood, really understood, the Eucharist in mass, you take the nuptial bath, you go to confession.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Huh, you see the picture over here, the divine mercy.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: What is that picture of the divine mercy?
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Jesus, I trust in you.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Huh, that Sister Faustina had done, and that's that lance hit Jesus in the heart on the cross and water and blood came out.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: We have this from Scripture.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Water is the baptismal water that cleanses you.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: It's a nuptial bath, getting ready for a marriage, an intimacy with Jesus himself.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: And then the red is Jesus himself giving you his body and blood.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: This is my body given for you.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: This is my blood given for you, my soul, my divinity.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: I'm pouring everything out.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: See, this is the two great commandments.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: First, I receive right in the Eucharist, at the mass.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: This is where earth and heaven kiss.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: You want to follow Jesus?
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Start understanding the mass, listen to the scriptures, understand the mass and go to that nuptial bath and receive the Eucharist.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: But make sure you go to confession first.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: You want to unite yourself with Jesus himself.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: You can't be just full of sin and lust and selfishness.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: You have to confess those things and be forgiven and walk into the story where the bridegroom himself is pouring himself out to you and he wants the intimacy with you.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Take that nuptial bath, go receive him in the Eucharist.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: And let me end with this One time I was praying to Padre Pio when I was leaving the chapel one day and I usually don't ask for a sign my heart has been transformed, been changed.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: We're walking into this venture of life and while it's still on a road, right, we're still on the road.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: We're not perfect yet.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I'm certainly not perfect yet, but when I look back at my life, something has really changed in my heart and the power of Jesus Christ.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: He didn't come to manage our sins, but to give us a new heart, a new creation.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: That's what that walnut that turns into this beautiful tree, that's what Jesus is calling you into.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: I wanted to tell you one more quick story about pottery peel, a personal story, a true story.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Before I do, I just want to remind you that we're posting our video podcast to Rumble.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: We're on X, going to show notes.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Check us out there, follow us.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Click follow.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: We want to open up that channel to more and more people.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Remember to sign up for our newsletter and financially support us, if you can.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: We really could use your help, your prayers and your financial support.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: All right, one last story.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: So, anyways, I'm praying about something in the chapel many years ago and as I'm praying there, I asked Padre Pio.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I said you know, padre Pio, I feel like you're close to me.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: You know we've been talking for a long time.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: I said look, I don't deserve a sign, but if you could let me know if you heard me, if you're working with me.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: True story I come out of this chapel and there is a table there and that table is a pro-life table, so it's always got pamphlets on it.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: I passed it many, many times and I look over it.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: It's to my right as I walk out of the chapel and I see a blue band, just a blue band, sitting among all these pamphlets and it really sticks out right in the middle of the table.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: So I reached down and I grabbed that blue band.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: It's right here and it's Padre Pio and his famous saying on the back, which is pray hope and don't worry.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Huh, pray hope and don't worry.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: The other thing I got here, by the way, is that picture right there that's Jesus in the divine mercy, right there.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: This is from Poland and in Polish it says Jesus, I trust in you.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: And then, in between the little beads, it says it in English.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: So we walk into the story.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: I put that blue band on eight, nine, maybe 10 years ago now.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: I have to look it up.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: I think I journaled it someplace and I've never taken it off.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Just that little reminder that when we step into the story, god will give us signs and he's going to give us a new heart and he's going to walk with us.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: It's the mystery of the person.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: There's a lot more inside than on the outside.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Every time you walk outside and you see the mystery of the stars and the sun, the beauty of a forest and the silence Ooh, the silence.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Walk out and open yourself up to this mystery and ask Christ to come into your heart.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: He will All right.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me today.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Good to be with you.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Talk to you again soon.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Bye-bye everyone.