SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning everyone.

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Good morning, Father.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Please turn to page 165. Page 165. It's a beautiful prayer to the Holy Spirit on page 165. Page 165, prayer to the Holy Spirit. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Pray together. Grant us the gift of understanding to perfect our perception of the mysteries of faith. Grant us the gift of wisdom, the fruit of perfect charity, to improve our loving knowledge of God and all that leads to and comes from Him. Grant us the gift of knowledge to make us understand properly what created things are and what they ought to be according to the divine plan of creation and elevation to the supernatural order. Grant us the gift of counsel so that by correctly judging God's will at every moment and for each person, we may be able to advise others. Grant us the gift of fear, which by making us test all sin will impress upon our hearts a spirit of adoration and a profound and sincere humility. Grant us the gift of fortitude to make us steadfast in faith, constant in struggle, and faithful in our perseverance. Grant us the gift of piety to teach us the meaning of our divine affiliation, the joyful supernatural awareness of being children of God and in Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters of all mankind. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. You recognize that there are seven paragraphs in that prayer. Why are there seven paragraphs? Do you recall this? Yes. Mr. Gale knows.

SPEAKER_06 2:04

Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. It calls to mind the last time you studied the faith. Up to you. But as you were saying, right, for many of us, the last time we took any sort of formal instruction in Catholic faith matters was when we were formally enrolled in uh confirmation class, right? So whether that was as a young adult, I'm sorry, as an adolescent or maybe as an adult, for many of us that's the case. Not for all, but certainly some of you have had the chance to keep on studying the faith. So beautiful prayer of the Holy Spirit, because we rely on the Holy Spirit to enlighten the teacher and then enlighten those who are listening. It's it's a work of God to grow in our knowledge of the faith today. A few practical things. I didn't get, yes.

SPEAKER_06 2:51

Father, somebody asked me this paradox.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

You know, it doesn't say it comes from the book. I guess that's all we got. Yeah. It's so anonymous, it doesn't even say anonymous.

SPEAKER_06 3:02

I want to use it in my class and I wanna.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Yeah, please do, yeah, yeah.

unknown 3:05

I'll take a picture.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

So anonymous, it's actually, you know, the author of this book, as I recall, is Father James Socius. I think he is the actual author of this textbook. Does it say that somewhere? It does say that, yes. Very small print. Um, I believe he's a priest. Father James Sossius is the author of this textbook. Great question. Um, a few practical things before we start. I didn't get the uh coffee and tea operation started today. I apologize. So, first of all, raise your hand if you are really wanting coffee andor tea at 9.45 before we start at 10. Raise your hand so that I have an understanding of the thirst in the crowd. Okay. So it's a good third of the group. Okay. So now I'll send an email out and see which ones of you could assist with helping me get that set up before me. So not too hard. We have the equipment here, but I just didn't get to organize that before today. So I apologize. Thank you for offering up that that lack. But we did get donuts, apparently, right? So um, okay. Um, second thing is uh again, the books, $50. That's just actually about the price after shipping and our discount, it's like $49.50 or something. So that's just at cost, just you know, so thank you for your purchase of the books that that we're using for this three-year course. Um, whether you pay by check or using a credit card, whether it's today or next week, whenever it is, I just trust that you'll we're not tracking you, we're just trusting you. Okay. Um I think that's all I had to do for practical things. And then for now, I'm doing video today just because, but I think in the future, what it'll be is it'll be an audio file, because you don't really need the video, right? So we'll have an audio file sent out weekly with the flock note. So for those who missed the class, there it is. You can see, or here, I should say, here. And it follows along, it follows along the textbook, right? So you're really just um keeping up with the class with your textbook and with the audio of the class session that you might have missed. And we'll always have those available. And anybody who joins late could catch up with you know the classes that they missed previously. So invite others if you're enjoying this class, you know, you can bring others, and we'll start doing um announcements in the bullets and then say next week's topic is, you know, because some people just want to learn about particular topics, and this is the class that lets you do that. Okay. Next, I want to do this. Now we're getting into class. I'm gonna say a word, and I just want you to tell me the word that comes to your mind. Okay, don't be afraid. I'm sure, unless it's a bad word, don't say it. I don't think there'll be bad words. Okay. So commanders, John Washington. Washington, there you go. Okay. Um Dallas Cowboys, Ruth. Football, okay. Um Christina, uh, St. Louis Catholic Church. School, there we go, church of school, inseparable. Um Alfie, heaven, destiny, destiny, Michael, heaven. Bliss. Teresa, heaven. What comes to your mind? Far away. Bob, heaven. Why not? Think about the opposite. Two sides of the coin, okay. Mary, heaven. Trinity, you said? Eternity. Okay, gotcha. Um Brian, heaven. God, John Bukowski, heaven. Okay, that's fine. Teresa, joy. Nord. I want to go there. Okay. Ava, heaven. Home. Sebastian, heaven. Real. Oh, sorry. Freedom. Very good. Michael, heaven.

SPEAKER_04 7:09

Destination.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Destination. Chuck, heaven. Hope. Luis, heaven. Home. Home. Okay. Alright, it's not working. I was hoping for a word, nobody said it. But we'll get to it later. Alright, you're you're prompt, you, you paved the way for the word that I'm gonna call upon today. Okay. So we're on page three, right? Yes. How fast we're moving, right? No, we're not. We're going deep, right? There's it's not about fast, it's about deep. So no, no, no. Actually, I wasn't, actually. But good question, yeah. So, Truce, can you start our reading there? Call to be perfect, the first paragraph?

unknown 8:01

Every question regardless of your state of life professional particular circumstances.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

We're gonna wrestle with this word perfect in holiness today.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

Ruth, can you take an extraordinary idea?

SPEAKER_00 9:03

We have some dialogue going on with the modern world here in these paragraphs, right?

SPEAKER_05 9:13

Perfection is indeed a lofty goal, one that is impossible to achieve in this life. Nevertheless, Christ calls each of us to strive for perfection. In fact, God created us to share in his perfection and divine life, as the catechism of the Catholic Church declares at its outset.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

So I'm gonna read this paragraph. So you notice at the bottom there that reference CCC one. So you all know that, right? So CCC, Catechism of the Catholic Church, and one meaning uh which paragraph, right? So the catechism has about three, I think it's almost almost 3,000 paragraphs. Paragraph one, I'm sure a lot of thought went into that one, right? How are we going to begin this great work of the summary of our Catholic faith? And this is how it begins. God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness, freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, that every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son as redeemer and savior. In his son and through him, he invites men to become in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children, and thus heirs of his blessed life. Wouldn't you say that that one paragraph kind of tells the whole story from beginning to end? Do you notice that? God, perfect in himself, like before creating anything, God is Father, Son, and Spirit, perfect, complete in himself, happy in himself. We could say that too. And it ends with his adopted children, all of us, entering in entering into his blessed life, right? So from before time began to the fullness of time in heaven, like that one paragraph tells the whole story. It's kind of really neat. That mustn't take a lot of work to figure that one paragraph out, right? How do we say this, right? That's that's a beautiful paragraph. And I want to remind you a beautiful phrase from last week. We do theology on our knees. Right? So this is not just head knowledge, information, intellectual. We do theology, the study of God with reverence, with love, with devotion on our knees. So we could you could take a lot of time and pray with paragraph one, couldn't you? Right? You could do a real rich prayer time just with that first paragraph. Um so just to say that. Now, this this dialogue with the world that's going on right now, dialogue with our modern life about the word perfection. So I'll ask you, because it says here in the second paragraph, perfect, is perfection possible for a human being? So I'm gonna ask you, is perfection possible for a human being? What would you answer? And this is a conversation, this isn't you know right, wrong, but I've it's more to get the conversation going. So what's the consensus of the front table? You thought you were gonna be the side table. I know. Turns out you're the front table. Um, what's the consensus of the front table? Is perfection possible for the human being? Actually, we'll do it this way, even simpler. We'll take a vote. Those who say perfection is not possible for a human being, raise your hand. In this life. You're all right. Now, hands down. Who says perfection is possible for the human being? Right? And you got you got the check. Exactly. As the paragraph thought, in this life, or in the next, right? Isn't one of the most beautiful things about heaven is you won't sin anymore? Think about that, right? There's there's no sin in heaven. And we're made to go there, right? Therefore, ere go. I know, those who raise their hand, we're talking about this life, of course, right? But I only but the question was only, is perfection possible for the human being? And we would boldly say, actually, yes, right? Of course, we mean on the other side of this world, right? But that's really important, right? And there's a beautiful phrase, for those of you who are fans of uh the John Paul II Healing Center. Um, God sees us in our wholeness. On earth, broken, right? On earth, broken. But God sees us in our unbrokenness, right? Take a step back into eternity. How long on earth? Okay, 80 years for those who are strong, right? Scripture says. So whatever the number is, it's a number. But then think about from God's perspective, He knows the whole story of your life. And how long is the story of your life on earth compared with the story of your life in heaven, which we'll get to another day, right? It's not boring, it's not floating on clouds. That sounds very uninteresting, right? It's much more than that. So, from the perspective of eternity, how much of your life are you perfect, and how much of your life are you broken? The percentages break out pretty good, right? Right? It's really, it's really important that God, that's how God sees you. God sees you much more in your wholeness than in your brokenness. Your brokenness is a really important part of the story because he wants to prove his love for you, right? It's all a love story, right? So he sees you in your brokenness. He wants to prove his love for you precisely through that brokenness, but from the perspective of eternity, yes, perfection is possible for you. It's actually the greater story of you, right? Isn't that kind of crazy? Right? We don't think that way, right? We're so uh aware of our brokenness, of our earthliness, but from the perspective of the divine, there's a lot more to you than your struggle with sin. In fact, I think that's one of the best things about heaven. I'll go a step further. Not only will you not sin in heaven, you won't even be tempted. Now that's even more amazing to me. Like, there's not even temptation. Like you're not even drawn towards sin. There's like, think about that. That's a lot to just sort of happily think about. I'll just say it that way, right? To think about that is already so encouraging and so consoling. Um, now if you take out the sheet, um it's two columns. I don't think I'll normally do this. This book has so much already, but this one I wanted to add and supplement a bit. This comes from a gospel commentary on the gospel of Matthew. Because this passage, be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect, that comes from the Gospel of Matthew. Chapter 5, verse 48. I can't think of a better commentary. I've I I love this author. It's a four-volume commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. Erasmo Leva Merikakis. Just for his name, you gotta check him out, right? So we're gonna read just this one paragraph. There's more you could read, of course, but what what this author does is he analyzes it grammatically, the Greek, the tenses, things like that. Every translation always falls short, right? We always know that. If any of you have language skills, you know it's something's just you can't quite say it exactly the same way, one language to another. Well, this is certainly a very important example. So let me just read this. Um actually, well, I love Kevin's voice. You're right in the middle again, Kevin. Yeah, uh, that one first paragraph where it says, in this passage, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 17:16

In ascent to God, verb and soul.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

No, no, no, the other hand, I'm sorry. Sorry, I'm oh you're right. They both have two columns. I'm sorry, you're right. Yeah, thank you. Sorry.

SPEAKER_10 17:32

In this passage, our Lord brings us a culmination of imperative commands that must appear sheer madness of the first apologies, the ear of his contemporary. The passage is granted appropriately, verses 43 and 48. A imperative forms of the verbs that emphasize expose of the passage. First, the last verbs, first commands that coming to this, they don't do that. The commands are counting the future indicatives, will not do anything, it will be perfect. These will strong and most straightforward commands and the usual characters because if not only communicators speak his wish, something can be done. They also prophesy that something in the future will in fact be the case. Hence, not only is it desirable that something be is so expressed by Christ, but also the possibility that it becomes a reality.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

So you see that there's there's I don't lab where it says the future indicative you shall be, right? So this is a grammar thing where probably it's hard to translate, right? But you uh do this is not exactly the proper or complete translation. I'm sure it's hard to translate these these verbs, right? But the Greek word there, which he's all an expert on, he's saying that another way of understanding that phrase is not just you must be, but you shall be. You see what I'm saying? And we say that in our commandments you should, thou shall, and thou shall not, right? So maybe shall is even better because it helps us understand that future expectation, that future capacity, that future reality, you shall be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. And this area about perfect is especially talking about loving those you wouldn't be able to love, like love your enemies, etc. Right? Just the way God is able to love all. So when we say perfect, we mean it. We we believe it, right? And why not strive already now, right? By God's grace, we have a thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We pray to be perfect. It's not a um proving your worth kind of perfect, right? That's all that's also that's so important, right? We're not we're not talking about earning something or proving something. It's more about receiving something, right? Receiving God's grace from his grace, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit comes this capacity to be, to be perfect, to be holy, to be what I would say truly happy. Let's turn the page to talk about how this perfection happens. So page four at the top. So you continue, please.

SPEAKER_07 21:14

This question is saying that we can find this. It requires nothing less than the surface of the There's a phrase there I I would want.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Remember, I said this class should enrich your vocabulary. So the the phrase in that uh last sentence the journey toward perfection is one not. Only of obedience, but also of the interior life. So I really would want that those two words to become very regular in your thought and your reflection and your speaking, your interior life. You might say, for example, in a deeply spiritual conversation, one to the other, how's your interior life? And if one were to ask that question or to speak of, what are we speaking of? Like what is the interior life? Can someone offer what they would how would you answer that question? Anybody can yes, the scales.

SPEAKER_06 22:40

Your prayer life or the status of your soul.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Yeah, very good. So your life of prayer, the condition of your soul, right? Things that are not visible to others, right? For sure. Or at least not directly. There are yours your interior life does become visible, right? Through your life of charity. Yeah, Nicole.

SPEAKER_06 22:58

Your your your responses, your your like initial thought response, like your hot take, right? When something happens, and then how you think about it, how that progresses. Yeah. You know, after you have a time, a chance to chew on it a little bit. Yeah, the maybe they're not conversations that you have, but like the conversations in your head.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Yeah, so for example, um, you're speaking about like just sort of um if you want to know, like, how's my soul doing? I'm gonna interpret what you're saying. How's my soul doing? How's my interior life? Well, when I sit down and try to pray, like what comes? What sort of thoughts are running? What kind of things am I wrestling with or aware of? Is it kind of like that part? Do you think?

SPEAKER_06 23:41

Yeah, but I kind of mean more just like as you're going about the day, you know, like uh husband walks into the room and puts his stuff down on the counter, and what is my thought there?

SPEAKER_00 23:54

So you're saying the state of your interior life is revealed by how you deal with everyday life?

SPEAKER_06 23:59

Yeah, or you know, or maybe in something more serious, like something happened, something happened tonight. My response is anger. And after I've, you know, after some time has passed, I've kind of you know thought about it a little bit and thought like, oh, now I see what was actually going on there.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Yeah. That's great. That's a that's a great example, right?

SPEAKER_06 24:15

You know, not like in a formal prayer sense.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Sure. There's an uh a deep relationship, a deep um uh that's a word, link, link between your interior life and your life of virtue, right? Your life of charity, right? I'm gonna make a little um we can be really impressed with people who who pray a lot, right? So I remember I was a long time ago, I was in the seminary, my spiritual director could see I was a little bit, you know, rose-colored glasses kind of guy. And uh I was talking about how holy this other seminary. I was like, yeah, I think he makes like two or three, I think he makes like two or three holy hours on Sunday and Saturday. He's like, I could give a damn how many holy hours that guy makes. My holy spiritual director like cursed during our spirit director session. What he meant to anyway. He explained, the life of charity tells me how your interior life is. He's like, so my point being that um we never want to keep any, we we never want to distance the one from the other, right? So you're making you're offering a great example, Nicole, right? How am I doing in my prayer life? How am I doing in my my daily life? Those are almost the same question. See what I'm saying, right? So um so to be aware that deep prayer is meant to bear fruit in acts of charity. And you're the better your prayer life is, you should find yourself more patient, more kind, more wise. Like that that's that's that's one of the ways you know how your prayer life is sort of advancing or deepening. It's not just acts of piety standing on their own, right? We always want to be aware of spiritual pride and doing spiritual things to impress God, etc. Right, so that kind of purity of heart, poverty of spirit, they're they're deeply interrelated, right? So, but the interior life now leads me to the other handout. Go take a look at that. So the other, sorry, the other handout, which has the picture on it. This is the book I used last year during Lent, or I guess this year during Lent. One with Jesus. So let me read this. Uh I guess it's really gonna be the first two paragraphs. Yeah. So um, the preface starting here. So talk about the connection with the interior life and um the life of virtue. In its ascent to God, the fervent soul generally passes through two stages, which though often hard to distinguish, are sometimes clearly contrasted. They are, number one, intimacy with Jesus, and then number two, identification with him. So again, these two paragraphs you're going to read are all about those two stages. They are intimacy with Jesus and identification with him. At the outset, the soul falls under the spell of the master, is captivated by his divine lovableness, and finds her delight in an ever-growing intimacy with the beloved. To make this intimacy always more perfect, God often grants to the soul which has arrived at this stage that special feeling of his divine presence which he alone can give. It is a mystical grace, though many souls do not realize they are the recipients of such a favor. The soul then feels as though she were a living tabernacle, where the divine master resides and invites her to a familiar intercourse with him. So just to stop there. So hopefully you've already had some experience of that where you're like, you're just, how can I say, enjoying spiritual things. You have a like a desire for it, and it it draws you, and you want to do religious things. That's that's that intimacy, that blessing, that consolation, as it says, falling under the spell, right? God wants to draw you in, right? Draw you in and closer to him. So that's the first sort of state, broadly speaking, of the spiritual life. Now we'll move to the next, right? Next paragraph. This intimacy always deepens and slowly changes itself into identification with Jesus. The soul puts aside little by little her own feelings to adopt all the feelings of Christ, to let him live and act freely in her. This is in very deed living in the name of Jesus, living for his sake and on his behalf. If the soul is generous, this process of identification is often powerfully helped and fostered by a new mystical grace to the feeling of his divine presence. God now adds the infused and passive feeling of his divine and transforming action. The soul feels that Christ lives and loves in her. She realizes in an experimental way that the infused love which penetrates, absorbs, and transports her whole being, is none other than the love with which Jesus himself loves his Father in her. How beautiful, right? That Jesus is loving God through you, right? That's so beautiful. She, meaning like the soul. The soul is feminine in relation to God, we say. So she feels that her whole life is, as it were, fused in the life of Christ within her. She is one with him. I'm going to stop right there and say, that sounds like perfect, right? She, the soul, is one with him. And this identification, which at every step becomes more wonderful, leads to the perfect, there's that word, the perfect union of sanctity. That union which is called transforming, in which the soul can in very truth cry out with the apostle, St. Paul, and I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me. Right? So Galatians 2.20, don't you see a lot of um license plates with that? Galatians 2.20. Or people have that in their emails and different places, right? Or their Bible covers. Galatians 2.20 really is, I mean, it's one of the most important lines in the whole of Scripture. It is not I who live, it is Christ who lives in me. This is what we're talking about when it talks about perfection. This is what we're talking about. We're talking about holiness, right? The word I was looking for, it's okay. When we're doing the, I call it verbal ping-pong, I say word, you say what you hear, or you what you think? The word I was looking for was union, right? We know that heaven is union with God and union with the blessed, meaning all other human beings, right, in heaven. And you hear me say it all the time, right? That what are we made for? We're made for union, vertical and horizontal. Well, that's heaven, right? Heaven is union beyond our imagination, oneness with God. Mystically. I mean, what is that? It's ecstasy beyond ecstasy. Ecstasy, right? We're all seeking highs on earth where there is a true high waiting for us, right? We get tastes of it in the spiritual life. Deep prayer. You probably had some amazing experiences, I'm sure. We're made for that. We're made for that actually to be an unending kind of ecstasy, union with God. But it's not only union with God, right? We're made for union one with another. So this Galatians 2.20 is no longer I who live, it is Christ who lives in me. What I love about this book, you notice, it's not jumping right into, okay, this is what we believe about God. It's talking about you first. Have you noticed that, right? This book is talking about you first and your capacity, your destiny. I love that word you offered. That destiny, that desire, that completion of you, which is you in heaven, that is the perfection of you. You're made for that. This book doesn't want you to learn much without it being an interior matter first, right? This book doesn't want you just to be smarter, right? This book doesn't want you just to have more answers about spiritual questions. Wouldn't that really tempt us actually to spiritual pride, which is the worst kind of pride, right? This what I love about this this introductory material is it's it's setting the stage with you first. Like it's personal, it's you. It's about you and your your calling, your capacity for holiness and true happiness, your capacity, your drive, your desire for union with God, vertical, union with the blessed, horizontal. So this book, I'm sorry, this um book, One with Jesus, goes into very deeply the interior life, right? First is that union with Jesus, but it's an indispensable reality for that to make possible that sign of that reality in the way you live. So it's saying intimacy first, identification, living like Jesus, being like Jesus flows from that interior reality. Comments or questions before we continue with the next portion. Okay, very good. So we can return back to the text here. We want to make sure our understanding of be perfect, you will be, right? Now we're understanding it's about you will be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. We want to understand that clearly to be able to go on in the course of this study. Um Alf, could you read our catechism says? Yeah. So we're right in the middle of page four now. Yeah. Okay, very good.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

Uh what does it start off with this reply? Right right before that. Yeah, the catechism says. Right above it. Okay, very good. Oh, I see. Okay. The catechism says this about Christ's invitation to rich to the rich young man to be perfect. This reply does not do away with the first. Following Jesus Christ involves keeping the commandments. The law has not been abolished, but rather man is invited to rediscover it in the person of his master who is who is its perfect fulfillment. Continue, please. To perfect ourselves in holiness, then, means to imitate fully the example of Christ. We are predestined to reproduce the image of the incarnate Christ who is God. See, that's a bold statement, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:03

That we are predestined to reproduce the image of the incarnate Christ. So please know that when God the Father looks at you, he sees, as it were, like another version of Jesus. Another version of Jesus. I hope someone has said this to you, and if they haven't, I hope you will experience it someday. I shared this in the homily today. I was uh in my process of reverting to the faith, really coming to it at a at a depth for the first time. I was probably maybe 20, 21. And I was at dinner with a couple friends of mine, and the waitress was like, was the little sister of one of the guys I was at dinner with. And she had some um homework assignment, she's a high school kid at the time. She had some homework assignment to write about someone that you see Jesus in. She's the little sister of a friend of mine. I barely know her. And so we're having dinner, and she says, Oh, yeah, I I I I wrote about you. I was like, uh, really? Like, yeah, I barely pray. You know, I I didn't say this out loud, but I I was kind of just kind of reverting back to the faith and showing some interest in religious matters. So I have no idea where that came from, but how encouraging that was. I think God did that for me, right? He's trying to call me the priesthoods who try to say, hey, somebody sees Jesus in you. Check that out. What is what might I be trying to tell you, right? So what I'm trying to say is that this is for all of us. I hope that someone has said to you at some point or made you feel at some point, I see Jesus in you. Maybe you did something merciful, maybe you just were deep in prayer and they saw that. Maybe you just love them in a very meaningful, personal way. But please know this that God the Father looked at you and he's saying that right now. I see Jesus in you. I see Jesus in you. As it were, you're like another version of Jesus, almost like another painting of a person. You know, like an artist can paint a person different ways, right? You're gonna see a different angle, a different shading of color, different features. That's almost a great way, I think, to think about how God the Father sees each one of us, that He's painting another Jesus with each one of us, right? So it's all a matter of just receiving that grace to be another Jesus, to reproduce Jesus in your life. And all the learning that we're gonna do in the next couple years here is gonna just uh strengthen that whole interior reality through what you know, through what you through who you love, right? The love and the knowledge go one with each other. So we'll continue with the next paragraph. Christina, can you continue there?

SPEAKER_08 37:49

Uh we will not.

SPEAKER_00 37:51

Uh I think we're up to holiness, is that right? Is that right? Right in the middle of page four. Holiness however. Yeah. It keeps us humble when we can't find our way. Somebody else chose it. Holiness, however. So I think that's a very good thing. There we go. There we go.

SPEAKER_08 38:09

It requires more than something simple than the three. More than obedience. It requires a good relationship with your possible interesting comment, right?

SPEAKER_00 38:27

It's not just what it looks like on the outside, it needs to be real on the inside, right? That's that's really interesting that says that. Um Rad, can you take an extra program? I guess it's that category. It is impossible to keep the Lord's commandment by imitating the divine model from outside. But I thought we're able to be perfect, right? We're we're hearing how capable we are of perfection, of being Jesus, of reproducing him in this world. And then the catechism says, you know, by the way, you can't do this from the outside, right? That phrase is so important. It is impossible to keep the Lord's command by imitating the divine model from the outside. There has to be a vital participation coming from the depths of the heart in the holiness and the mercy of the love of God. Now here we're just kind of quoting St. Paul. Only the spirit by whom we live, right? There's that phrase from St. Paul. Um, the spirit by whom we live and move and have our being. I forget the exact citation, but the spirit by whom we live and move and have our being. Only the spirit by whom we live can make ours the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.

unknown 40:06

St.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

Paul talks about have the have in yourself this mind that was in Christ Jesus. So think like him, feel like him, love like him, right? Um what I want to point out here is, and in the blue quote right above, it said the law has not been abolished, right? So the commandments don't go away. Following Jesus doesn't mean you know it's all love and peace and no rules, right? No. The commandments order our lives, right? And we're able to live according to the commandments. From the outside, no. By way of a vital participation on the inside. This isn't quite here, it'll come later, but the old law, to say it this way, is the Ten Commandments, we know that, right? The old law, as we want to call it. The new law, people think, well, the new law is the Beatitudes. It's not wrong, but St. Thomas Aquinas says it more succinctly. The old law is the commandments, yes. The new law is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in you. That's an interior life thing, right? The Holy Spirit in you is the new law, right? A law is something that orders things. What orders your life in a holy, Jesus-like way is not trying harder, right? It's not from the outside, it's not mere human willing. It is the Holy Spirit in you. And I promise you, you've already experienced this, right? There have been moments in your life where you said the right thing and were truly wise. There are moments in your life where you resisted temptation in a way that, like, I don't know how I did that. There are moments in your life where you have been loving and courageous and overcame obstacles. Like, I that was that was not me. That was something. God gave me the grace, you might say, right? I can tell you what that was. That was the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That was the Holy Spirit in you, right? This presence of God in you, which makes you Jesus-like, right? That's that's what we're trying to say. So to be aware of that is so important, right? Um, to be aware of, it was earlier in the page, right, about to be a tabernacle. Or maybe it was the handout. When you first have that experience of God through prayer, through sacraments, you start to feel holy, right? You start to feel like a living tabernacle. Because you are. That's not a deception, that's real, right? You really become a living presence, another version of Jesus in this world. It's the Holy Spirit in you, right? So just to be to be aware of the Holy Spirit in you is so important for the life of faith. The next paragraph for y'all just read it. We will not be truly perfected until we enter the gates of heaven, right? So, so can a human being be perfect? No and yes, right? No in this world, yes in the next. To be completely perfect, a person must fulfill the ultimate purpose for which he or she was created. Because every human person was created to share in God's divine life, and a full sharing in that divine life is possible only in heaven, our perfection will not be complete until then. Comments, questions? Yes, one.

SPEAKER_09 44:32

All of those things can come in and undermine the truth if you are attacking. And so you have to be on the guard for that.

SPEAKER_00 44:44

Yeah, and you know, and two things to say. One is when the when that's happening, which it does, right? I think a beautiful prayer is just to call on the Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. I know these thoughts are not from the good side here. This is from my brokenness or from the evil one trying to discourage me. Come, Holy Spirit. Just to call on the Spirit. And the second thing is, again, what a beautiful thing is to think about how heaven it that doesn't happen anymore. You know? How beautiful that is, that it that doesn't happen anymore. There's no discouragement, there's no rejection, there's no denial of God's real presence in heaven. Yes. That's a great phrase, right? I'm gonna close with a quick comment because our time is, you know, wanna be obedient to our our time frame. Um I can say a lot about this, I think we'll find time for this. But um I was talking to a priest recently who's a theologian. He's a uh he's a professor of Trinitarian theology.

unknown 46:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

So I said I had this crazy idea recently. I tell me, it because it doesn't sound right, but you you tell me, Father, because he's you know he's an expert. I said, you know, God exists from all eternity, creation comes later. So for an infinite period of time, it was just God existing, Father, Son, and Spirit, right? Jesus wasn't incarnate yet, but he existed, right? Father, Son, and Spirit exists for all time. Father loves the Son, Son loves the Father, Holy Spirit loves the Father. All this dynamic loving one another, receiving love in the Trinity, right? So I said, Father, can we say that God was loving himself before he started loving us? He said, Absolutely. I was like, but it just it just sounds wrong that God had all this self-love going on before he started loving us. He said, but God is the object of the greatest love because he is worthy of the greatest love. He actually loves himself more than he loves us. He has to, he said. I was like, wow, that's we give self-love a bad need because of our brokenness. Because we can take self-love and then make it selfish, right? But I want to say this very simply because you're both mentioning in different ways that um we're told, you know, love your neighbor as yourself. So loving yourself partly loving yourself is in like God's command to love yourself the proper way, right? And also to say this that who's the first other that you love? It's it's you. You're the first other that you get to know. Obviously, you learn it as a child passively first, but once you're once you're capable of intentionally loving, the actual first person you can intentionally love is yourself as a child of God, right? To to properly love who you are, to delight in who you are, is actually just imitating God, who for all the for infinite ages delighted in himself before delighting in us. You know what I'm saying? So that's a whole other interesting topic to pursue one day, but but the point being that that the love of God, the love of others, the love of self is is all good. The proper love of self, right? We're not talking about sinful, we're not talking about selfish, but but God delights in you, right? So to love who you are is is is godly, right? And aren't we attracted to people who seem to love who they are in the right sense, right? Someone who just enjoys life. Well, they're enjoying being themselves. That's part of enjoying life, is the uniqueness that you are. That's a beautiful thing, right? To just enjoy who you are and let that be part of the way you love others too. And actually, it's the way that I've been reading a lot about this recently, that negative inner monologue, as you say, that can affect the way we love others too, right? When we judge others, I guarantee you it's because you're also judging yourself, right? We we put ourselves down and then easily start to do that to others too, right? That's one example, right? So my my point simply being that pray for that integrity in your heart, because it's it's it's it's gonna go in both directions. It's gonna go in the way you relate to yourself and then the relate the way you relate to others. Next week, Father Thompson will teach about, because this box on the right on page five, what was the Second Vatican Council? There's a lot to say about that. And Father Thompson has like encyclopedic knowledge, by the way. Can prepare for that. So next week, we're gonna go right into that box. In fact, if you want to just read about the Second Vatican Council, prepare, read anything you want. Read this box or read nothing, right? Because a lot of learning's gonna happen. But just yeah, that's gonna be the topic next week that Father Thomps will treat with scholarly erudition, I can hear you. Let's close the prayer in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Blessed Mother Mary, you look at us with tender love. Sometimes we don't look at ourselves in the way we should, as made for heaven, as made for holiness, as made for perfection, as made for happiness, as tabernacles of God, made to reproduce Jesus in our lives. We don't see ourselves that way always, but you always see us that way with tender love. And so we pray the hail, Holy Queen, today, asking for our hearts to be healed, to receive the love of God, to let the Holy Spirit dwell in each one of us, the way he dwells in you, Mary, always. Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, we add the children of you. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O Clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary, pray for us, holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. May you know that God the Father sees Jesus in each one of you, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

unknown 51:30

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 51:31

Alright. See y'all next Sunday.