Latest / The Lila Rose Show / E145: All Things Angels And Spiritual Warfare w/Fr Ambrose Criste

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E145: All Things Angels And Spiritual Warfare w/Fr Ambrose Criste · The Lila Rose Show

• 0:00
  Do you think it's possible to ask God and the angels for too
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  much? No, absolutely not. 12 chapters.
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  The Book of Revelation, St. Michael and his angels fought
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  with the dragon. It's a battle that's depicted
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  there. That idea.
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  I think it's important for us today that we are at war for
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  little babies. We're at war for the salvation
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  of souls. We're at war against the forces
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  of evil who want to steal all of these souls away into hell.
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  God loves instrumental causality.
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  He loves it when you ask and the Angel responds and his will was
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  accomplished. He loves it when.
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  Father Ambrose, Chris, welcome back to the podcast.
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  Thank you for having me back, Lila.
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  First time here with the new set, so it's great to see you
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  here and. Less comfortable feels.
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  Great, good. Good to see you.
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  Our air conditioning just turned off, so hopefully it's not going
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  to get too warm in here. But you're a favorite on the
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  podcast. You come in and give us all of
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  the theological and historical wisdom about church and the
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  tradition. So I'm very excited to talk
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  about angels with you. Great.
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  And Michael Muss. Yes.
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  So let's start, though, with the breaking news that we were just
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  talking about before we sat down together, which is this news
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  about President Trump and him actually backing a pro-life
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  initiative in Florida. Thanks be to God it wasn't
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  looking good a couple days. Ago was it, it was not looking
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  good. And I I know you have a lot of a
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  lot of perspective on the role of people of faith and politics.
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  So I actually wanted to hear about that, but just for people
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  who are listening who might not know what just happened,
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  President Trump yesterday was saying he wasn't sure if he was
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  going to support an amendment in the state of Florida that would
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  legalize abortion through all nine months effectively.
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  And he was criticizing pro-life laws in the state.
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  So the pro-life community was very upset about this,
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  understandably and rightly and rightly so.
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  And then he came out again just today, minutes ago, and he said
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  that actually he's going to vote no on the amendment, effectively
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  supporting the pro-life movement in the state to fight the
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  extremism of the amendment. So this is a big move because
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  before he was indicating that he might support the amendment.
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  Yes, well, thanks be to God, you know what you think.
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  How can it ever be that policy or a platform or support of any
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  kind of legislation that destroys the lives of little
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  children in their mother's womb? How can you, how can we possibly
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  think that that would ever be politically expedient or good?
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  So obviously this man has been the object of divine
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  intervention that that is to say that he was miraculously saved
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  from from assassination. You think it was a miracle?
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  You just, you look at the videos of that, right?
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  And the, the fact that he turned his head like that is a it's, it
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  has to, he said himself that he thinks it's an act of God.
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  OK, well, we better just keep praying that God keeps
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  intervening in his life and in the life of everybody else who's
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  standing for office in this pivotal election year, right?
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  So the fact that we have this flip flopping policy, flip flop
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  flopping regarding the sanctity of human life means that people
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  of faith need to keep praying hard, keep praying hard that
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  hearts will change. If a few days ago it looked like
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  his support of that was going to go the wrong way and two days
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  later, as you said, just breaking.
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  No. OK, So that means that someone's
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  praying, I would guess. And the angels are intervening,
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  you know, tapping on the shoulder of whether it's Trump
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  himself or his handlers or his advisors or the the campaign
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  team. So we have to just keep praying
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  hard that that politics is not about what's expedient, but
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  actually what's true. Yes.
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  When did we, when did we ever think politics is just about
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  what's expedient? Politics is about the common
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  good. That's fundamentally what we're
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  about in politics is preserving, maintaining, uplifting,
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  upholding and advancing the common good of, of a citizenry.
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  So, so I, I, I just think that our prayers must work.
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  They have to work. Our Lord promised that they
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  would. I love that.
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  I love that that call to prayer and we're going to talk about
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  the spiritual aspect of this like you are mentioning.
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  I also think it's the power of speaking out and expressing our
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  outrage. I mean, it is outrage that, you
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  know, if a candidate campaigns on life in the past and you
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  know, it has the pro-life vote in the past and indicates that's
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  their stance, not perfectly, but you know, as a as a large thrust
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  of their campaign and then they change it mid campaign, which is
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  what so many pro lifers are upset about.
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  With what President Trump's recent statements have been, he
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  came out in support of the abortion pill, which is 60% of
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  abortion, said he would veto abortion bans.
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  You know, starting to use the reproductive rights language
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  like I'm for reproductive rights.
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  And then, you know, this indication that he might not
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  support the pro-life effort in Florida I think was hugely
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  concerning. And I think a lot of pro lifers
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  in the last week raised their voices.
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  Now there's a question though, Father Ambrose, about some
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  people say, well, if you criticize a candidate that is
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  better than the other guy, you know, we know Kamala Harris and
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  Tim Walz, that ticket is so pro abortion.
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  But there is I think a narrative that says, well, if you
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  criticize your candidate, then you're going to suppress the
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  vote about that candidate. And then the other camp says,
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  actually, it's the job of the voters before the election, you
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  know, the elections in two months.
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  So we're filming this over two months out to urge the
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  candidates to stand strong, to win the vote.
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  What's your take on that? Well, you know, our government
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  is a representational government and we elect people to represent
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  us. That's the whole point.
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  So it's important for us to make our opinions and our preferences
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  known to the candidates whom we are potentially going to be
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  voting for. So you you said there, you know,
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  there's a role of activism. You very much stand in the on
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  the side of radical, courageous, heroic activism for human life.
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  So absolutely right now you and everybody in the pro-life
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  movement who is vocal and and more than just concerned, but
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  actually active in the movement need to speak out.
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  Absolutely. And otherwise we're otherwise we
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  have the possibility of just standing back and watching the
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  political climate to generate even further leading up to the
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  election because we're afraid of what might be the the result of
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  that for for criticizing the the better of the two, the lesser of
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  the two evils. So activists have a place in
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  political discourse and especially they get leading up
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  to an election like this one that's that's coming so quickly.
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  And the the ordinary voter if if we can say such a person exists.
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  I mean, everybody has a voice in our government or at.
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  Least in the social media era and with your neighbors and your
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  family. There, at least we're supposed
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  to. Now, whether or not that's
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  actually the way politics works right now is not so obvious.
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  But nevertheless, we are citizens of Republic and we can
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  speak our hearts and the Republic in which we live with,
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  as you said, with maybe on social media, with our family,
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  with our friends. We need to move hearts.
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  How are we going to do that if we don't speak up?
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  Yes, exactly. Well, I think it's definitely
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  shows the power of being willing to speak, even if it's
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  unpopular. Because I do think there is this
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  narrative that if you criticize the candidate, then you are
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  going to hurt them. And of course you might hurt
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  them, but you also might help them.
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  That's right. Or they might.
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  And it's a risk. That's a risk.
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  They might hear. They or their handlers or their
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  campaign managers might hear. Wow, this actually is the wrong,
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  wrong direction. We're going in the wrong
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  direction. It's a warning.
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  And let's turn, let's take a like, let's take a turn toward
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  what's true and, and good and beautiful.
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  Instead of going down this path of expediency for the sake of
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  being elected. Now we can criticize and also
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  say, you know, criticism can be mature.
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  We can criticize a candidate. We can criticize a policy and
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  say I'm still supporting this person even though I'm critical
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  of what they just said about this or that, you know, that
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  just just voicing A criticism doesn't mean that we're bailing
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  on the whole project. But sometimes to get your
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  message heard you sometimes there might have to be a bit of
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  a an edge there, like if you keep doing this, I might have to
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  bail. Yes, well, and.
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  That's and that's where. People like you fit in right and
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  your organization, that's right because you have a big platform
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  and that way your your voice has teeth in a way that someone who
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  is just speaking with their family or their friends might
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  not. Yeah, but I think every voter,
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  of course, has power in in what they say, how they think about
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  this and and how they talk about it with their friends, too.
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  And, you know, that's that's why it's encouraging that President
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  Trump has done this because now it's not like an endless race to
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  the bottom between the Democrats and the Republicans, which is
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  where it seemed to be heading on the abortion issue, which is the
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  most important human rights issue of the day.
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  Absolutely right. And the church has always told
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  us that. And it's, it's the, it's where
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  we have to focus our attention right now and also focus our
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  prayers, direct our prayers. So let's talk about prayer next,
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  and the angels, because they have an important role to play.
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  Someone might make the case that it was Trump's guardian Angel
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  that helped protect him from the bullet that almost took his
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  life. He has a guardian Angel, just
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  like you do and I do. Every human being has a guardian
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  Angel. So what's the scriptural backing
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  for Guardian angels? And then I want to hear what are
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  archangels, OK, Because we're going to talk specifically a lot
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  about Saint Michael. Saint Michael, who's an
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  Archangel is OK so. Abby.
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  Yes. So the principal New Testament
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  scriptural citation for the existence of guardian angels
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  comes from the mouth of our Lord Himself.
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  Matthew 18. He says, do not despise these
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  little one of these little ones, referring to the little
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  children. Do not despise one of these
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  little ones, for they have and for their angels always look
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  upon the face of my Father who is in heaven.
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  So every little child and by extension every human being has
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  an Angel who is somehow belongs to that person and who is always
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  looking upon the face of God in heaven, God the Father in
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  heaven. That's the principle New
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  Testament citation where we can look to the existence of
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  guardian angels, but the angels are all over the Scriptures from
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  beginning to end, from the first book to the last.
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  You know, you can hardly turn a page of the Scriptures without
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  coming across angels in, in Genesis, in Daniel, in Isaiah,
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  in Tobit, everywhere, the book of the Apocalypse, Revelation at
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  the end. So the Scriptures are just
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  covered with these wonderful creatures, the angels and some
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  some little places like not a little place, but from from our
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  Lord himself like that in in the 18th chapter of Saint Matthew.
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  We know a lot more about them than people might think.
• 11:04
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• 11:20
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• 11:22
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• 11:28
  You're not only getting an amazing product for your little
• 11:30
  one, but you're also supporting the pro-life movement.
• 11:33
  Did you know that companies, unfortunately like Pampers, are
• 11:36
  owned by conglomerates that actually are pro abortion that
• 11:39
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• 11:45
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• 11:48
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• 11:50
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• 12:00
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• 12:03
  That's every life.com. And use the code Lila at
• 12:06
  checkout for 10% off your order. So what are angels made of?
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  What? What do they what do they look
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  like? And yeah, tell me more about
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  their my guess. It was the very their ontology,
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  the ontology of an Angel. What are they?
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  What are they? Yeah, what are what is their
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  being? Saint Gregory and Saint
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  Augustine both say that the name Angel Angelou's talks about what
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  they do, what is their mission, not who they are.
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  Angelus means messenger. That's the Latin word.
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  It's a Greek word that the that the Latin language also picks
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  up, Angelus, Angelus, Angelus. So they are messengers.
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  They are the intermediaries between God and mankind.
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  They bring important messages to earth.
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  They also are involved, we learn from the fathers of the Church,
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  reflecting on the Holy Scriptures, that they're also
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  involved in the creation of the universe.
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  They are in the hierarchy of being between God himself and
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  the Holy Trinity and the created material order.
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  The angels stand in between those two.
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  They are created beings, but they are not material.
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  So you said what are they? What is their ontology?
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  What is their being? They are pure spirits, pure
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  created spirits, and they have a rational nature like humans do,
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  meaning that they have intellect and a free will.
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  An intellect and a will is what makes them rational, like humans
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  are rational. So can they pick and choose what
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  body to put on in order with if God gives them the I don't know
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  the the power to do it. I mean, do they all have the
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  power to embody themselves in order to do certain errands for
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  God, or if they're a demonic spirit, to do an errand for the
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  evil 1? They only do God's will.
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  They they perfectly do God's will, the holy angels.
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  This kind of goes back to a previous conversation we've had
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  about fallen angels and holy good angels.
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  The the, the holy angels, we call them the holy angels are
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  perfectly aligned to the will of God from the moment of their
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  creation after they chose in that one perfect act of their
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  will. A little bit of a tangent,
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  because they have no bodies, because they're pure spirits,
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  they're perfect intellects and perfect wills.
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  That is, they know everything they're supposed to know when
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  they look upon the face of God, and they have a perfect will in
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  that they make one choice for God or against God, and
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  everything else follows after that, that it's a perfect act of
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  their of their rational will. That must be so nice by the way.
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  I know. Right.
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  Why can't we? Why can't I mean?
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  We're going to have it in heaven.
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  We're. Going to have it in heaven, I
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  know, but every day you're making a million choices and
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  half of them are bad. Because we don't see.
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  We don't see or know with that kind of clarity because we are
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  composite beings with with bodies along with our immortal
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  souls. So, so we don't have that same
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  kind of perfection in the way that our intellects and our
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  wills work. So can they choose to put on a
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  body? They they.
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  It's like the Book of Tobit, by the way, right?
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  Which is so everyone loves the book.
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  Of Tobit, yes, the the Archangel Rayfield.
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  Yeah, the wonderful Archangel Rayfield to come and be a
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  matchmaker. Yes, it's the love lost.
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  That's right. Folks and Tobit and and they, my
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  understanding is Rayfield presented himself as a relative,
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  yes, in order to match make a couple and he went undercover as
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  a human being and he lied. I mean, again, I don't know if
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  you would agree that it was. It's technically a lie, but he
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  represented himself as someone he was not.
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  And. In order to meet, get two people
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  to meet and fall in love. Yes.
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  So when the angels show up here on earth, as it were, at the
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  Annunciation of our Lord's incarnation to the Blessed
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  Virgin Mary or Zechariah in the Temple, the Annunciation of the
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  conception of Saint John the Baptist, whenever angels show
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  up, people see them. And presumably that's not just
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  somehow a trick of the mind that that the angels affect, but it's
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  also a reality in in their in a physical body which they can
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  take up, they can assume. And it's because the angelic
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  world has this access to the material world all already from
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  the beginning of the universe. The fathers tell us that in the
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  creation of the universe, God, who works through these these
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  hierarchical and instrumental means, he used the angels to
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  whip up the matter of the created material universe.
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  That's a cool idea. So why couldn't they take up the
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  material that that looks like a human body and inhabit it for a
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  while so as to appear to us, you know?
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  So you're saying that, so the you're saying that the early
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  Church fathers, they theorize, are they speaking with full
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  confidence that God used the angels as instruments to create
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  the world as we know it? Yes.
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  So they theorized and that goes along with the understanding of
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  cosmology, how the world works, how philosophy works, what it
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  what natural philosophy is. They understood that that there
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  is this wonderful hierarchy of being from, as I said, God
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  himself at the very pinnacle of it, God who is immaterial,
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  immortal, without without anything outside of him.
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  And when he acted outside of himself to create the visible
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  order of the material world, the universe in which we live and to
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  create us, he also created the angels.
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  So the 4th Lateran Council, which is the beginning of the
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  1200s said that defined, of course, this is much later than
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  the early Church fathers, but the reflection of the church
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  upon scriptural truths and the realities that of Christian
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  doctrine continues to unfold through time.
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  So the 4th Lateran Council said that God created the angels and
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  also there's a part of that council that says that he
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  created the angels before he created mankind.
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  So, so there's an order to the way that God created things and
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  the angels helped with that ordering and with that creation.
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  So again, that's all theoretical, but not not purely
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  speculative. It's not just someone's sort of
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  imaginative idea. It's based in the truths that we
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  know from philosophy and theology.
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  So in this room right now, presumably there's at least
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  three angels. Yes.
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  Which is a crazy. Maybe 4 because the some of the
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  some of the wonderful fathers of the Church say that a priest
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  gets another one of his ordination of.
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  Course. Sorry, Father.
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  Yeah, I could cut you short. I could use a few more than
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  that. That's wonderful.
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  So and and have you had an experience with your angels?
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  Gosh, that's a great question. I think I have an experience of
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  my Angel every day, many times a day.
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  Maybe not. I don't see my Angel.
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  I've never seen my Angel, but you know, whenever we pray, our
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  angels are praying with us. They're taking our prayers and
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  presenting them before the throne of of God.
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  Whenever the sacraments are administered in the Church,
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  whenever Holy Mass is offered or a confession is heard or a
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  little baby is baptized, the angels crowd around that
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  Sacramento moment with wonder and adoration at the fact that
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  Christ's sacred humanity is so present on earth.
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  I've had many experiences in my life.
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  I'll narrow that down to my priestly life, where I find
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  myself saying something, especially in the confessional
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  or preaching from the pulpit. And I don't know why I'm saying
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  or where those words are coming from.
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  And I'm pretty convinced that that's because my Angel is
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  helping me. Helping you help a soul.
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  I think so. And of course that's God's work.
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  That's the Holy Spirit who speaks in our hearts, right?
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  We know that, that the, the Holy Spirit prays within us with
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  groanings, you know, with inexpressible groanings.
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  The angels mediate that too. So I think it God the Holy
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  Spirit who speaks through our hearts and speaks through the
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  mouth of a priest, hopefully in in those moments, those
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  important moments of pastoral ministry.
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  And the angels are helping to mediate that too.
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  So I know the words to say. I've had this experience before
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  with and, and you, I think maybe it's an experience when people
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  are doing vocational work that they feel they're called to do
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  where there's a, whether it's words that you're given or just
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  a sense of a supernatural assistance.
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  And you know, you could say, well, that's, that's God or
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  that's the Holy Spirit. How, how do you know?
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  I mean, obviously if it's your Angel, that's the Holy Spirit
• 20:46
  using your Angel. Same, same.
• 20:48
  Yes, same, same, same, same. Yeah, the the.
• 20:51
  They are instruments of God. They.
• 20:52
  Are instruments of God if they. If they what, what, when, when
• 20:55
  would it be? That was the Holy Spirit versus
• 20:58
  that was my Angel or they. They're together, working
• 21:01
  together. I think they're working together
• 21:03
  because, you know, like I said, God loves to use instrumental.
• 21:06
  He loves to use instruments in working out His holy will among
• 21:11
  us, if that's even from whipping up creation at its origin, the
• 21:16
  beginning of creation of the material universe.
• 21:18
  He did that through the ministry of angels.
• 21:19
  He announced the most important moments of salvation history
• 21:23
  through the ministry of angels. Why wouldn't He be speaking to
• 21:26
  your heart, to the ministry of an Angel too?
• 21:30
  They are the intermediaries and the messengers.
• 21:33
  I think even of just the gospels and you know, God used angels to
• 21:39
  announce to Mary that she would bring Jesus into the world and
• 21:43
  specific one. The Archangel Gabriel.
• 21:45
  Yes, and then he used obviously an Angel for Saint Joseph and I
• 21:49
  think why wouldn't he just go himself, you know, through the
• 21:52
  Holy Spirit because he likes to use, like you said, instruments.
• 21:56
  I have so many more questions on angels.
• 21:57
  So I want to talk about UFOs actually, because I'm curious
• 22:01
  your theory on that. But but before we go to UFOs,
• 22:03
  you mentioned the other Archangel and another Archangel,
• 22:07
  St. Gabriel.
• 22:08
  What is the difference between Archangels and your everyday
• 22:12
  Angel? OK, so we have these hierarchies
• 22:16
  of angels, language about is it an angels, an Archangel?
• 22:19
  St. Paul speaks about powers and
• 22:21
  dominions and Thrones. We have these names for these
• 22:23
  creatures or powers outside of outside of mankind and their
• 22:29
  scriptural names. And we need some help from the
• 22:34
  great theologians and doctors of the Church, fathers of the
• 22:36
  Church, to help us to sort that out.
• 22:39
  You know, Scripture is often impenetrable.
• 22:41
  It's penetrable because the Holy Spirit helps us to understand
• 22:43
  the Scriptures. But the great Christian thinkers
• 22:46
  from all of our tradition help us to tease out some of these
• 22:49
  nuances we have these wonderful reflections from.
• 22:55
  I'm going to cite a few of them, the great the great theologians
• 22:57
  who tell us about the hierarchies of angels, most
• 23:00
  principally Dennis the Areopagite.
• 23:03
  Dionysius the Areopagite, who was a 6th century Syrian monk,
• 23:08
  wrote in Greek and took the name Dennis Dionysius.
• 23:12
  So because he wanted to take up, he wanted to be like the
• 23:15
  Dionysius that Saint Paul met at the Areopagus in in Athens.
• 23:20
  And so the tradition of Greek philosophy in the Near East and
• 23:26
  in the Christian world of the Near East, he wrote a
• 23:29
  magnificent treatise called the Celestial Hierarchies where he
• 23:33
  lays out these 9 choirs of angels that then is taken up,
• 23:37
  gets his way back into the Latin West.
• 23:40
  And Saint Thomas Aquinas is the, he's called the angelic Dr. He
• 23:43
  wrote in his masterpiece of theology, the Summa Theologia in
• 23:48
  the first part of that a whole treatise on the angels, resting
• 23:51
  his theology on the scriptures, of course.
• 23:54
  And the fathers of the Church, including Greek and Latin
• 23:58
  Fathers. And this Dionysius the
• 24:00
  Areopagite, Pseudo Dionysius we call him.
• 24:02
  So that's a long way of saying we reflect on the scriptures
• 24:06
  through the tradition of of Christian theology, Catholic
• 24:09
  theology, and we can speak about, we can speak quite
• 24:13
  specifically about angels, archangels, Thrones, dominions.
• 24:16
  We have cherubim and seraphim. Those are all over the
• 24:18
  Scriptures, right? Powers, Thrones, dominions,
• 24:21
  virtues. So.
• 24:23
  Are these, and I'm looking at the verse here, for by him all
• 24:26
  things were created like you were just sharing.
• 24:28
  This is from Colossians, so Saint Paul.
• 24:30
  For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth,
• 24:34
  visible and invisible, whether Thrones or dominions or rulers
• 24:37
  or authorities. All things were created through
• 24:39
  him and for him. And this idea of Thrones,
• 24:42
  dominions, rulers and authorities, these are not
• 24:45
  talking about established human powers that we elect or we
• 24:49
  appoint. They're talking about here is
• 24:51
  Saint Paul's talking about angels.
• 24:53
  That's what the Fathers of the Church tell us we're reflecting.
• 24:55
  On are there different statuses of angels then?
• 24:57
  Like if you're a Throne Angel versus a Dominion Angel.
• 25:00
  They are hierarchical so and and the the theologians again, this
• 25:06
  is what we call speculative theology.
• 25:09
  The fact that angels exist is a article of our faith.
• 25:13
  We, we must believe that angels exist.
• 25:15
  And how could you not if you pick up the Bible, right?
• 25:17
  But all of these details, these niceties about their higher
• 25:22
  hierarchical arrangement, what they do, where they sit in that
• 25:25
  hierarchy, that's all speculative theology, which
• 25:28
  means it's not not true, but it's not an object of faith that
• 25:32
  you must believe it like this. So the cherubim and the
• 25:36
  seraphim, these are the top brass angels.
• 25:38
  They're. Right by the throne of God.
• 25:40
  OK, the Seraphim are the fiery ones, burning with love for.
• 25:44
  God and they're just worshiping. They're just, they're not
• 25:46
  anyone's guardian Angel. They're just worshiping.
• 25:47
  We don't think that they. Are OK and then underneath those
• 25:50
  guys you've got what? The Cherubim.
• 25:52
  OK, and they're oh, that's so the seraphim and then the
• 25:54
  cherubim. And and so that.
• 25:56
  They're are they cute little fat blonde babies?
• 25:59
  Like, like, like, I mean, that's how they're depicted right, in a
• 26:02
  lot of art. Exactly.
• 26:04
  If you read the the language of the scriptures about the angels,
• 26:08
  they're not cute little they're kind of.
• 26:10
  Terrifying. You know, a wheel covered with
• 26:13
  eyes all around and there are swords and there are wings and
• 26:16
  they're, they're powerful, powerful creatures.
• 26:19
  Every Angel, because it doesn't have a body, is its own species.
• 26:24
  So you and I are are instantiations, individuals of
• 26:28
  the same species, the human species, Each Angel is its own
• 26:33
  species, as different one from another as an elephant from an
• 26:35
  Ant, or you might say as a plant, one planet from another.
• 26:39
  They're they're radically different.
• 26:42
  Each is its own individual species.
• 26:44
  So the cherubs that are depicted in a lot of classical art, you
• 26:48
  know what I'm just referring to? They're like these little cute
• 26:51
  fat babies, basically. They do not look terrifying,
• 26:54
  they look cute. What do you think the artist is
• 26:56
  trying to depict there? What's the tradition there?
• 26:58
  I think trying to encourage us with the consoling idea that
• 27:01
  these creatures are here to help us and to love us and to help us
• 27:04
  to love God better and to bring us to our Lord Jesus Christ, you
• 27:07
  know. They're cherubs, not cherubim.
• 27:09
  A cherub is that's the singular. Cherubim is the plural.
• 27:14
  They are trying to depict the cherubim, but they're making
• 27:15
  them look like, when we say cherubim like like a fat baby,
• 27:18
  but you're saying they're not. They don't look like that.
• 27:20
  They're probably terrifying to that's.
• 27:22
  The artistic license of of the tradition of Western Christian
• 27:25
  art, which wants to it's doing all kinds of things to remind us
• 27:28
  that angels are here and with us around the altar, you know,
• 27:31
  around a baroque altar, a rococo altar.
• 27:33
  It's just covered in these wonderful, adorable little
• 27:37
  cherubs. The bottom of the pecking order
• 27:40
  are the angels. OK.
• 27:42
  That's the place that that they are closest to to what's going
• 27:47
  on here on earth. And that's where the guardian
• 27:49
  angels come from. The theologians tell us they
• 27:51
  come to the bottom rank of the angels.
• 27:53
  The archangels are the choir just above the angels.
• 27:57
  OK, So Saint Michael is an Archangel.
• 27:59
  Saint Raphael, St. Gabriel.
• 28:01
  Now the Eastern tradition, St. Basil the Great, says that Saint
• 28:06
  Michael the Archangel is actually, we call him the
• 28:08
  Archangel because he's the Prince of the whole heavenly
• 28:12
  court. He's the Prince of all of the
• 28:14
  angels from the highest serif all the way down.
• 28:18
  That's what we call him, Archangel, kind of the top
• 28:21
  Angel. That's what we mean by that.
• 28:23
  In the Latin tradition from Saint Thomas Aquinas, we we
• 28:28
  speculate that it could be that Saint Michael and St.
• 28:31
  Gabriel, Saint Raphael are at the top of the Archangels choir
• 28:35
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  community For support. You can get 30 days of Covenant
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  eyes for free by going to the link in the description and
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  using the code Lila at checkout. How many archangels do we think
• 29:15
  there are? Do we know?
• 29:15
  OK, so we only have three named in the scriptures.
• 29:20
  Michael Rayfield Gabriel There's an apocryphal book from of the
• 29:23
  Jewish scriptures called the Book of the Enoch that names
• 29:25
  seven that wasn't. That's not a canonical book, and
• 29:28
  it wasn't canonical for the Jews of the Old Covenant either.
• 29:32
  So St. Michael's Abbey, you have a
• 29:34
  patron of Saint Michael as your as your Angel.
• 29:37
  My understanding is though, there's angels that are patrons
• 29:39
  of cities, of countries, and perhaps even institutions.
• 29:44
  Are those archangels then? And do is there anything we can
• 29:46
  learn or know about them? OK.
• 29:48
  So you're asking questions that are very hard for us to
• 29:50
  penetrate, Lila, you know? Well, that's why you're here,
• 29:53
  Father Ambrose. You are the guy.
• 29:54
  We're digging into a world that is is very much the world of
• 29:57
  speculative theology. So I can give you speculative
• 30:00
  answers which we don't. These are not, these are not
• 30:04
  articles of our faith. Exactly.
• 30:06
  So we'll take Saint Michael for the for this example, since we
• 30:10
  love Saint Michael at Saint Michael's Abbey, we're named for
• 30:12
  the Archangel Michael, the, the Prince of the heavenly host, the
• 30:16
  the one who is in the book of Daniel and in the book of the
• 30:20
  Apocalypse or Revelation. He's also in the letter of the
• 30:22
  Catholic Epistle of Jews, Saint Jude, four times his name shows
• 30:25
  up in the Scriptures. He's our holy patron.
• 30:28
  Is he guarding our monastery? I think so.
• 30:31
  We're named, Our Abbey is named for him.
• 30:34
  Why couldn't he be guarding our monastery even though he's the
• 30:37
  Prince of the whole Heavenly Host I?
• 30:40
  Think he is your monastery is pretty doing.
• 30:43
  I mean, it's pretty amazing. And he.
• 30:44
  Protects us from all kinds of things that I'm sure we don't
• 30:48
  even know about, right? We're, we're visible, we're well
• 30:52
  known. And so I'm sure there's a lot of
• 30:54
  forces of evil striving to undo the good things that God is
• 30:57
  doing at our monastery, at our Abbey.
• 31:00
  So I, we need his help. How does he help us?
• 31:04
  OK, well, if that hierarchical arrangement of angels that we
• 31:07
  talked about a little while ago is true, there could be a
• 31:11
  guardian Angel who is executing the marching orders of Saint
• 31:16
  Michael the Archangel and Pseudo Dionysius.
• 31:20
  That is Dennis the Areopagite that that 9th century, 6th
• 31:24
  century Syrian monk would say that it might be something like
• 31:28
  there's a whole chain through all nine choirs of angels.
• 31:31
  That is Michael. Michael the Archangel through
• 31:34
  Michael the. Power.
• 31:35
  They're like his his regiment. It's his column of his column of
• 31:40
  angels, and we just call that Michael because how can we call
• 31:43
  these creatures anything? It's like the Navy Seals.
• 31:46
  Something like that. I love that.
• 31:47
  So I think that it's probably better for us to say that
• 31:51
  whether it's a country or a city or an institution or maybe a
• 31:54
  family or a church has an Angel that's something like a guardian
• 31:58
  Angel. Where that Angel comes from,
• 32:02
  from that hierarchy, that's up to God.
• 32:05
  You know, he sends an Archangel to speak to Our Lady at the
• 32:09
  Annunciation. He sends another Archangel,
• 32:12
  Michael, to protect the body of Moses.
• 32:15
  We learned that in the Epistle of Saint Jude.
• 32:17
  Amazing. He sends Raphael to work on that
• 32:22
  matchmaking that we talked about in the Book of Tobit.
• 32:24
  So where the angels come from in the hierarchy and how God sends
• 32:28
  them? A great mystery.
• 32:30
  Now the book of Jude you mentioned and yes, the.
• 32:32
  Letter the Epistle of St. The letter of Jude, yes.
• 32:35
  This is not considered scripture to by many Protestants, right?
• 32:41
  So it's a Catholic epistle. This is a Catholic epistle.
• 32:44
  Yeah, one of the ones. So there there are some books of
• 32:46
  the both the Old Covenant, the Old Testament and the New
• 32:48
  Testament that the Protestant reformers took out of the
• 32:53
  cannon. I want to address that briefly
• 32:54
  'cause we've got a lot of evangelicals and Protestants.
• 32:56
  He listened to the show. And so what's your take on why
• 33:01
  the Protestants chose to remove the reformers?
• 33:04
  Again, not your average Protestant is like anti those
• 33:06
  books necessarily. They don't even know about those
• 33:08
  books. Like when I was growing up
• 33:10
  evangelical and I got my first Bible, you know, it didn't have
• 33:12
  those books in it, so I didn't know any better.
• 33:15
  So what would be your take on why that happened and why these
• 33:19
  books are actually meant to be in the Bible?
• 33:22
  OK, I'll give you the I'll give you the dive in the wool Roman
• 33:25
  Catholic answer to that, because we shouldn't be ashamed of these
• 33:28
  things. I think some of those books were
• 33:30
  removed by the Protestant Reformers because they contain
• 33:33
  doctrine that was not very convenient for the Reformation.
• 33:36
  Like prayer for the dead in the the book the books of Maccabees.
• 33:41
  Or like the the wonderful revelations of the heavenly
• 33:47
  liturgy in the Book of Revelation.
• 33:50
  Or the this language, for example in the Epistle of Saint
• 33:55
  Jude about about the body of Moses and the presence of Saint
• 34:00
  Michael. Or like in the Epistle of Saint
• 34:03
  James about the combination of prayer and work that the
• 34:09
  necessary for work to demonstrate how our faith is
• 34:14
  active and, and filled with love and moving in the right
• 34:18
  direction. So, so I think that some of
• 34:21
  there's also, there was also some question about especially
• 34:25
  the Old Testament books, like I, I cited Maccabees.
• 34:28
  They, we have them in Greek, but we don't have them in Hebrew.
• 34:32
  They, they only existed in Greek.
• 34:35
  So there was some question about whether or not they were actual
• 34:38
  actually part of the, the Old Testament.
• 34:41
  But the Catholic Church, which is the, the church established
• 34:45
  by Jesus, established by Jesus Christ, and which is the place
• 34:48
  where we know which books are scriptural, You know, why do we
• 34:51
  not read the book of Enoch or the Gospel of Saint Thomas?
• 34:56
  Because the church in her tradition told us that those are
• 34:58
  not inspired books. So if we have to wait till the,
• 35:04
  you know, 1500 years later for someone else to say, well,
• 35:07
  actually we're, we're also going to take out these books because
• 35:10
  we don't like what they contain outside of the tradition of the
• 35:13
  church, which Christ established.
• 35:14
  That's a bit of a problem I think.
• 35:16
  It's a it's a pretty dramatic precedent that they set.
• 35:19
  I mean, fortunately, I do think there's a lot of respect among a
• 35:22
  lot of evangelicals today, you know, very sincere hearted that
• 35:26
  they want to really be Bible based.
• 35:28
  So there's not like another wave to like, well, let's take out
• 35:30
  more books that we don't like. You know that that's not really
• 35:33
  the the move, although there's tremendous debate about what
• 35:36
  does it mean all of the different verses in the Bible
• 35:40
  that there. Again, why a Magisterium is so
• 35:42
  important? The Magisterium is the teaching
• 35:43
  authority of the Church which Christ established because.
• 35:46
  To help interpret the sacred. Sometimes it's.
• 35:48
  Hard. It's hard to understand what
• 35:50
  does this scripture mean. All right, so I want to get back
• 35:53
  to Michaelmas and Saint Michael's Abbey because that's
• 35:56
  coming up soon. And then I want to talk more
• 35:58
  about stories of angels because I think they're very inspiring.
• 36:01
  But you're celebrating something really special because you are
• 36:04
  St. Michael's Abbey.
• 36:05
  What are you celebrating soon? What is its history in the
• 36:08
  church and what should people know?
• 36:11
  At the end of September, September 29th is the feast, the
• 36:14
  Solemnity of Saint Michael and all the are the all the
• 36:17
  Archangels. This is a feast that goes way
• 36:19
  back, many many centuries ago. The celebration of Saint Michael
• 36:23
  on September 29th is connected with a particular basilica
• 36:27
  outside of the city of Rome that was consecrated in honor of
• 36:30
  Saint Michael. I think it was in the 7th
• 36:32
  century, although I might be mistaken about that.
• 36:35
  So this celebration on that date at the end of September goes way
• 36:38
  back to. The 7th century.
• 36:40
  Yes, it's based on a certain church building and and there
• 36:44
  are many, there are many feasts through the year of Saint
• 36:48
  Michael depending on where you look and depending on where he's
• 36:50
  appeared according to the tradition of the church.
• 36:53
  So Saint Michael has appeared. Yes, he has appeared where we we
• 36:57
  learned from. We can talk about that.
• 36:58
  Maybe that's a fun tangent as a really.
• 37:00
  Fun. I'll let you do the tangent on
• 37:02
  as you as you please then. OK, then the Mikkel Miss, which
• 37:07
  is like Christmas, the Mass in honor of the birth of Christ.
• 37:10
  Mikkel Miss is the Mass in honor of Saint Michael is the what we
• 37:14
  call this feast. And it's really important that
• 37:16
  our Abby, because he's our patron and because we, we built
• 37:19
  the church in a special way so that there's a ray of light that
• 37:22
  comes through the, the Rose window in the West.
• 37:24
  And on the feast of Saint Michael at Vespers, during the
• 37:29
  singing of our ladies Magnificat, the light ray shines
• 37:32
  on the altar, the high altar in the sanctuary.
• 37:34
  We, we did that deliberately. The architect made it to do
• 37:36
  that. The church is built so that the
• 37:39
  feast day has this wonderful kind of.
• 37:42
  Based on where the sun is in the sky.
• 37:43
  Exactly where the sun is setting in the sky.
• 37:46
  Yeah. Isn't that cool?
• 37:47
  That's very cool. We used to build churches like
• 37:49
  that all the time. What if it's overcast?
• 37:51
  Well then it doesn't come through.
• 37:52
  OK. Has that happened?
• 37:54
  It has happened. OK, although, although, but
• 37:56
  mostly not right. Mostly not.
• 37:57
  Yes, it's Southern California. Yeah, there's, it's a great
• 38:00
  place for it. So, so that light shine and tell
• 38:02
  us. Tell us exactly what the light
• 38:03
  does. Through the Rose window, through
• 38:06
  the stained glass window, and it illumines the the beautiful
• 38:10
  white marble altar in the sanctuary and just glows like
• 38:13
  it's glowing from within. It's super cool.
• 38:15
  And then of course, we fill the sanctuary with incense while
• 38:17
  we're praying. And it's just the spectacular
• 38:19
  liturgical celebration with a choir of Canon singing.
• 38:22
  The church is packed with people because the Feast of Saint
• 38:26
  Michael has always been an important celebration for for
• 38:30
  Christians around the world. In fact, it even used to have a
• 38:33
  fasting season, St. Michael's Fast, which began,
• 38:37
  which traditionally begins on Our Lady's Assumption, August
• 38:40
  15th and extends until Nickel Miss September 29th.
• 38:43
  Do you Do you practice the fast? It's not, it's not an observed
• 38:48
  fast in the Western church anymore, although we're going to
• 38:50
  do that really in a concerted way this year.
• 38:53
  We have a special novena at the Abbey precisely because it's
• 38:57
  such a pivotal year in our country.
• 39:00
  It's a pivotal year just we need St.
• 39:03
  Michael's help. The world seems to be teetering.
• 39:07
  And you know, Saint Michael is the champion of God's people.
• 39:11
  He was the champion of God's people in the old covenant.
• 39:13
  He's the champion of God's people in the new covenant.
• 39:15
  We need his powerful intercession.
• 39:17
  So we're, we, we have called a special novena at the Abbey
• 39:21
  with, with some spiritual talks given special prayers, said
• 39:25
  processions around the Abbey church culminating in the feast
• 39:31
  on September 29th. So people should follow that
• 39:33
  online because all of that is available online.
• 39:36
  And we'll link it in the description.
• 39:37
  Please. That's our Abbott Circle
• 39:40
  platform and all of our social media platforms will have a lot
• 39:43
  of information about that. But I we're emphasizing it this
• 39:46
  year because we need the assistance of the holy angels.
• 39:50
  They're so important for all the reasons we've talked about and
• 39:54
  for all the reasons we might not know to, to save us, to help us
• 39:58
  to come to know Jesus Christ better, right?
• 40:01
  To conform our lives to His, to desire what He desires.
• 40:06
  That is the salvation of every man and woman.
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  order. OK, so back to the tangent where
• 41:22
  Saint Michael appeared. There's this marvelous line of
• 41:26
  monasteries called St. Michael's Sword.
• 41:29
  The sort of Saint Michael because it's like a straight
• 41:31
  line. 7 monasteries, ancient monasteries starting off the
• 41:36
  coast of Ireland, continuing to a monastery off the course of
• 41:40
  cone of Cornwall in England, then Mont St.
• 41:43
  Michel in France, famous monastery in Normandy off the
• 41:47
  coast, then the next one is in the north of Italy.
• 41:51
  Wow. Piedmont, the same order.
• 41:54
  It's all in a line on the map. Wow.
• 41:57
  Intentionally, of course, or no? Intentionally by God's design,
• 42:02
  another monastery at the South of Italy, in Puglia, Monte Sant
• 42:06
  Angelo, where Saint Michael appeared and consecrated the
• 42:08
  basilica himself. One in Greece, and then the last
• 42:11
  one on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. 7 places, some of which
• 42:17
  had an apparition of Saint Michael, some of which were also
• 42:19
  Pagan sites of worship before Christianity was preached there.
• 42:24
  And they all line up at I think the solstice, the summer
• 42:28
  solstice, a similar kind of light thing happens to line
• 42:33
  these monasteries up on the map. Crazy.
• 42:35
  You think? You think that that that is just
• 42:39
  coincidence? I don't.
• 42:41
  Well, I don't either, although some people listening might
• 42:43
  think, well, that sounds kind of like superstition.
• 42:47
  It well listen, these are places where people are worshipping God
• 42:51
  and monasteries are built in God's praise and souls are
• 42:55
  saved. The sacraments are celebrated.
• 42:56
  Whether they line up or not, they're still.
• 42:58
  Great. The truth is still the truth.
• 43:00
  The truth is still the truth and the fact that someone then looks
• 43:02
  at a map, once we can know where these are on a map and say, wow,
• 43:05
  that's a straight line. And actually there's this light
• 43:09
  spectacle that happens lining them all up on this important
• 43:13
  day of the year. I think that's, I don't think
• 43:17
  that's just superstitious at all.
• 43:18
  I think that's noticing what God is doing.
• 43:21
  The handiwork of God. His Providence might look like
• 43:23
  superstition, but in fact it's God's Providence.
• 43:26
  Well, and it's also not an article of faith.
• 43:28
  It's not like, oh, you have to think it's the sort of Saint
• 43:30
  Michael and it's intentional. But if it's in strengthens your
• 43:33
  faith and God does this, I mean, he does this in our personal
• 43:36
  lives. He sends us a little
• 43:38
  encouragement or maybe something that meant a lot to us, an image
• 43:42
  that we might have seen or a conversation that we had to
• 43:44
  strengthen our faith. And that's not, it's being
• 43:47
  superstitious. That's us listening, trying to
• 43:49
  listen for the voice of that's. Just being grateful, being
• 43:52
  grateful that God is actually present in my life and He wants
• 43:55
  me to know that He's present in my life, right?
• 43:58
  How is that superstitious? I love that we want to just be
• 44:00
  like boring materialists who want to see everything in terms
• 44:04
  of. Proof.
• 44:04
  Give me proof. Sad.
• 44:06
  Well, I think this is I wanted to talk more about just
• 44:09
  experience with the Angel because you were sharing about
• 44:11
  your experience with your guardian Angel and I've heard
• 44:15
  different stories over the years of people who really felt like
• 44:17
  their Angel was looking out for them in a specific way.
• 44:20
  Have you heard any of those stories?
• 44:21
  Oh my goodness, so many. I hear them all the time.
• 44:23
  People share wonderful stories with me.
• 44:25
  I'll, I'll share one with you from one of the confers who
• 44:28
  lives in my Abbey. I won't name it, but all my
• 44:30
  confers, if they watch this, we'll know who I'm talking
• 44:32
  about. He was driving, he had been
• 44:34
  driving back and forth between our Abbey and the convent of
• 44:38
  Cloistered Norbertine Cannonesses, which is 3 hours
• 44:42
  from our Abbey. He'd been driving back and forth
• 44:44
  a lot for work he was doing there many years ago, driving
• 44:47
  back from the convent back to the Abbey in the middle of the
• 44:49
  night, exhausted, he fell asleep on the freeway.
• 44:54
  He so he woke up from a dead sleep in a car that was running
• 44:59
  parked at the bottom of an off ramp with at an intersection and
• 45:04
  he's there's no explanation for how he got there unless there
• 45:08
  was some kind of intervention. So again, is that demonstrable?
• 45:13
  No, but it seems obvious to me that God sent an Angel, maybe
• 45:18
  his guardian Angel, to help save him from a certain death on a
• 45:22
  California freeway. Wow.
• 45:23
  So that's just one little example.
• 45:25
  There's so many. I love that.
• 45:26
  I had a friend who shared one time they were driving and they
• 45:29
  felt an audible voice. They thought they were heard an
• 45:31
  audible voice. They was like move over or you
• 45:34
  know, move left or something. You know, get out of the lane
• 45:37
  that they were in and they move just in time that I guess a semi
• 45:41
  truck or something was veering off and they would have been
• 45:44
  crashed into and maybe killed. But they they were confident
• 45:47
  this was their Angel. Because they actually heard
• 45:49
  something audible or. To get their attention.
• 45:51
  It was loud enough to get their attention and to listen to what
• 45:54
  that voice was Praise. God.
• 45:57
  Do you think that the angels, what, what are they doing right
• 46:00
  now with the country the way that it is and hearts and minds
• 46:04
  the way that they are? There's so much division and
• 46:06
  confusion. Obviously, we have to pray for
• 46:09
  conversion and pray for mercy. I've been doing these YouTube
• 46:12
  lives and I end with a decade of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
• 46:15
  People pray that, but how should we ask the angels or involve the
• 46:20
  angels in this? Yeah, it's a beautiful question.
• 46:22
  What does? That look like the the angels
• 46:24
  are always worshipping God our Lord says that those angels are
• 46:27
  always looking upon the face of my heavenly Father who was in
• 46:29
  heaven their their principal job or task is to adore God before
• 46:36
  the throne of grace. They worship God, and at the
• 46:38
  same time, if their mission is to help us, they're assisting us
• 46:42
  to get there too. So your guardian Angel, my
• 46:45
  guardian Angel, all of the angels want us to know the
• 46:48
  gospel of Jesus Christ and to come to the fount of baptism.
• 46:52
  They want us to be saved, and then they want us to.
• 46:56
  So that's their principal object.
• 46:58
  For every soul, every human being born for all of time has
• 47:03
  an Angel assigned to it who is trying to get it to hear the
• 47:06
  gospel of salvation and to be baptized in the name of Jesus
• 47:09
  Christ, in the name of the Holy Trinity, to be saved and then to
• 47:16
  stay in the state of grace. So they're protecting us from
• 47:20
  diabolical incursions. They're protecting us from
• 47:22
  physical harm. They're protecting us and
• 47:24
  helping us to stay on that path to salvation so that we can join
• 47:30
  them in the worship of God in heaven.
• 47:32
  That's what they want in a post Christian world, which is more
• 47:38
  and more our world. They have a lot of work to do
• 47:40
  that's difficult. It's difficult for the human
• 47:43
  people, for the human creatures, and it's difficult for the
• 47:45
  angelic creatures because how is it that the gospel is going to
• 47:47
  be preached to people who don't think they need to know that,
• 47:50
  they need to hear it right? I think that the forces of the
• 47:56
  enemy, the diabolical forces are running more and more rampant in
• 48:02
  a post Christian world, a neo Pagan postmodern world.
• 48:05
  We see that with abortion, which is the sacrament of the
• 48:10
  diabolical. We've talked about that before.
• 48:14
  You just see that people who can say that that is a good thing
• 48:20
  obviously are far away from God, and their angels are really
• 48:23
  having to work hard to put holy thoughts in their mind that are
• 48:27
  contrary to that kind of diabolical deception.
• 48:30
  Should we pray? Should we?
• 48:31
  Can we send our Angel to go talk to another Angel?
• 48:36
  Yes, we can. Like can we send, can I send my
• 48:38
  Angel to go talk to Kamala Harris's Angel?
• 48:41
  I think so, really, Why not? We send, Why not?
• 48:46
  We can, we can send. I think it's a great idea to
• 48:48
  employ the ministry of the angels for God's holy purposes.
• 48:53
  They want nothing more than that we involve them in our lives.
• 48:56
  And and of course, all of that is according to God's holy will.
• 48:58
  Whatever he wants is what's going to happen by way of if you
• 49:01
  ask your Angel to go speak words of grace and peace and holy
• 49:07
  protection of life to politicians, Heck yeah.
• 49:11
  That's a beautiful prayer, I think.
• 49:13
  I think we should all do that. I think we should send our
• 49:15
  angels. I think that we should use them
• 49:17
  like an army of salvation, like the army of salvation that they
• 49:21
  are. They are.
• 49:23
  You know we use this militant language, but why not?
• 49:25
  Do you think that they're to some degree waiting to be used
• 49:29
  or are they doing this whether we ask them or not?
• 49:31
  How? What is the interplay between
• 49:32
  our free will and the kind of commands I don't know that we
• 49:36
  give our Angel? Obviously we can't tell them to
• 49:37
  do anything bad, but how much authority do we have over Angel
• 49:42
  or And then how much authority do they have over?
• 49:44
  Us, we don't have authority over them because they're, they're so
• 49:46
  far superior to us. That said, you know, Saint
• 49:48
  Thomas in his treatise on prayer in the summa, talks about how
• 49:52
  this question you asked about the interplay between God's will
• 49:55
  and our free will. The idea is that there might be
• 49:58
  some things that God wants to do for us, or that the angels want
• 50:01
  to mediate for us because it's God's will when we ask, and that
• 50:07
  in a certain sense they are waiting for us to ask.
• 50:09
  Because they're waiting for us to move our will towards that.
• 50:11
  Yes, exactly. That's right.
• 50:13
  And so they're and because they're, they respect the
• 50:15
  freedom of our will so much. And also because God loves
• 50:18
  instrumental causality, He loves it when you ask and the Angel
• 50:21
  responds and his will is accomplished.
• 50:24
  He loves it when all of those those free agents are deployed
• 50:30
  for his good pleasure and for his glory.
• 50:33
  So you know that militant language is language that's
• 50:37
  scriptural. In the 12th book of 12th
• 50:41
  chapter, the Book of Revelation, St.
• 50:43
  Michael and his angels fought with the dragon.
• 50:48
  That it's a battle that's depicted there in that chapter
• 50:51
  of the Book of Revelation, it's a battle like a military battle.
• 50:55
  And that, that idea, I think it's important for us today that
• 50:59
  we are at war for little babies. We are at war for their lives.
• 51:06
  We're at war for the salvation of souls.
• 51:09
  We're at war against the forces of evil who want to steal all of
• 51:13
  these souls away into hell. So yes, let's let's think of
• 51:18
  them like an army and let's deploy them in this battle.
• 51:23
  So send your guardian Angel. Absolutely.
• 51:25
  And in, in a more Pacific way, we could even say, let's say
• 51:28
  that there's a mother or father and they have to have a
• 51:30
  difficult conversation with one of their children or someone who
• 51:34
  has to have a difficult conversation with your boss at
• 51:36
  work. Send your Angel ahead to to open
• 51:40
  the heart and open the mind of the person that you're only
• 51:42
  speaking with, to soften their will, to conform their will to
• 51:46
  God's holy will. And to ask the Angel to do
• 51:49
  something, it doesn't have to be an audible prayer.
• 51:51
  They can read our minds, right? So.
• 51:53
  They can. Well, not exactly can.
• 51:55
  They hear our can they hear our our communications to them that
• 52:00
  are in our minds or. Hearts in so far as we allow
• 52:03
  them to, yes, in so far as we allow them to, you know, they,
• 52:06
  they, they, they don't have access to our will to the, to
• 52:09
  that deepest place in our heart. They don't have access to that,
• 52:12
  but they have access to everything that that we share
• 52:15
  with them and even the kind of thoughts that we make manifest
• 52:19
  to them. They can see that.
• 52:20
  Sure, they can hear that, hear that, figuratively speaking.
• 52:24
  I think there's a lot of power to specific prayers and specific
• 52:29
  requests and there's so much in holy scripture about the power
• 52:33
  of the request and whatever you ask in my name and the story of
• 52:36
  the not give them exactly or going to the judge and maybe
• 52:40
  pleading your case and the judge won't listen and say she kept
• 52:42
  going. And finally judge said, you're
• 52:43
  just bothering me so much. And the Lord is like, well, so
• 52:46
  much more. Your Father in heaven wants to
• 52:47
  give you these things. And I think sometimes I think
• 52:51
  there's too extreme. Sometimes I think we ask too
• 52:53
  little, and not just for ourselves and our own hopes and
• 52:56
  dreams, but for the world and the salvation of souls and the
• 52:59
  changing of hearts of politicians and policy and
• 53:02
  culture and all these things. So we can ask too little and
• 53:05
  we're just like God's will, whatever.
• 53:06
  And I'll just live my life. And it's like you got to
• 53:08
  specifically ask and, and, and, and I would say plead even.
• 53:12
  Absolutely. Because of that, that that
• 53:15
  pleading and that specificity is also conforming our mind and
• 53:21
  heart to God as well both. It's a two way St. there, right?
• 53:24
  God loves us and he wants to pour out all these good things
• 53:26
  upon us and he wants us. He wants us to dare.
• 53:30
  He wants us to dream big. Why not?
• 53:33
  I mean, listen, no eye has seen, no ears heard, nor is it even
• 53:37
  introduced the heart of man what God has prepared for those who
• 53:39
  love him well. Listen, the Kingdom of God is
• 53:42
  within you. We have a foretaste of that
• 53:45
  here, even in this world. So we can ask for big things of,
• 53:51
  of God. We should be, we should ask for
• 53:53
  the salvation of every soul. We should ask for the the
• 53:55
  conversion of every heart and mind, especially and even not
• 54:00
  especially, but even politically speaking.
• 54:03
  Do you think it's possible to ask for too much?
• 54:05
  No, absolutely not. It's not possible to ask God and
• 54:10
  the angels for too much. No, no eyes seen, no ears heard,
• 54:15
  nor is it even entered into. What about material things
• 54:17
  though? That's again, that's that's all
• 54:21
  according to God's good pleasure, you know.
• 54:24
  So it's OK to ask, even if it's something that seems silly.
• 54:29
  If it's no, I don't think if the reason why we're asking is silly
• 54:34
  or if or if our intention is not pure, if it's selfish or if it's
• 54:42
  silly is a good word, you know, if we're just being ridiculous
• 54:46
  about it. Or we're just seeking pleasure.
• 54:48
  Obviously that's he's never going to give us something that
• 54:50
  is sinful or if our intention is somehow disordered, then that's
• 54:54
  obviously not going to be a prayer that's answered.
• 54:57
  But I wish that people would be more audacious and what they I
• 55:02
  wish I would be more audacious and what I ask of God, you know,
• 55:05
  sometimes I think, I think, gosh, we, we have this really
• 55:10
  small hearted, pusillanimous, small souled way of thinking
• 55:14
  about our faith. You know, what if I, you know,
• 55:17
  in Catholic language, you know, well, I'm just going to do the
• 55:19
  best I can to avoid grave sin and to stay in the city of grace
• 55:24
  and to sneak into purgatory by the back door when I die.
• 55:26
  And you know, I'll spend the rest of whatever hundreds of
• 55:29
  thousands of years in purgatory and then I'll go to heaven.
• 55:32
  I think that's an awful way to think about our life of faith.
• 55:35
  God has saved us and washes in the bread of the blood of his
• 55:37
  precious, the precious blood of His Son.
• 55:40
  He sent His Son to die for our salvation.
• 55:42
  You know what I mean? Why wouldn't we want to desire
• 55:45
  holiness? And not just holiness, but we
• 55:48
  have only one life to live before eternity and one life
• 55:51
  that we've been given the opportunity to share the good
• 55:54
  news of our faith. And so wouldn't we want to just
• 55:57
  go whole hog on that? So that we can say with Our
• 55:59
  Lady, my soul proclaims the greatness of greatness.
• 56:02
  Of the Lord and also just to help other souls get to heaven
• 56:05
  with us. That's right.
• 56:06
  We don't want to go. We don't want to go there by
• 56:08
  ourself. We want to bring every soul with
• 56:10
  us. There's a there's a tomb of a
• 56:12
  cardinal that I like very much in the, in the grottos of the
• 56:15
  Basilica of Saint Peter in, in Roman, the Vatican City State
• 56:18
  down underneath the church where a lot of popes are buried and
• 56:21
  other important figures. Cardinal Mary Delvall, he was
• 56:25
  the Secretary of State for Pius the 12th.
• 56:28
  Is that right? I'm sorry.
• 56:29
  St. Pius the 10th and his tomb is
• 56:31
  there. On his tomb is his motto.
• 56:33
  It says Da mihi animas give me souls.
• 56:38
  That was his motto for his as a Bishop, give me souls that his
• 56:42
  whole mission. I mean, that's just one of, you
• 56:45
  know, you pick any, any holy person in the history of, of
• 56:49
  Christianity, their desire is that Jesus Christ is glorified
• 56:53
  and he's known and glorified and that souls are saved.
• 56:56
  I also, though, think about, you know, the Saint Irenaeus, the
• 56:59
  glory of God is man fully alive. And this idea of our talents
• 57:03
  that God gave us, you know, we're not the angels like you.
• 57:06
  We're careful to make the distinction.
• 57:07
  They're superior to us and their intellect and their perfect
• 57:09
  wills, but in our flesh we have been given, and in our intellect
• 57:14
  we've been given these talents. And there's the parable of the
• 57:17
  talents, which has always moved me very deeply whenever I
• 57:21
  contemplate that parable and how the Lord wants us to invest our
• 57:25
  talents and how upset he is at the unworthy servant that like
• 57:29
  hides the talent and doesn't invest it.
• 57:31
  It's not entrepreneurial with the gifts that they've been
• 57:34
  there's. Another wonderful passage to
• 57:35
  where, you know, to everyone to whom much has been given, much
• 57:38
  will be expected. There's that question, but then
• 57:40
  there's also the harvest. Is much great and the laborers
• 57:43
  are few. Is another one that's.
• 57:44
  Right. And to everyone who has more
• 57:46
  will be given to him. And from the one who has little,
• 57:50
  even what he has has, has will be taken away.
• 57:52
  The same idea that we have to, we have to be grateful for what
• 57:56
  God has given us because nothing comes from us.
• 57:58
  It's all from him. And we want to multiply that for
• 58:02
  His glory. Abundance.
• 58:05
  Fully alive, like I, I, and so I.
• 58:07
  Become that they might have life and have it to the full, have it
• 58:10
  more abundantly. Gospel of Saint John.
• 58:13
  I think perhaps we're a little bit scarred or maybe I have been
• 58:16
  in the past about when you contemplate evil and you look at
• 58:19
  the horror, horror, horror evils that have happened in human
• 58:22
  history and in our world today. And it's hard to get in the the
• 58:26
  zone of great abundance. And, you know, use your talents
• 58:29
  to build and help create beautiful things for the Kingdom
• 58:32
  of God and on love people and all of this when you then all of
• 58:35
  a sudden have the contemplation of Maximilian Colby, you know,
• 58:39
  stripped naked and starving to death in a.
• 58:42
  In. A bunker underground, Yes.
• 58:44
  And you, you think that could happen?
• 58:47
  I mean, there's obviously like that, you know, evils could come
• 58:50
  to this day and age in that same way.
• 58:52
  Yes, and are and do. And and are and do and.
• 58:54
  So what does it look like to like have your mind and heart
• 58:59
  set on Jesus and seeking to maximize the use of 1's gifts
• 59:02
  for the sake of the Kingdom, and to ask and pray for abundance?
• 59:06
  And then you get handed Auschwitz.
• 59:09
  Auschwitz was the Royal Rd. to heaven for Saint Maximilian
• 59:13
  Colby. It was his abundance.
• 59:14
  It was his abundance. God chose him as a beautiful,
• 59:18
  sweet oblation for the salvation of many more people besides him.
• 59:22
  That's what the martyrs are in our church, right?
• 59:24
  Beginning with Saint Stephen right, that God sometimes
• 59:29
  invites those who love him very much to give up their life and
• 59:33
  it looks like a failure, right. The wisdom of the cross is
• 59:37
  foolishness in the eyes of men, right?
• 59:41
  The cross is is a stumbling block to Jews and and folly to
• 59:46
  Gentiles. But to us who is believed, to us
• 59:49
  who believe Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God.
• 59:54
  So just because it seems like a failure, if our hearts and minds
• 1:00:00
  are aligned with God's will and we are seeking that abundance,
• 1:00:04
  all things will be given to us. Besides, it will be part of this
• 1:00:07
  beautiful plan of God's majesty and glory unfolding through us.
• 1:00:16
  So I love the martyrs. I love the martyrs.
• 1:00:19
  You think that you know, we, we, we often avoid the cross, you
• 1:00:22
  and I both. I don't know about you, but I
• 1:00:24
  certainly avoid the cross. We don't want it.
• 1:00:26
  We know that we must pick it up and follow the Lord.
• 1:00:28
  That's what he said. Take up your cross daily and
• 1:00:31
  follow me. But when it comes, you think,
• 1:00:34
  now I can't do that. I don't want that think what?
• 1:00:37
  I wonder what it was like when Saint Peter was crucified.
• 1:00:39
  He was thinking, boy, this is a failure.
• 1:00:42
  No, he was honored to follow our Lord's example.
• 1:00:50
  Any martyr. I just love to think about the
• 1:00:51
  martyrs because they they're exactly what you're talking
• 1:00:53
  about. They're the supreme example of
• 1:00:55
  what you're talking about in conforming oneself to Jesus
• 1:00:59
  Christ. And then it seems like a failure
• 1:01:01
  in human terms. So to make it concrete, today we
• 1:01:05
  might look around and say our our country's a mess.
• 1:01:08
  How many babies do we abort every year?
• 1:01:10
  How many, how many children are being disfigured because of this
• 1:01:16
  sick, diabolical transgender movement, You know, mutilating
• 1:01:20
  little children and adults like this?
• 1:01:22
  The the horrors of post modernity are every bit as bad
• 1:01:26
  as the horrors of the 20th century.
• 1:01:30
  And yet we can conform our wills to God.
• 1:01:35
  We can make Jesus known and loved or help to you.
• 1:01:39
  And God can transform all of that.
• 1:01:41
  God works all things for the good, for those who love him.
• 1:01:45
  Amen. It's the it's the hope that we
• 1:01:48
  have. And perhaps the secret is, if we
• 1:01:50
  are willing to ask for the abundance and live in faith and
• 1:01:54
  hope and trust in the abundance, that same faith and hope and
• 1:01:58
  trust that gave us the vision for the abundance and the grace
• 1:02:01
  to reinvest the abundance back for the Kingdom of God again is
• 1:02:05
  the same faith and hope and grace that will help us if the
• 1:02:08
  trial were to come. Yeah, I think that's right.
• 1:02:09
  I think that's. Right and and that's the secret
• 1:02:11
  of our faith. It will see us through meaning
• 1:02:13
  it's not I think some people maybe are in a way, they don't
• 1:02:16
  even realize it, afraid of abundance because it requires A
• 1:02:19
  tremendous amount of trust to have the responsibility of big
• 1:02:23
  talents, big gifts, big impact. You know all of these things
• 1:02:26
  require it's. Risk.
• 1:02:28
  It's just like, but we need risk, Lila, we know that in our
• 1:02:30
  relationships. You you weren't able to love
• 1:02:35
  your husband until you're willing to be vulnerable and
• 1:02:38
  give yourself completely to him in a way that's very risky in a
• 1:02:42
  relationship, right. And what has come of that?
• 1:02:45
  Not only, I hope, a beautiful married life, but also and the
• 1:02:48
  most. Beautiful kids you could ever
• 1:02:49
  dream of. I mean, yeah.
• 1:02:50
  And I, we're just like both of us are in.
• 1:02:52
  Marvel at the abundance of it all.
• 1:02:54
  Right. But that required the risk of a
• 1:02:56
  vulnerability, which is that daring, audacious at this we're
• 1:02:59
  speaking natural terms. That's a natural relationship
• 1:03:02
  blessed by a sacrament. But that the the risk reward
• 1:03:09
  paradox there just we see it all around us.
• 1:03:12
  If we could just then supernaturalize that or take
• 1:03:15
  that, take that natural analog and catalytic catapult us into
• 1:03:19
  the spiritual life, being vulnerable with the Lord, being
• 1:03:23
  vulnerable in our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, in
• 1:03:26
  this desire for abundance, daring audacity.
• 1:03:31
  That's the same word. That's redundant, but it's a
• 1:03:34
  risk. Yeah, He might call us a
• 1:03:35
  martyrdom. But that, that he'll, but he'll
• 1:03:37
  be with us in that. And that's where you have these
• 1:03:40
  stories of the martyrs going to their death, singing.
• 1:03:43
  Yes, that's right. And it's just an incredible.
• 1:03:45
  The beautiful sisters of Compian, the the Carmelite
• 1:03:48
  Sisters who went to the guillotine and the French
• 1:03:49
  Revolution. My brother and I were just
• 1:03:52
  talking about on the show, 'cause he they were singing
• 1:03:54
  lots. That's right.
• 1:03:55
  Or what? They were singing Litters of the
• 1:03:56
  Hours. I think they're singing the
• 1:03:57
  Tadeo. Maybe there's the letters of the
• 1:03:58
  hours. OK.
• 1:03:59
  They're singing letters of the hours.
• 1:04:00
  Maybe, maybe the Salve Regina, I don't remember.
• 1:04:03
  There's a. Wonderful.
• 1:04:04
  But just for folks who might not know their Their heads were
• 1:04:07
  being removed. They were being beheaded, but
• 1:04:10
  they would finish. The next woman would continue
• 1:04:12
  the song until she was beheaded. That's a movie someone has to
• 1:04:17
  make. Well, there's a beautiful opera,
• 1:04:20
  Yeah. Dialogue of the Carmelites, yes.
• 1:04:21
  You should watch it. There's it's, it's that movie's
• 1:04:23
  been made, sort of. Yeah, I will, definitely.
• 1:04:25
  Check, look it up Dialogue of the Carmelites and it's in in
• 1:04:27
  many languages precisely because it's such.
• 1:04:29
  An important story. So Father, before we close here,
• 1:04:31
  I need to get your take on UFOs. All right, So I want to just
• 1:04:35
  watch a video. We're going to show this on the
• 1:04:36
  podcast, and I want to hear your take on whether or not this is
• 1:04:41
  of natural or human origin. So it says angels or aliens or
• 1:04:46
  natural or supernatural origin. Excuse me.
• 1:04:48
  OK, here we go. Watch the Pentagon's 3D
• 1:04:50
  classified USUFO videos. Wow, fast.
• 1:04:55
  It's great. Have you seen this?
• 1:05:00
  I think I've seen this one. Yeah, OK.
• 1:05:04
  So the Navy pilots flying, and then there's this object that is
• 1:05:09
  inexplicable, apparently, like the way that it's hovering at an
• 1:05:12
  extremely fast speed. Turns quickly.
• 1:05:14
  Yeah, it does things that like they no human aircraft that they
• 1:05:17
  know could ever do something like this.
• 1:05:19
  But it's not like an animal. Of course they do.
• 1:05:21
  So when you saw that video for the first time, did you think
• 1:05:24
  angels? No, I didn't.
• 1:05:26
  Oh, you didn't? I didn't think angels, no I.
• 1:05:29
  What do you think, aliens? It could I OK, totally putting
• 1:05:35
  putting me on the spot and I kind of love it.
• 1:05:37
  I sort of love it. OK.
• 1:05:39
  So you think there could be some material explanation that we
• 1:05:42
  just don't understand. It could be some trick of the
• 1:05:44
  eye that we don't understand. It could be an alien.
• 1:05:47
  It could be something that is supernatural, that is could be
• 1:05:51
  diabolical or angelic. There are all of these
• 1:05:53
  possibilities and I just reserve judgement when I see something
• 1:05:57
  like that. How can I possibly know what is
• 1:06:00
  the true explanation or description of what I'm seeing
• 1:06:03
  in that video? Do you think though, there are
• 1:06:06
  angels or demons that might hang out and make some sort of
• 1:06:10
  appearance around a Navy pilot flying there?
• 1:06:13
  They can do that. Their jet.
• 1:06:15
  They can do that, certainly. I mean, the angels have the
• 1:06:17
  power and the demons do too to affect those kind of visual,
• 1:06:22
  visual, I don't want to say tricks because they could even
• 1:06:26
  that could even be a real object and the angels and the demons
• 1:06:29
  could make that happen. But it also might be an alien.
• 1:06:33
  But it also might be an alien and what?
• 1:06:35
  So then you have to say what? What are aliens?
• 1:06:37
  Are aliens, angels or demons? So that might be a question for
• 1:06:41
  our friends over at Catholic Answers.
• 1:06:42
  That might be a fun podcast. We might.
• 1:06:45
  Do a lot of research. We.
• 1:06:46
  Might do that Father Father Ambrose Workin folks find the
• 1:06:51
  prayer the novena before Michael must and share more about how
• 1:06:55
  people can find more of the work of the Abbey.
• 1:06:57
  OK, so the Abbey has a lot of social media presence on
• 1:07:01
  Instagram, St. Michael's Abbey on it's.
• 1:07:04
  A great follow I love your Instagram it's so great.
• 1:07:06
  St. Michael's Abbey on Instagram.
• 1:07:07
  We'll we'll post the link in. YouTube is growing pretty
• 1:07:10
  quickly as well. I think we're still probably on
• 1:07:12
  Facebook. We have a Twitter account or X,
• 1:07:15
  but it's pretty small because we don't lean into it.
• 1:07:17
  So the all the usual social media places, we have a virtual
• 1:07:20
  monastic experience called the Abbott Circle and that's where
• 1:07:23
  we are going to host the Novena for for Saint Michael the
• 1:07:27
  Nickel, Miss Novena at the end of September.
• 1:07:30
  And we'll have that posted on all the social media too, as
• 1:07:33
  that's coming out. But folks can follow that.
• 1:07:35
  I'm sure the link to this video as well.
• 1:07:38
  And just keep keep an eye on what's happening at the Abbey.
• 1:07:41
  We're going to have also a series on politics, 5 Things
• 1:07:44
  Every Catholic Should know, politics edition.
• 1:07:47
  So maybe we can talk more about that at some point ahead of the
• 1:07:50
  election. And yeah, just keep an eye on
• 1:07:53
  what's happening. Well, you're a regular well
• 1:07:54
  loved on the show, so we look forward to having you back again
• 1:07:57
  soon. And it's my honor.
• 1:07:58
  Thank you for taking the time, Father, and.
• 1:07:59
  God bless you and God bless everybody watching and
• 1:08:01
  listening. Thank you.
• 1:08:02
  Amen. Do you want to say prayer for
• 1:08:03
  our audience to close this house?
• 1:08:04
  Let's do it in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy
• 1:08:06
  Spirit. Amen.
• 1:08:08
  Heavenly Father, thank you for all of the ways that you bless
• 1:08:10
  us with gifts of nature and of grace, especially with the
• 1:08:16
  gospel of salvation and the incarnation of your Son, our
• 1:08:20
  Lord Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit that is His
• 1:08:23
  Spirit who helps to inspire us and direct us to all that is
• 1:08:28
  good and all that is true. So I ask that all of us here and
• 1:08:34
  all of us who are watching and listening will have an abundant
• 1:08:38
  outpouring of that same Holy Spirit so that we too can be
• 1:08:42
  instruments in your almighty hands through the through the
• 1:08:45
  intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, through the power
• 1:08:48
  and intercession of all of the angels who surround us and pray
• 1:08:51
  for us and pray to God on our behalf.
• 1:08:55
  And I ask Almighty God to bless all of these good people and
• 1:09:00
  then with the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
• 1:09:02
  Amen. Thank you, Father.
• 1:09:04
  You're welcome. Thanks, Lila.
• 1:09:05
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• 1:09:06
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• 1:09:12
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• 1:09:15
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