Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Catholic Conversations #178: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Restoration

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Catholic Conversations #178: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Restoration · Catholic Spirit Radio

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Catholic Conversations on Catholic Spirit Radio Hello everyone and welcome to
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Catholic Conversations on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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I'm your host, Paul Garcia, and today we're joined by two very special guests
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with a touching story of faith, beauty, and restoration.
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First, we have Carmen Kelly, known lovingly around here as the cleaning angel
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of Catholic Spirit Radio.
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She's someone who gives generously of her time and spirit, and recently she
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received a life-size statue of Our Lady of Sorrows that had been badly damaged.
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Also joining us is John Smith, an art teacher at Epiphany Catholic School here
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in Normal, who took on the delicate task of restoring the statue by hand.
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The statue was blessed after Mass at Epiphany Catholic Church in Normal on June
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22, 2025, and today we'll hear the story of how it came into Carmen's hands,
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how it was brought back to life, and what it means to both of them.
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So Carmen and John, thank you very much for coming on to the show today. You're welcome.
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Yeah, nice to be here, Paul. Hey, the pleasure is all ours. Carmen, I'll start with you.
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How did this statue of Our Lady of Sorrows come into your life?
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A friend of mine called me and said, would you like to have a statue of the
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Virgin Mary? And I said yes, without seeing her.
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It took her a year to give it to me.
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And when we got her home, we realized how badly she was.
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Can you explain the damage that was done to her? What kind of condition did
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you receive Mother Mary in?
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The bottom part was broken. Yep, so what?
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And she had a whole bunch of marks. It looked like either a rope or some kind
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of chain was tied around her and very badly weathered. I see.
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Do you have any idea where it came from exactly?
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The story is that she was in the street picking up made-up pieces of junk,
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and a little boy ran after her and said, my dad wants to know how much you will
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give her for the statue that is laying on the sidewalk.
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She said, $20. And the little boy said, I'll take him.
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Then they told me that they found her on a garden. So I really don't know.
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Oh, interesting. Okay. Where at? Is it in Illinois?
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They say that they found her on the sidewalk in St.
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Mary's in Downs when they tore down the church in Downs. And I say,
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no, that church had not been tore down.
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Wow. The stories are kind of mysterious. Yeah. Kind of unsure where this came
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from. Three different stories.
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Well, very, very interesting. There's lots of stories in our Catholic faith
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about statues of the Blessed Mother performing miracles, all sorts of really
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interesting and beautiful things happening.
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So anytime you come across a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
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it's really a special statue.
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As far as statues go, those of the Blessed Virgin Mary are probably the most important, I would say.
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So, was Our Lady of Sorrows, Carmen, already meaningful to you before receiving
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the statue, or did you already have a close connection to the Blessed Mother?
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In my country, Good Friday is not called Good Friday. It's called Sorrowful Friday.
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Because it is when the Virgin Mary comes across with Jesus, and I feel like she found me.
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In your home country, you said that is Nicaragua, correct?
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That's beautiful. Beautiful. So, John, how did Carmen reach out to you,
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and what was the first thought you had when you saw this statue?
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Well, first of all, she got a hold of me through Kathleen Phillips,
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who runs the Three Kings shop there at Epiphany.
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And Kathleen says, I have a lady that has a statue that would like to be repaired.
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Now, I repair the statues up on the altar at Christmas time and,
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I've done a lot of them. They're little small statues.
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I think I've repaired everything but the Virgin Mary. But, of course, she's immaculate.
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So, I never had to do anything with her. And then she goes, I'm thinking maybe
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three foot tall, something maybe in the yard.
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So, I said yes. And so, she brought it to school.
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And I realized when she came and she opened the back of her car, it was around four foot.
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No, she's bigger than me. Oh, yes.
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I did see a picture. It almost looked bigger than you.
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Well, at the point when she finished, she was as tall as I am on the pedestal.
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But I brought out my How Great Thou Art card and lifted her out of the car.
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And I said to her, I said, Carmen, I said,
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this is just not going to be, there's no
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timetable on this so wheeled her into the
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my art room and we set her down on a pedestal
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where she stayed for quite a
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while i mean i had to kind of formulate how
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i was going to repair this statue so and
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then carmen kind of disappeared for a while and
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the statue was in my possession throughout school
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year and the kids will come in and say what's mary statue doing here
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i said i'm gonna repair it and so
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i started off i got with deacon
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winger mike winger and i was
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trying to start to formulate how i was going to
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put the pedestal and i kind of asked
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the services of a brother knight jeff urrea
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and we kind of got dimensions
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and then he built a little concrete
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pedestal now he brought it to school
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and i didn't realize how heavy
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this was it was 120 pounds it took four of us to get it off the back of the
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truck slide it down and then he made something with wheels on it so the pedestal
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would sit on wheels so i could tote it around so i had that in there and then
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i kept looking at statue and i said i gotta start working on this but.
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But in the process, I would see Carmen at church because she would do her adoration
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and I'd be at 730 Mass and I'd go in and I'd plop myself down in the little
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king shop and banter with people coming in and out after church.
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And, you know, as I said, every time I'd tell her about something or I'd show
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her update, she'd get giddy. Very giddy.
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So then the process was, my goal was to get her upright by Christmas time.
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So we, with the help of Deacon Winger, we put some PVC pipe and we built it on the pedestal.
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And because she was uneven we had to put
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her in a box of sand and I marked
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so we could make sure she's level and then
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we cut off the bottom the excess and
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it is made of plaster so it's a it was about 80 pounds so we got cut level and
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we set her back down and then I had to make more styrofoam glued to the PVC
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pipe in order for her when I slipped her over the PVC pipe she wouldn't wobble back and forth.
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So it took, at that point, we were pretty much ready.
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And then I enlisted the help of Brian Judd, who's also a brother knight and works over at church.
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And then a young man, Noah Schofield, who I taught with this year.
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And of course, Deacon Winger and Jeff Urrea. And it took five of us to lift
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Mary close around nine feet up over the top and then bring her down on top of the.
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So she was upright, but she wasn't stable yet.
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So then in order to get stable, I drilled a hole in the back of her neck. And the spray foam.
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That, you know, you fill out, you know, I used that, a can of that.
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Well, she wasn't there done yet. So I went to the middle of her back,
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repeated the process, still no foam coming down out of the bottom.
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So I emptied two more cans. So we knew she was nice and solid.
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So she wasn't moving anywhere.
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So after the foam dried, we cut it off. And then I took some little bits of
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cedar wood that I had leftover from a little, I made a little thing out in the yard, a Mary,
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like a, I don't want to say a birdhouse for Mary, but I can't remember what.
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Yes, there you go. Thank you, Carmen. And I used some of that cedar I used for
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the roof and put in there, cut it off.
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So now she was balanced. I know she was firm,
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and then I had the long journey or long task of finishing the garment that would
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go flow right down to the pedestal.
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So I had some plaster gauze, and I formed, just continued what was there to
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the thing, to the pedestal.
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And then I started moving up the statue and repairing the gown.
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There was quite a bit and the veil was
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broke and then the hands were very well worn and and the face needed a lot of
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work so i spent a lot of time sanding and then replastering had to work on the
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chin and the lips and the nose and so i was kind of happy that she was standing,
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And then at that point we had to, with all that, you know, and then it took
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some time off because, you know,
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you have to step back from a project every once in a while. And of course...
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You know, trying to keep her up to date. So continue on the process.
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And as I said, she was up by Christmas time and then getting it sanded, finished.
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And then came, I think the most difficult part was choosing the colors.
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Obviously blue, but since it was Sorrowful Mary, I didn't want to go with the,
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like the strong Marian blue.
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So I kind of, after I put it on there, I kind of asked Deacon Mike,
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and I stood back from him, and I said, that's just not the color I was looking for.
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So I went ahead and kind of, I don't want to say dulled down,
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but I still wanted to give the blue, you know, the heavenly stature and that
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of the sky, which represents Mary.
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And then looking back at my
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documented pictures I noticed that it was maroon or
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red so I went ahead started that
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and obviously it was too bright a red kind of
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didn't match with that so I kind of toned that down
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so a process kept going and then
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the gold I put the gold on there and boy
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it was really gold to the point where
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it just didn't it it was
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brilliant but it wasn't going with the theme
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what i had so again too
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that took a process so i'm getting it all put together and finally i i go to
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the face and i put the i want to say pancake on there and i was i grew up brother
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so So as far as makeup goes.
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I don't, I'm not familiar with that.
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So I reached out to the art teacher at Central Catholic, Jim Ruckert,
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and I said, you think you have any female students over there that could maybe help me out with this?
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So he emails back and he suggests this one, you know, and her name is Aubrey Darr.
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And I was tickled pink because she was my former student.
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So I was very happy that she came over and she spent about, she came over about
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four times after school and she was working on chatting with her mom.
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And, you know, we'd banter back and forth, but the outcome turned out really well.
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Don't forget the tears. Oh, the tears. Yes. That was the last part of it.
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With seven tears. So we made sure that we had seven tears on the face for the seven sorrows of Mary.
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And after we finished and then Carmen goes, well, I asked her,
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I wanted to get blessed for schools out, but that just didn't materialize being in the month of May.
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But we had talked Father in it, and Father allowed us to pick a date. Yes.
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And also, I want to thank Father David for letting us share the statue.
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That is, she was on display that weekend at all the masses.
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And her tears were there when we found her.
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Really? So not just painted on, were they made of plaster so you could feel the tears?
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Oh, wow. Yes, it's amazing. And Carmen, I have a question for you here in just one second.
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We're going to go to a break, but I want to ask you a little bit more about
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just your connection to Mary.
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I mean, just a few moments ago, I noticed some emotions coming out,
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you know, talking about Mary. So I want to hear a little more about that.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to Catholic Conversations on Catholic Spirit
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Radio. I'm your host, Paul Garcia, and I have the special privilege of speaking
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about this story of faith, beauty, and restoration with Carmen Kelly, the...
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What we call the cleaning angel here at Catholic Spirit Radio,
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and John Smith, an art teacher at Epiphany Catholic School.
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Together, these two, and especially John, I think Carmen would agree with that,
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they restored a beautiful and very large statue of Our Lady.
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It was a statue of the Blessed, or sorry, statue of Our Lady of Sorrows.
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And we just heard a lot of that story and the intricate process of making sure
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it looked right, choosing the right colors, getting the tears.
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And you mentioned, John, that the tears are actually clear and is made using
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a gel and it looks more realistic that way. And I'm sure it looks beautiful.
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I saw a photo of it actually, and it looks incredible and it's very large.
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Carmen, during our first segment, I asked you briefly just about Mother Mary,
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and it seemed like you had some emotions talking about your connection to her.
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So I want to ask a little more about that.
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Why is the Blessed Mother so special to you, and how did you develop that relationship with her?
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Well, when we grew up in Central America, we have a devotion real big for Our Lady of Guadalupe.
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We have a procession. We all dress up like Indians and go with the procession.
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So since Our Lady appears in different forms and different names,
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but it's the same marriage.
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And so what about Mary speaks to you?
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It seems like you have an incredible devotion. If you're willing to take on
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this very large statue and try your best to get it restored and everything.
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It's obvious that Mary means a lot to you. Has she helped you through difficult
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times? Do you have some serious devotion to Mary?
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Yes. I'm sure you pray the rosary fairly often.
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And going to adoration.
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And it's just something that we have back home all the time. Mm-hmm.
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So you see Mary as a mother.
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And I know so many saints have said it's so important to cling to your mother,
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Mother Mary, as though she's your real mother.
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And as we know, Jesus tells us, if you do not have faith like a child,
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you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
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And so it makes sense that he wants us to act like children regarding our faith
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and to cling to our spiritual mother, Mary. and sometimes non-Catholics have,
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they kind of get freaked out by our incredible devotion to Mary.
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But it's important to say we're not worshiping Mary. We are honoring her, we're venerating her.
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We have a special connection to her. She's closer than anyone to Jesus Christ, to God himself.
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And so it makes sense that we would pray, asking Mary to pray for us,
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to intercede for us, given that she is his mother.
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And as we know also in the Bible, and not a lot of people think about this,
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Jesus was not planning, most likely, to perform his first miracle,
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turning the water into the wine.
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But his mother, Mary, says to him, hey, Jesus, they need more wine. He says, right?
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It's not yet my time. Nonetheless, he obeys his mother.
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And so if we pray to Mary, asking her to pray for us and intercede for us,
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of course, Jesus is going to listen to her. And I just think that's so beautiful.
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And I've always really loved the Latin American devotion to Mary.
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We need more of that in America.
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Mother Teresa said, if there was no Mary, there will not be Jesus.
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Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so do you, I don't know,
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do you have any stories or anything of your, of Mother Mary helping you out
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through a difficult time or anything like that?
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You said that it seemed like she chose you or she came to you.
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Yes, because on Easter, the year before, I was looking for a statue of Our Lady
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of Sorrow, and I went to see Kathleen, and she couldn't find one,
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so she gave me a little stamp, and she asked me what I needed it for.
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I say because I have a little display in my living room with Jesus and I need
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Mary for Good Friday to meet with him in a corner.
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And that's why probably two, three weeks later, this friend of mine called me
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and asked me if I wanted a statue of the Virgin Mary.
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Without seeing her, I didn't know she was our lady of sorrow.
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I see. And when they brought her home and laid in the couch,
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Patty Salch came to the house and looked at her and she said,
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oh my God, she said, it's Our Lady of Sorrows.
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I see. And I was so surprised. And so what is the difference between Our Lady
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of Sorrows and just the regular old Virgin Mary?
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That's probably a silly question, but I don't know if I... Our Lady of Sorrows
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is because when she met with Jesus on Good Friday, when he was carrying the cross...
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That he was going to be crucified. So in that moment, she was Our Lady of Sorrows.
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Okay. And so is it a good idea to pray to Our Lady of Sorrows,
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specifically that kind of version of Mary when you're going through a particularly sorrowful time?
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Especially mothers who got problems with kids.
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I see. I see. Well, thank you for explaining that.
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Now, John, well, and Carmen, but I'll start with you, John.
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How did it feel to finally get
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this finished and when was it officially finished
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and maybe tell us about the blessing as well well as i said it was a i want
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to say it was a journey from the time i received her and it was almost a year
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by the 4th of july well yeah yeah i think it was spiritually it was kind of a journey.
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Therapeutically, it was a journey because, you know, I don't want to quote the
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Beatles, in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me speaking words of wisdom.
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And sometimes you have to, when you're out there and having trouble, you got to let it be.
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And I think working on the statue maybe was maybe a way to let things be and
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get yourself going the right way sometimes and you know she intercedes for us
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for her son and the blessing it was very nice it was beautiful.
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Again, Father did a nice job, and then— Was this Father Powell?
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No, this was Father David Richardson. Oh, right, right, okay. The new pastor.
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Okay, so did he bless it after Mass, and was it on display there?
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Obviously, it was there, but was it on display anywhere?
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It was right next to the other Mary statue that is in the church,
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so she along— It drops a little below the altar.
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Right. I see. Now, where does the statue of Our Lady of Sorrow sit now?
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At my house. Oh, that's right. Oh, there you go. Wow, you got a big statue in your home. Okay.
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Well, that's great. That is amazing.
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And whether the Beatles meant to or not, those lines in that song are really incredible.
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I've heard stories, you know, that it's not about the Blessed Virgin Mary.
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It's about his Paul's dad or mom, Mary.
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So, I don't know. But it really is great.
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So, how does it go again? When I find myself in times of trouble. Mother Mary says to me.
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Yeah, comes to me speaking words of wisdom. Let it be.
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And in my hour of darkness, she's standing there in front of me speaking words
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of wisdom. Let it be. Let it be.
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Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You're familiar with that song as well then, Carmen.
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Yeah. It's a beautiful line and it doesn't matter if they intended to or not.
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I think it's a great Catholic line there.
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But Carmen, how did you feel when you finally saw the statue finished in person?
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I couldn't believe it, how beautiful she was.
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Incredible. And what does it do for you now, being in your home?
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When you see that statue, what does it do for you? How does it make you feel?
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Every night, before I go to bed, I say my prayers.
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And every morning, I say my prayers.
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In front of the statue? In front of the statue. Very nice.
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And I have a recliner. If anybody wants to come in, they can recline and say
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a prayer to her. I love it.
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Well, incredible. Now, the two of you, it's been great speaking with you.
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And yeah, I know that people are going to really enjoy the conversation.
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Is there anything else you want to tell the listeners before we wrap this up?
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I would love to see if somebody would recognize her.
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Because she does have to come from a church in Bloomington, no normal.
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Maybe we can post a picture on our Facebook page or something.
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See if anyone recognizes her. But it has to be a picture of the original.
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The original, yes. Right.
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Absolutely. Well, we will see then. And anything from you, John?
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First of all, to Kathleen over at Three Kings Shop.
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Thank you. Thank you very much. She's open on Thursday. I'm doing a little plug.
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Thursday, 10 to 3, and then Sunday, 8 to 12, there at Epiphany. So good.
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Ask her about the pocket tokens. Tell her John sent you. Three Kings gift shop
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there at Epiphany Catholic Church in Normal, Illinois.
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It's a great place, really. I mean, especially for confirmation,
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first communions. It's a great gift shop.
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I've spent a lot of money there. Plenty of rosaries. Plenty of rosaries.
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Or finding somebody to repair the Virgin Mary. Yes, that's right. Yeah.
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That really is such an amazing thing that you did. I mean, it's so important
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and it's a skill that not many people have.
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So thanks for taking me. Thank you. Thank you. I think it will stay with me
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well for the rest of my life. Thank you, Carmen.
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No, thank you for doing it. And thank you, Paul, for having us.
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Hey, the pleasure is all mine. It was funny, before we started recording,
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Carmen was already signing me up for a few more repairs.
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You got a few broken statues here. I think some of her friends have some statues,
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too, that they want. That's wonderful.
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So I'm not sure if I've heard from them yet. Well, Carmen and John,
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thank you both so much for sharing this beautiful story with us.
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It's a reminder that God can take what is broken and make it whole again,
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not just in statues, but in our lives.
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And to our listeners, may the witness of Our Lady of Sorrows inspire all of
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us to unite our suffering to Christ, trust in restoration, and never lose hope.
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Thanks for tuning in to Catholic Conversations. And until next time, may God bless you all.
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And may Our Lady gently guide you through all the sorrows to the joy of Christ.
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So John and Carmen Thank you again very much for your time And thank you to
26:43
everybody who helped me out You've been listening to Catholic Conversations
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Download our podcasts at catholicspiritradio.com.
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religious items for sale, kids activities, and a 15-minute procession of the relic after each Mass.
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Spanish Mass and Fiesta. All are invited.
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Music.
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Welcome to the teachings of Father Al Lauer.
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Jesus Christ is Lord. Welcome, brothers and sisters. This is Daily Bread.
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I'm Father Al Lauer. Let's proclaim it. Let's let everybody know about it.
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Jesus Christ is Lord. I hope somebody heard you down the street.
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I hope somebody heard you in the other room. They might say, what are you doing?
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And say, well, if you can yell about a football game or you can yell about a
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home run, I can yell about Jesus Christ.
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I'm glad you're with us. We're talking about evangelization and our title is
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Evangelization and Pope John Paul II.
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He has some great teachings on evangelization, especially this particular book
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called Mission of the Redeemer.
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You might say, I'm not interested in any of that stuff.
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Give it a chance. Give it a chance. I think you might be very happy to hear this word.
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I believe the Lord has given us the Pope as a great teacher, very gifted teacher.
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I know people that aren't even in the Catholic community who really get into
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what the Pope says because they can see God speaking through him and the Holy
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Spirit speaking through him.
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Let's pray right now. Father, we just pray in the name of your wonderful son, Jesus.
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We just pray now that as we remind ourselves of our baptisms and how we are
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children of you, Heavenly Father, that we would just reach out to the three
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and a half million people who are destined to be children of yours,
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that Jesus died on the cross so that they would be your children,
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but they haven't yet had that opportunity or they have not accepted that opportunity.
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Lord, may we get that word out to them. May we just live to evangelize,
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exist to evangelize, exist to share our faith.
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Lord, every day may we just give our lives to you with a great commitment of faith.
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We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
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Well, according to 1 Timothy 3.15, the church is a pillar and bulwark of truth,
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and the Pope is the leader of the church.
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I believe he really gets the truth out that will set us free.
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Now, if we look at this document, this is what we're going to spend our time
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on today, called Mission of the Redeemer.
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Depending on when you see this, this is a couple years old, maybe I better give you the exact date.
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It came out December 7, 1990.
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December 7, 1990.
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I want to give you the scripture that the Pope starts with, one that you probably
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have never seen anybody start with. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 16.
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This is probably one of the most extremist scriptures in the Bible.
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Paul says, 1 Corinthians 9, verse 16, they say, Paul, you do this preaching
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work for free. Isn't that great?
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And Paul says, I don't know if you understand.
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I do it for free because I don't want the gospel to be a matter of money,
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receiving the gospel to be a matter of money. But he says, if I preach the gospel,
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it gives me no grounds for both things.
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I can't say I'm doing anything really unusual.
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For necessity is laid upon me.
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Another translation is, woe to me if I don't preach it. I'll be ruined.
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Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.
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So Paul says, there's something inside of me that if I don't share it, I will be destroyed.
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Woe will come upon me. I must proclaim the gospel or I just cease to have a reason to exist.
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That's exactly right. That's exactly right. This is one of the most extreme.
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And some people, if they were not really a full blast Christian,
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would consider a fanatical statement.
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And the Pope brings up his fanatical statement about the necessity of proclaiming the gospel.
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Then he gets into the major theme here.
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And one of the major themes is urgency.
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Now, there's a lot of questions about that. Even if a person believes you're
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supposed to evangelize, they don't necessarily know what that means.
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They don't agree on that.
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Even if they agree on that, they don't agree on the timing of it.
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Some people say, well, we should just share our faith whenever we have the opportunity.
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Maybe next month or next year I might share my faith with somebody.
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Somebody says, next month or next year? You better share your faith with somebody
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the next hour or you'll be doomed.
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And you say, wait a minute, you're fanatical. You're crazy. You don't get so wound up.
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Say, well, who's right on this?
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One person says, it's an emergency. We've got to share the faith now.
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Another person says, well, come on, let's see how to take our time on this.
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Well, it's hard to answer that question. The Bible doesn't tell you necessarily
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about the urgency of evangelization.
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The Bible does say, like in Luke's gospel, Jesus says, I have a baptism to receive.
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I want to light a fire on this earth.
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How anguished I am until it's done.
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So you see, Jesus says, be urgent. Get it out there.
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Read Acts of the Apostles. They were doing everything to get it out there.
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They sold their farms, sold their properties, sold their houses,
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and to put all those resources at the house.
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For the purpose of spreading the gospel. Say, see, look how urgent these people were.
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Well, yeah, but you could look at other passages in the Bible and say,
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well, Paul went out to Arabia after he committed his life to Christ,
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and he really never got on track for three years.
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Say, yeah, but later on he did this. Some say, well, yeah, but we're not in
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the later on. We're in the three years in Arabia.
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Well, how do you know? How do you know? Well, no one knows. Only God knows.
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But it says in Amos chapter 3, I think it's verse 8 and 9, it says God does
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nothing without telling his prophets.
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I believe Pope John Paul II is a prophet. He's not just a prophet,
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kind of like as a self-proclaimed prophet.
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He is an accredited prophet, as mentioned in 1 Samuel 3.
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Samuel was an accredited prophet, someone that we know, we really know that
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he has the ministry of prophecy.
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It's confirmed. It's accredited. And he says it's urgent time,
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brothers and sisters. It is urgent time.
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It's time to just go full blast.
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Now, I'm going to give you several sections here from this document on the urgency
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of proclaiming the good news.
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Now, the first one, you'll find that in the very first section,
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the Pope says, in the name of the whole church, and he's the only one that can
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say that, I sense an urgent duty to repeat this cry of St.
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Paul. And the cry I mentioned before, woe to me if I don't preach the gospel.
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He says, my direct contact with people who do not know Christ,
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and he knows he's had this world mission, he's traveled all around the world,
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probably more than almost any religious leader in the history of the world.
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And he says, my direct contact with people who do not know Christ has convinced
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me even more of the urgency of missionary activity.
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See, a lot of people say, well, those Hindus, the Lord's speaking to them in
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different ways, And even though they don't know Jesus, Jesus is still there. Maybe, maybe not.
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So I don't think we really need to spread the gospel. In fact,
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Jesus is already over there. We can just kind of take care of our own business.
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The Pope says, my experience with people all around the world is quite different than that.
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Sure, Jesus is there. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't get there.
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That means it's more urgent than ever that we get there because we want to be where he is.
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Then he goes on in section, same section, section one.
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He says, what moves me even more strongly to proclaim the urgency of missionary
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evangelization is the fact that it is the primary service which the church can
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render to every individual and to all humanity in the modern world.
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So our primary service, the main thing we're supposed to do for people,
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the main thing you're supposed to do for your child, the main thing you're supposed
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to do for your husband, the main thing you're supposed to do for your boss,
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the main thing you're supposed to do for your co-worker,
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the main thing you're supposed to do for your brother-in-law,
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the main thing you're supposed to do for your neighbor is to share the faith,
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evangelize, share Jesus,
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his death and his resurrection with those people.
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So that's our main service. So that makes it urgent if it's our main thing.
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The main thing is something you've really got to get done.
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Section 3, that was in Section 2.
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I think I said 1, but that was in Section 2. Section 3 says,
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The number of those who don't know Christ and don't belong to the church is
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constantly on the increase.
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Indeed, since the end of the council, it has almost doubled.
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Now let's try to figure that out.
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The Council of 65 ended, And so that was like 27 years ago or so,
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depending on when you hear that. So something like this.
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And it said it's almost doubled. How many people don't know Christ now?
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Approximately three and a half billion, depending on how you count.
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That means in the last 27 years, it was, well, he really wrote this two years ago.
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In 25 years. In 25 years, the people who don't know Christ, the number of these
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people, change from one and three-quarter billion.
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It's hard to even comprehend the idea of a billion of anything.
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One and three-quarter billion has increased in 25 years to three and a half billion.
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Gosh, think about it, brothers and sisters.
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When we consider this immense portion of humanity, which is loved by the Father
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and for whom he sent his Son, the urgency of the church's mission is obvious.
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The urgency. When you change from one three-quarter billion to three and a half
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billion in 25 years, that's an astronomical increase.
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In a rather short period of time, mostly because of the population growth.
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Well, gosh, Lord, we've got to do something.
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All right, another section, section seven. The urgency of missionary activity
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derives from the radical newness of life brought by Christ and lived by his followers.
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Why do we urgently need to be sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ?
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Because it's so good. It's got a radical newness because there's so many people
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that don't know Christ And that number is increasing astronomically.
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Three and a half billion, an increase of one and three quarter billion in just a 25-year period.
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Why? Because it's the primary service of the church. So, okay,
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okay, we believe the Pope has got the prophetic word here.
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Now, what do we do? Here it is, section three. I sense, the Pope says,
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that the moment has come to commit all of the church's energies to a new evangelization.
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That means leading people to Christ in cultures where they've already heard the gospel.
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And to a mission agentes, that means to the nations, meaning foreign missions,
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and especially in areas where they've never heard the gospel.
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And then he says, we've got to put all of the church's energies into this. All!
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All! No believer in Christ, no institution of a church can avoid his supreme
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duty to proclaim Christ to all people.
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We have a great responsibility to do this. If you look at section,
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maybe you'd like to get this book, you can get it at a bookstore,
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I'm sure. Or you can go to the library and get it.
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Section 11. Now, Catholics go around and we say that we're not the only true
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church, that other Christian churches are true,
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but we have the fullness of the truth, not as individuals, not even as individual
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churches, but universally we have the fullness of the truth. So we have more.
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Now, according to Luke's gospel, to whom much has been given,
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much will be expected. There are greater expectations on a Catholic to evangelize
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than on any person in the world, considering what a Catholic maintains.
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If you think you've got the fullness, well, then you've got the fullness of responsibility, too.
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All right? Say a person's got $50,000. They have a greater responsibility to
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use that money than somebody with 50.
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Maybe a person is a brilliant surgeon.
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That person has a greater responsibility to use those special gifts to save
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lives than a person who doesn't have such intellectual and technical possibilities.
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Now, if we've got the fullness as Catholics, we've got the greatest responsibility to,
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And the Pope says, those who are incorporated, this is section 11,
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in the Catholic Church ought to sense their privilege, it's a privilege to share
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the gospel, and for that reason,
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their greater obligation, or it's a privilege to be a Catholic, he says.
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If you're privileged to be a Catholic, you have a greater obligation just because you're privileged.
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Catholics have a greater obligation of bearing witness to the faith and to the
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Christian life as a service to their brothers and sisters and as a fitting response to God.
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You have a greater responsibility to evangelize because of your relationship with God.
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You want to do this because he told you to and because of your love for people because they need this.
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And then listen to this. This is quoting from Vatican II. Lumen Gentium, Light of the World.
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I think that's the document on the church. And it says, They should be ever
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mindful, that is Catholics, that they owe their distinguished status that is
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being a Catholic, not to their merits, but to Christ's special grace.
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We say, I'm a Catholic, I'm so good. No, God's so good. God's so good.
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And if they fail to respond to this grace in thought, they don't appreciate it, their thought word.
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They don't say it. Indeed, they don't act it out.
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Not only will they not be saved, which is the worst thing that could ever happen
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to a person, they go to hell forever, be damned forever.
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Not only will they have that, but they will be judged more severely.
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I don't really understand that sentence because what's worse than going to hell?
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Well, it says these people are going to go to hell plus. Okay.
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Wow. Okay. Maybe they're just talking about not after their death, but before their death.
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They'll experience a lack of being saved on earth and then even a judgment,
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a severe judgment on earth. I guess that's the way to understand that.
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But brothers and sisters, it's urgent. And if you're a Catholic,
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you've got the greatest responsibility in the entire world to evangelize. That's what it said.
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That's what it says. And the Pope, I think the Pope is telling you the whole
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truth, nothing but the truth.
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Well, a little bit more. How do you do this? A lot of times people,
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when it comes to evangelizing, they really get mixed up.
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They say, we're going to tell people that if they give their life to Christ,
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they're going to go to heaven.
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They're going to feel good. They're going to be happy forever. Wow, really good.
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Well, that's true. But that's what I call a spiritual prosperity gospel.
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They're not really calling you to the cross, to dying to self.
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To copying, to imitating Jesus crucified and glorified.
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They're trying to make a deal with you. They're trying to give you an incentive, a perk, heaven.
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Now, of course, there are other groups that do what you might call the more
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physical prosperity gospel, where they don't just say you'll go to heaven.
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They'll say you'll make a lot of money. You'll feel good. You'll get healed.
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You'll just be so happy you won't know what to do. You'll have some kind of euphoria.
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Well, that's not all false either. Just like heaven isn't all false.
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That's not the way Jesus presents the gospel. In Luke 9, this guy comes up to
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Jesus and says, I'll be your follower.
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And Jesus said, oh, this is the best decision you ever made.
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And because you decided to be my follower in this 24-hour special introductory offer period,
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you get a free car or no
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he doesn't say that he said he says to
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the guy he says foxes have dens birds have nests but the son of man is nowhere
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to lay his head which in plain words is if you give your life to me don't expect
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to even have a roof over your head and you can imagine this guy he might have
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been thinking about this for years and finally kind of sheepishly said i might be your follower,
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Jesus, you know, is that okay?
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And Jesus says all this stuff, and the guy is probably just totally deflated.
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But Jesus makes it pretty clear. He doesn't present a prosperity gospel. He presents the cross.
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Now, if you're going to present the cross, you better have a lifestyle to fit it.
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When Jesus sent him out in Matthew 10, you know, he said, you go proclaim the
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gospel. You proclaim the kingdom, okay?
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And he says, when you go out, don't take anything with you. Don't take any shoes,
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sandals, walking staff, traveling bag, money, clothes, food,
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nothing. There ain't nothing with you.
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I think that's something really lacking in evangelization. The message is the cross,
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and you've got to have a life that has been transformed by the cross,
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a lifestyle that has been transformed and simplified and radically changed by
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the cross or your message doesn't fit your life.
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It's a contradiction. I think that's what's happening.
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So the Pope spends a lot of time on this and he says that we need to turn,
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this is section 59, to a more austere way of life.
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Section 60, the church all over the world wishes to be the church of the poor.
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She wishes to draw out all the truth contained in the Beatitudes,
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and especially the first one.
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Why emphasize this? Well, it's just the Word of God. It's just the prophecy. It's the now Word.
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He says the main Beatitude that we're emphasizing right now,
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the first one, blessed are the poor in spirit.
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And that's just not an idea. That's not just something in your mind. It's practical.
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Section 60, same section. The Pope says, I therefore exhort the disciples of
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Christ in all Christian communities,
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from families to dioceses, from parishes to religious institutes,
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any grouping of families or groups.
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If you're in a prayer group, you're in this ministry, you're in this church,
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you're in this family, you're in this diocese, any grouping of people.
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He says, I exhort you to carry out a sincere review of your life regarding solidarity with the poor.
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Now, when you review something, you have to have a criterion by which you make judgments.
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And you say, well, that's real good. Well, why do you say that?
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Well, you have some criteria by which you say that.
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What's the criteria for reviewing your life to see what needs to change?
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Solidarity with the poor. Are you in union with the poor? Can the poor relate
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to you? Or is there a separation?
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Is there an alienation from the poor?
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Well, our lives are miles away from the poor of this world.
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In fact, a lot of people are living in poverty like 100 years ago.
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And it's getting worse. The separation is getting greater and greater.
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And the Pope says we've got to just turn into a more austere life and reassess
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our lifestyle if we're going to be evangelists.
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That's real important. Now when you talk about all these things,
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you kind of say, God, I don't know if I can do any of that. Well,
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of course you can. Only God can do it.
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And then you think of that. You think of those three and a half billion who
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don't know Christ and an increase of $1.75 billion in 25 years, it just blows your mind.
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You say an increase of $1.75 billion. It's kind of like say you had a debt,
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and you not only didn't pay it off, it doubled in 25 years.
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Do you feel like there's any chance of you ever doing it, ever paying it off
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when it's increasing that much?
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So you've been doing all you can to pay off this debt, and after you've worked
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25 years to pay off this debt, you owe double than what you originally owed
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because of the compounding interest.
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You just feel like, there's no way. There's no way I could possibly do it.
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I might as well just give up.
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Well, there's a lot of encouragement that the Lord gives us here through the Pope.
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And let me share a real great word of encouragement. This is in section 86.
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If we look at today's world, we are struck by many negative factors that can lead to pessimism.
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You look at people and you say, gosh, look at young people and say,
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golly, family life, oh no.
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Look at these other communisms and say, what a mess. Look at Muslims and say,
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oh gosh, you feel pessimistic.
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You look at your own weakness, you look at your own sinfulness.
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But the Pope says, this feeling, this feeling of pessimism is unjustified.
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You say, wait a minute, it seems to me that no other feeling is justified.
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There's plenty of reasons to be pessimistic.
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Let him explain. We have faith in God, our Father and Lord,
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in His goodness and mercy because of God, because he's our Father,
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because he's our Lord, if we've given our lives to him, because he's good,
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and because he's merciful,
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those factors outweigh all those pessimistic factors or factors that lead to pessimism.
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And so pessimism is unjustified because of these other factors,
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mostly about the goodness of God.
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Now, listen to this. as the third millennium of the redemption draws near.
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God is preparing a great springtime for Christianity and we already see his first signs.
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So maybe I don't really even see the first signs, but he does and I'll take his word for it.
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The Lord gave him, he can see more than I can see and the Lord seems to be speaking
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through him in a prophetic way.
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So, first signs of a great springtime. It doesn't just say springtime.
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It says great springtime. It looks good.
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He goes on and says, In fact, both in the non-Christian world and in the traditionally
53:15
Christian world, people are gradually drawing closer to gospel ideals and values.
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Now, you know, you see all these people aborting their children.
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You see the breakdown of our society. And he's saying people are gradually drawing
53:30
closer to gospel ideals and values.
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Thank God he said that. I would have never known that. I'm not saying it's not
53:37
right. I'm just saying it's beyond my experience.
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And I'm glad to hear some things that are beyond my experience,
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so I'm not trapped in my limited experience.
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He says, today, in fact, there is a new consensus among people about these values,
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the rejection of violence and war, respect for the human person and for human rights.
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I don't see the consensus, but he does.
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And I thank God for his experiences that it is beyond mine and his revelation that it is beyond mine.
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He says there's a consensus about the desire for freedom and justice and brotherhood.
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There's a mounting of different forms of racism and nationalism.
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The affirmation of the dignity and role of women. Christian hope sustains us
54:19
in committing ourselves fully to the new evangelization and to the worldwide
54:26
mission and leads us to proclaim and pray as Jesus taught us.
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One of his last scriptures is Matthew 6.10 from the Our Father.
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Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
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And then the very last scripture of the whole document is the famous scripture,
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at least in my life, Acts 1.14.
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Together with Mary, the disciples of Jesus devoted themselves to prayer in the
55:00
upper room waiting for the Holy Spirit.
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We need, for any of the Pope, his last words is, to get together with Mary and
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other Christians and pray for the Holy Spirit.
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Pray for a new Pentecost. Let's pray right now.
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Father, we just pray for a new Pentecost. We just go into that upper room again.
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We just ask that the Holy Spirit would just come and change it all.
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Renew the face of the earth from within us.
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Let those rivers of living water flow so we might spread the good news of Jesus
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Christ to the whole world. We pray all this in Jesus' precious and wonderful name. Amen. Amen.
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Music.