Transcription
Thanks for tuning in to Everything Catholic. Thanks so much for taking a little bit of your time to be here again. And I hope you are going to learn so much from these clips of Father Iani. Just letting you know in advance though, you might want to listen to these clips a couple of times to really catch everything.
>> A spiritual interior assimilation with Christ's interior, in particular, his interior sorrows. What are they? Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ sweat blood? Well, that's an example of one interior sorrow. He was aware of the souls who would, despite his work of redemption, be lost. That caused him tremendous interior sorrow. Now, when we see people sinning or speaking or acting in an immoral way, it too should cause us interior sorrow. Well, that is what Christ reproduces in the souls who seek to live in his will. They experience something of the pains that Christ experienced when he was aware of the sin of mankind. And it doesn't take long for us to find occasions of people sinning. All you have to do is turn on the TV. All you have to do is look at the magazines or listen to the media. And there's more than enough to go around there to be identified with Jesus in to offer reparation, satisfaction, and identify with his sorrows. And the purpose of identifying with Jesus' interior sorrows, even when in heaven he can experience the sorrow, is to offer reparation and satisfaction which is intensely pleasing to the Father, to Jesus, and to the Holy Spirit, and influences positively all of heaven, the angels and saints included. Okay.
>> And for the next clip, it's going to be on redemption and salvation. Listen to this. Jesus wanted Judas to be saved. Jesus wants all to be saved. He redeemed not most of mankind. He redeemed all mankind. But not all choose to be saved. There's a difference, therefore, between redemption and sanctification and salvation. So in the fiat of redemption, Jesus redeemed the entire human race. That is from Adam to the last human that will be conceived. That's redemption. That means he gave us the grace to do all of our thoughts, words, and actions without sin. From the moment we're conceived, we're given this treasure trove of grace purchased by the blood of Christ. We can ignore that, discard it, abuse it, not use it. But that free choice of availing or not ourselves of this treasure trove of grace purchased by the blood of Christ, which is the fiat of redemption, is up to our free will. Judas chose not to use that. You see, he used it in part, but in the end, he failed to, and that cost him. So this does not indicate that Christ did not reorder all of mankind's interior simply because Judas was lost or others are lost. Now, why do I say Judas was lost when the church does not teach that? In the writings of the mystics that bear the church's seals of approval, namely the nihil obstat and imprimatur, is the consistent teaching of the mystics, except one or two, and they are vague on this area, that Judas was lost. Now, let's suppose that that's debatable. The court is out, the jury is out on that. All right. Consider that others were lost by virtue of the vision of Fatima, where the Blessed Mother opened the earth and showed to the little shepherd children, Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucia, hell, and they described it as such. They said there was fire, and there were humans walking through the fire, and once they passed through this fire, they were transformed into hideous, ugly beasts. That represents the state of their soul, which is eternal despair, eternal hopelessness, eternal fire. Or consider the writings of the mystic St. Faustina Kowalska, also approved by Cardinal Wojtyla, who would become Pope John Paul II, and bear the church's present-day imprimatur seals of approval. In these writings, approved by the church, Faustina describes souls in hell she knew while on earth. She was taken to hell and describes nine torments of the damned that do not ever cease. And she said that what surprised her most of her visit to hell with Jesus, who wanted to show her the importance of her redemptive sacrifices so that she could save souls from going to hell, what surprised her the most was that most souls in hell did not believe hell existed. These are her words. Okay. So just because a soul goes to hell does not mean that Jesus did not reorder that person's soul, their interior. He did. But during their lifetime, after they were conceived and given this treasure trove of redemptive grace, whereby they could with their goodwill do all their thoughts, words, and actions without sinning under the action of God's grace, they chose instead to abuse or not use that treasure trove of redemptive grace. You see, when we therefore do our acts in the divine will, we are reordering with Christ man's interior as well. What I'm saying is not that we are doing what Christ did not do, for what Christ did is done for all time. What we are doing is adding, as Augustine calls it, grace upon grace. Yes, Christ already did the work of redemption. We're not redoing it. What we are is we are carrying out our work in the work of Christ's redemption. Analogously, consider to better explain this point, a mother who goes and or a father, parents, let's say, let's say they go to the village and purchase a house in a rural area, and they want to create a walkway from the house to the pond in the backyard where they own, but it's full of thistles and briars and weeds, and they want to get rid of these things so that the pathway is smooth and no one gets cut or hurt along the way from the pond to the house, and or vice versa. Okay. The parents, with gardening tools, clear the way, but of course, weeds and briers and thistles, being what they are, grow back. So the children continue to walk up and down the path, and by their treading upon it, keep it flat without having to cut it over again. Just the constant traffic on that path keeps it down. Well, similarly, Christ analogously cut down all the weeds and briars and thorns in our life in such a way that we could go through it without ever being cut, provided we follow that path he prepared for us. And in walking up and down that path, you see that path that Christ prepared for us, we keep these thorns and briars and thistles at bay. We don't have to be worried about the wolves in this world that we will be encountering. We don't have to worry about these things, though they exist. You see, so by our treading the path Christ already prepared for us, we are fulfilling our work in the role of redemption that he purchased for us. So we are not redoing Christ's work. We are doing our work in his role in the work that he prepared for us. In this sense, we are co-redeemers with Christ. So in his redemptive passion, Christ assumed all acts to make reparation to the Father for sins and offer satisfaction for them, as well as to sanctify them. He formed the life of his passion in Mary, and he wants to do the same in us. Why? For the purpose of mediating divine mercy and satisfying the divine justice on behalf of mankind. Jesus reordered man's interior by forming within his humanity the life of his passion. In this fiat of redemption, Jesus exemplified his love for mankind through his redemptive passion that he assumed in order to assume all human acts in the order of grace to sanctify them. So by redeeming mankind in his fiat of redemption, Jesus reordered man's interior, thought by thought, step by step, breath by breath, desire by desire, and so forth.
>> And it's always a good idea to remind everyone listening, myself included, when it comes to receiving the sacraments. This particular reminder from Father Ianuzi:
>> Fruitful reception of the sacraments depends upon the recipient's disposition. This is known in Latin as *ex opere operantis*. That is, the work wrought by the priest in administering the sacrament. In the case of baptism, it could be a lay minister. In the case of marriage, at all, it could be a lay minister. But nonetheless, when the sacrament is administered by the individual and given to the participant, the communion received by the communicant, the fruit, the graces that come from that sacrament of the Eucharist are dependent upon the recipient's disposition, the communicant's disposition, the participant's disposition. You see, so if I go to the sacrament of the Eucharist in the state of grave sin, I receive no grace, even though it contains all grace. How is that possible? Consider the following example. Let us suppose that I approach, oh, let me take a sponge and a rock. Let us suppose that I pour water upon a sponge and upon a rock. Well, the rock absorbs nothing, but the sponge absorbs it all. Why? Because the rock is not predisposed, doesn't have the proper disposition to receive the water, whereas the sponge does. Similarly, the Eucharist contains all the grace, all the living water there is, and it will be poured out upon that soul. But unless the soul is a sponge, it cannot absorb the water, though the water is being poured. So if I approach the sacrament of communion in the state of grave sin, I'm similar to a rock. The water is being poured out upon me, but it's dripping over me and not penetrating me, not penetrating my soul at all. And in this sense, the cross serves a great efficacious purpose, and that is to dispose the recipient to receive the sacrament fruitfully, worthily. That's the purpose of the cross. You see, it is in this sense that the Lord says that the cross surpasses in efficacy the sacraments only in the sense that it disposes the recipient to receive them worthily.
>> For the second half of this video, I want to do a quick review together with you guys. We'll focus on these clips that really highlight the times we're living in right now. Let's start with this one. Now, many of you know who have a pulse on modern times and in the spiritual situation of the church in the world today, time is very short. We're now, in my opinion, my opinion, we're speaking of months here, not years anymore. Remember Our Lady at Garabandal. I'll refer you to four sources just to emphasize why I say what I say about time being short. First, the ecclesiastically approved prophetic revelations comparing the church's seals of approval and *imprimatur*, *nihil obstat*, of the true life in God messages of a mystic who died this past year. Um, had a message that came out July of 2024 of Jesus, and he said, "You have one to two more years before all these events will begin to happen." Now, certainly, these events depend upon our conversion or lack thereof. We cannot put them off. They're going to happen, but we can mitigate them, and we can possibly postpone them, depending upon our conversion or lack thereof. So that's one example. One to two years, that was said in July of last year. Now, Our Lady of Garabandal told the four seers that these events will happen. There would be a warning sign in the sky, and then the chastisement, and that there would be four more popes, and that after the fourth pope would be the beginning of the end of times. True life in God says the end of times will begin. These events of the end times will begin a year or two. Garabandal, four more popes, then the end times will begin. See the correlation. Now, the pope's in the hospital. We also have, um, Medjugorje. The Blessed Mother told all six seers that once they receive 10 secrets, then these end, divine, in time events will begin to happen. Six, five of them have 10 secrets. One has nine. One more secret is all that it takes for these things to begin. See the imminency here. And then NASA's coming out now. Came out a few years ago, two years ago, and said they found a comet, Apophis. Now they said they found another comet. They said it will impact the earth in 2029 on Friday the 13th. Then they took it off the website. So it probably missed the earth, but we're not certain. But now there are two comets floating around. And, uh, all these are signs that we're really at the very end of the times of mercy. Jesus told St. Faustina, "The times of mercy will come to an end and give way to my justice." That's known in theology as the, in scripture as the Day of the Lord. It's when God's wrath is manifest. And we know from approved prophetic literature what this chastisement consists of, how we are to prepare ourselves for it. And, um, this is what Lent is about. It's about how to prepare ourselves for these times. I will say, and it's again, just my theological opinion, and I hope I'm wrong. We have two more good, dependable feast days of Divine Mercy in front of us. I'm sure there may be three, four more. Who knows, maybe even 50. I'm just telling you that in my opinion, based upon what I'm seeing here and reading, is that once things get difficult, it's going to be hard to find a priest to confess to. This was told by Our Lady. She said, "When the warning happens, which is before the sign in the sky, which is before the chastisement, things will be so bad you won't be able to go to church." Now, we experienced some of that during COVID, but it's going to be a lot worse the next time. And what that next time consists of, I really don't know. But there will be a moment where we won't be able to even go to church. That's why I say take this Divine Mercy Sunday very seriously, the first Sunday after Easter. And it's, it's, it's a beautiful occasion because both East and West are celebrating the same date of Easter together, which doesn't happen very often. And therefore, there'll be also recipients of this indulgence of Divine Mercy Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter. Recipients of this indulgence of Divine Mercy Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter. And I told people in the past, there's a difference between the church's plenary indulgence during this Year of Jubilee, Year of Hope, and the Divine Mercy plenary indulgence. But the Divine Mercy feast day is different and greater than the church's plenary indulgence. Why do I say that? The church requires five things for you to obtain one plenary indulgence a day during the Jubilee Year. The Divine Mercy feast requires only two things. The Divine, the church's plenary indulgence comes from the treasure trove of the graces accumulated from the saints of the past. The Divine Mercy feast comes directly from the depths of the bosom of God's mercy, not from the treasure trove of saints. So there's a difference. And what makes it more difficult to obtain a plenary, meaning a full remission of all sin and punishment, from the church's indulgence is that you have to have a complete detachment from all sin, which is not required for the Divine Mercy plenary indulgence. And one time, I recall Padre Pio in the '50s, he was asked by a group of men who accompanied a group of people going to the portico where St. Francis of Assisi started to build the church. He took the Lord's words seriously, "Rebuild my church," literally, and then realized that's not what he meant and stopped building it and died there. So people go there every year because the church gives a plenary indulgence to those who go to the portico of Assisi on the feast of St. Francis. Okay. So thousands of souls in the '50s were going there, and when this penitent asked Padre Pio how many received a plenary indulgence, he raised his hand and showed two fingers. They were shocked. He says, "You mean everyone here didn't get a plenary?" He said, "They got an indulgence, but it wasn't complete because they did not have a complete detachment from all sin." On the Divine Mercy feast day, you don't have to have that. All you have to do is be contrite. Contrition, unlike attrition, means not only do you fear going to hell, which is attrition, but you make a resolution to prove your love for God. Judas Iscariot had attrition, not contrition. The church teaches attrition does not take away grave sin. It only takes away venial sin. The fear of hell does not take away grave sin. Contrition does. That's the love of God. How do you know you have the love of God? By making a resolution. Judas never made a resolution. So he was, um, fearing, but he never, like St. Peter said, "I'm sorry. I won't do it again."
>> And for the last clip I'm sharing with you in this video will be about when someone professes to have received messages from God, whether those messages are authentic or otherwise. Listen to this. Now, whenever someone wants to determine whether a prophetic text is real or fake, that is, if the person receiving the prophecy is authentic or bogus, they must read the entire text before they profess their pronounce their judgment. Unless someone reads the entire text, they're not in a position to pass judgment on the text. This is known in theology as the analogy of faith. That is, if I want to, let's say, pick up the writings of, I don't know, someone who's not yet approved by the church, but has a lot of followers. Let's take for example, Maria Divine Mercy. This woman who claims that Pope Francis is a fraud, he was invalidly, like, invalidly elected, and the Second Vatican Council was a fake, etc., etc. She's not called Maria of the Divine Mercy, but Maria Divine Mercy. A little lack of humility there, in my opinion, but that's just my opinion. Let's move on to the texts. When you read all of the writings and then compare them with scripture, with the writings of the Fathers, the Doctors, etc., you find that there were a lot of deliberate errors. Why do I say deliberate in this text? Because they are not contradicted in other parts of her text. Okay. Now, when someone makes a mistake who professes to have received a message from God, but contradicts that mistake elsewhere, that is evidence that that mistake was possibly unintentional. Okay. The analogy of faith means the reader, the theologian who reviews the text of the alleged prophet, must read it in its in its entirety, not just in part. Okay. Also, that person, the reader, the theologian, must take into consideration other elements of the prophet, alleged prophet. For example, their aptitude. Luisa could not, for example, have come up with this theology on her own. It's literally impossible for a person of her first-grade education, who never left Corato, to know the Eastern theology the way she did and the Western theology the way she did. Most priests don't know this theology that she knew by direct revelation from God. Some may may confess or protest and contest that it came from the devil. The devil could know these things. So maybe the devil revealed this to her. Well, that's a possibility. So we consider other elements. For example, her virtues, her frequenting the sacraments, her holiness of life. These the devil cannot infuse. The devil can never lead a person to the Eucharist. The devil can never lead a person to confession. If he did, he would be hurting and causing pain to himself, which he dislikes. It would be like throwing sand in his eyes. And then there are other elements that are reviewed. For example, soundness, mental soundness. All the confessors and doctors that reviewed and examined Luisa, her writings, and her health and her state of mind, unanimously professed that she was perfectly normal mentally, spiritually, and that the writings contained nothing contrary to the faith, at least nothing deliberately contrary. Okay. Other elements include obedience. This is among the virtues, but the church singles it out. Why? Because obedience is the hallmark of holiness. Obedience first and foremost to the will of God and to his representatives, namely the hierarchy that God has put on earth to guide the faithful. Pope Ratzinger once said in a discourse of his, as well as in a letter, that our first forum of obedience is our human conscience, and then it is to others. That's interesting. I recall the example of John Fisher, Sir Thomas More, who obeyed their conscience before others, even the Church of England, and paid for it with martyrdom. All right. Another element that must be considered when determining if this or that prophetic text is true or fake, in addition to its consistency with the teachings of scripture, in addition to mental soundness, the virtues, holiness of life, um, frequenting the sacraments, growth in the virtues, is, um, prophecies, fulfilled prophecies. Some people predict things and they don't come true, and they say, "Well, God changed his mind." That's a sign. It's not the only sign, but it's one of the signs to cause us concern. Unfulfilled prophecies. Okay? And the list goes on and on. Oh, yes, one more. Let me conclude with one more element to consider when determining the veracity of a given prophetic or alleged prophetic text is money. Whenever a prophet asks for money, it's a red flag that it's potentially a fake prophet. It's, I would put a lot in saying that it perhaps can constitute the only flag because God never takes money for his gifts. Gifts are freely given, and our service should be freely given back, freely given. Whenever I teach or preach or travel, I never ask for money, nor do I have to. God provides in his own way. And that's the way it should be. Christ received and welcomed money. That was a common purse the apostles had. St. Francis depended upon donations as well. He begged sometimes. Okay, you will say, "Well, he asked for money, didn't he?" Well, in this case, St. Francis was begging for food, not money. He was begging for sustenance, things that were essential to life: food, clothing, and shelter. Okay. So in the case of money, it's something that we, or the prophet rather, I should say, should expect God to provide for through those whom he inspires. This is known as divine providence. Okay. Now, there was a, there was a joke I'd like to share with you. There were two great saints from Turin back in the 1800s. One great saint was Don Bosco, Giovanni Bosco. By the way, Don, you know, like Don Scotus, Don Bosco, that comes from the Latin word *dominus*, which means Lord. It's a diminutive of *do* of *dominus*. And back in the day, they would greet each other as "my lord." Now today, they may say "sir." Okay. So, one great saint from Turin was Don Bosco, and the other great saint was Joseph Cottolengo. They were contemporaries and both from Turin, and they both approached the Christian pursuit of holiness in different ways. Joseph Cottolengo embraced poverty. He wanted no money at all. So much so that when people offered him money, he gave it back to them. He said, "I don't want it." Whereas Don Bosco had a different approach. He welcomed money when people gave it to him. Now, both approaches are valid in the Christian pursuit for holiness. There's no one fixed model to become holy. Did not Jesus say, "In my Father's house there are many mansions"? So there are different charisms. One person is called to live poverty like Francis or Cottolengo. Another is called to preach and teach like St. Dominic, who founded the Dominicans, or another one is founded to help the youth like the Salesians, and so on and so forth. Okay, so here's the joke. One day, somebody walked into the second floor of Joseph Cottolengo's shop where he was praying and offered him a bag filled with lire. Back then, they didn't have euros, they had lire. A bunch of dollar bills, let's say, in Italy. And he said, "This is against poverty." So he opened up the window and threw out the bag with the money in it. And lo and behold, down beneath the curb was walking Don Bosco. He looked up and said, "Divine providence." So what was against providence for Joseph Cottolengo was Don Bosco's pro-divine providence. That's a funny little joke I wanted to share. The point is this: God's gifts, like the gift of living in the divine will, are freely given, and they should be freely expressed and shared. Okay.
>> That will be all for the video this time. And as always, thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us. And hopefully, all of you have learned so much from this video. And remember, if ever you have any feedback or suggestions, please let us know in the comments below. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for your continuous support, contributions, and prayers. And until the next one, thanks again for watching, and may God bless you.