Transcription
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let's just take a couple of minutes to quieten ourselves down. It's been a bit hectic for me. So just let all our thoughts, concerns, worries, whatever is going on our mind just to let it quietly die down as Jesus tells Louisa to make ourselves return to nothing. So that by emptying ourselves we can take up everything a new from God and we ask God to bless this time together. We fuse ourselves into his will. what he has planned to say, what he has planned for you to listen to and to pray for the coming of the kingdom in our hearts and in the world.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Mary, seat of wisdom and queen of the divine will, pray for us.
St. Joseph, guardian of the divine will, pray for us.
St. Hannibal, pray for us.
And little daughter Louisa, pray for us.
Good. So, we've been continuing our talks. We've been looking at the cross. We've been looking at how to organize our lives well so that we make sure the priorities are addressed and that we have a discipline in our approach so that the most important things are put there first. And we mentioned how really the central point of these few weeks is that we have to remember it is the cross that brings the grace. So in theory we understand that but in practice it's so important. What that means is whenever God sends us sufferings, difficulties, discon lack of consolation, discouragement, all these different movements, he's using them that through that grace, our will is going to be put to death. So that in those moments by abandoning ourselves, making an act of abandonment to Jesus, we gain great grace and great purification. And the soul that can continue those things with the faithfulness will make great strides.
Now one of the things I was going to mention because it struck me in this week's it came up I think in the office of readings we had a quote from Philippians chapter 4 and St. Paul says something very interesting. He says he's talking about the gifts they have been sending him and the concern of the Philippians for St. Paul and he has been telling them to always rejoice. You remember that famous phrase that comes up in Advent. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer, petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So he's telling us then in all situations be joyful. Let nothing get us down.
So on the feast of St. Francis. I was on a little pilgrimage to Spalding which is the immaculate conception and St. Norbert which is our Jubilee church and the priest father George Woodall was preaching a little and you mentioned St. Francis and how the Franciscans really take this to heart so that whenever anything seems to go against what they would desire, they truly rejoice. they truly feel blessed. But St. Paul goes on to give us an example of how that comes about. How does it be able then to rejoice in all situations in verse 10, same chapter, chapter 4 of the Philippians, I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you are concerned, but you had no opportunity to show. I am not saying this because I am in need. This is the important bit. For I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.
So St. Paul is saying now first of all notice that it was a learning process that St. Paul had to learn this. It's not something that was just given to him. But if you know from his other letters, he had many, many different circumstances. Shipwrecks, floggings, hunger, danger here, danger there. But he obviously from this also had situations where things were more plentiful. Sometimes he was wellfed, sometimes he wasn't. But he says, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation." So this is vital for us and this is perhaps where although we might not think about it is the cross can really be beneficial. St. Ignatius takes this up as a major theme. He calls it holy indifference. Holy indifference meaning that we should not and I think these are the examples St. Ignatius gives in his treat. We shall not be worried if we are healthy or unhealthy, whether we're rich or whether we're poor. Why? Because we know and they knew that this is the way God's will works in us. He's going to give us different, if we use the um language of St. Theresa, different winds will blow upon us. One moment it may be the wind of joy, plenty. The next time it might be a wind of lack, of want, of suffering. But the Christian and especially those desiring to pursue and to live in the divine will must see this as the golden opportunity to embrace the will of God. To precisely see that God's will is constantly how I've forgotten how Jesus himself puts it. It's a constant dance with us, a constant movement. And he does this so that we learn from moment to moment to depend upon him.
You see, if you think about it, if you observe and if we remember our own childhood at Christmas, if you remember when you're children and you received the gifts, everything seems so great. You're so happy. You've unwrapped the presents. And within a relatively short space of time, depending on how good the present was, you eventually tire. There is a natural thing in us that cannot keep a fullblown joy and interest in most things. So then we experience a disconolation. We feel a bit little bit as if the wind has gone out of us. But that is simply God. Yeah, we could use the word playing. He is a game. Jesus is a game. It's a a game of hide and seek where one moment he's visible and he's there and the next moment he seems to be distant. But in all those things we need to concentrate and learn this abandonment so that whatever circumstance we find ourselves in we recognize as an opportunity. So in that way we know and we understand why people say to us have a good day or we tend to say oh it's a great day but in one sense every day is a great day you know every day is a good day because during that day God has got his own particular plan mapped out for us our own journey journey.
Good. So, I thought that was a little introduction there to the cross is to recognize to that through the cross it will give us the grace to develop. Remember, it's a grace. We have to pray for holy indifference because it doesn't come natural to us. So I now want to move on to the 23rd of July 1923 volume 16.
23rd of July 1923 volume 16. So Louisa starts, I was abandoning all of myself in the holy divine will, according to my usual way, and my sweet Jesus made himself seen, coming toward me in order to receive me in his most holy will. And he told me, "My daughter, my will is in continuous encounter with the will of the creature. Human will encounters mine. It receives the light, the sanctity, the strength which my will contains. My will is in continuous act of giving itself to the creature in order to give her the life of heaven in advance. If she receives me, she remains with this celestial light. But if in every act she does she does not receive this supreme valition which is all intent for her good on making her happy, strong, holy divine and as though transformed into a dawn of celestial light. She remains with a human will alone which renders her weak, miserable, muddy and surrounds her with passions so vile as to move her to pity."
Now we started this can't remember it was last week or the week before but what I want to concentrate on here is I kind of did a little well let's call it experiment. Okay, there is a lot in this that is repeated very regularly in the volumes. I mean almost I haven't read all the volumes but almost many of the entries contain this theme in a in a particular way of teaching or particular guise. What is Jesus saying here? Let's take it first of all from our perspective. Let's take the situation. You can think of an individual one for yourselves. Imagine we have a difficulty. Okay. Um let's say it's a poor doctor's report that we've received. But you can put anything you like there. Or it could be a temptation that we're prone to. Something that keeps tempting us and we begin to be a bit discouraged. Or it could be a meeting, a speech, a talk you have to give or advice you ask for. It could be simply that you're delayed. Your train is late. It's going to be another hour and a half. We often think about these challenges in summoning up our strength. Okay? We are going to address this issue. We're going to work at it. and we're going to ask God for help. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. That's a a good response to a situation to say, "Right, I'm going to tackle this. I'm going to work at it. I'm going to ask for God's help." But Jesus is saying what we have to recognize in all and every situation that the very strength and power that will come to us is from the interaction of his will with ours. Now this is very important. So I'm trying to think of a good I haven't prepared it so I haven't come up with a good illustrated example of this but what Jesus is saying is that at every moment we have available to us the light as he says the strength the sanctity of his will. It's there in the very situation. In other words, the very situation contains the means for the solution.
We can therefore also understand in this sense the well-known saying that God never tempts us beyond our power. Yet how often do we doubt that? How often do we fall, not make a success, fail, and we kind of subconsciously judge God. You know, God, if you'd really been there, if you'd listened to my prayers, this wouldn't have happened. This is particularly vivid to me this week because on a couple of occasions I had people saying this very thing that they were getting frustrated with God, annoyed, they were feeling powerless because God did not seem to be answering their prayers. They prayed. They prayed. They prayed and they said to me, "Well, God just is not paying any attention to me. Where is he?" And of course, on one level, the answer we explain to people is that God always listens to our prayers, but he knows what is best for us. But Jesus is saying something deeper than that here. He is saying you no longer need to worry if you are seeking to live in my will. You simply have to abandon yourself to it. You have to allow this encounter to take place and you will have the strength and the power.
So when I say I was doing a little experiment, I was observing my life and how things worked out and comparing it to the past and was beginning to realize the reason we doubt this or the reason it doesn't seem to happen is that we don't actually have faith in what Jesus is saying. Now that might seem a bit of a shot, but if you think about it, there is a truth there. In other words, we can say it in our mind. Okay, the divine will there, God's strength is there, but underneath it all, we're a bit skeptical. Is he really going to help me? Is the strength really there? And we're surprised then when we fall, take the gospel example of St. Peter. If you remember, by the way, the episode of the chosen, it's a fantastic episode on on that. I can't I think it's I think it's season 3, episode 8, but someone in the chat might be able to locate that. They do that brilliantly. absolutely brilliantly. Um, so what happens there is Jesus is coming, if you remember, across the water and he's on the waves and the storm is loose. And remember, you have to remember that the storm both here and in the par in the similar episode when Jesus is asleep in the boat, the storm the the Greek is not simply a physical storm. In other words, the apostles are encountering something which is shaking their very being. Especially in the episode when Jesus is asleep in the boat, there's the clear sense that this is a monumental cataclysmic spiritual as well as natural storm. So St. Peter says to Jesus, you know, Lord, as of you, ask, you know, ask, bid me to come to you. And we've got to give Peter great credit. He stepped out of the boat. Now, we know the story so well that we often don't pause to think and to really play that through our mind. Peter stepped out of the boat into this raging storm and wind and waves. Now obviously that is a grace from God and Peter responds to it and all is going well until he looks at the waves and the wind and it is as that moment it is at that moment that he begins to sing. He's taken his eyes off Christ and consequently his fear, anxiety, worry returns and he begins to sink and of course Jesus stretches out his hand and pulls him up. So in the storms in our lives, we've got to bear that in mind that the sinking starts at the moment when we begin to doubt. When we begin to look at the situation and think to ourselves either on the surface or deeper down, Jesus can't handle this. and you can't handle it because I know I'm weak and it's going to try my strength too much. But in those very situations, it's going into that, pushing through it and recognizing no all that is happening to me is the divine when encountering mine. I simply have to make that. I simply have to receive it and see and trust that it contains all the good, the light and the strength in it.
And we can apply this to difficult situations, all those things. But we can actually apply it to every situation that we're in because Jesus is stressing to Louisa, it my will is in continuous encounter. There's no gap. There's no pause. There's no moment when we're left by ourselves to struggle along. And the key he tells Louisa, my will is a continuous act of giving itself to the creature in order to give her the life of heaven in advance. So that's pretty interesting that by this continuing giving of the divine will constantly in encountering ours it's there that we receive the life of heaven in advance but Jesus then gives the condition if she receives me if she receives me she remains with this celestial life. So there is an emphasis Jesus saying here is that it's really due to receiving me. If we receive Jesus in a holy manner in humility, we cannot be snatched out of the life of heaven.
Now, I'm not sure whether I'm going to get it on tonight, but I'm listened to a fascinating talk that Francis I forget. I think it's Chuan gave to the Northampton group about James who is a stigmatist in Samoa and who was taken up to heaven and was taken through the nine choirs that come up in um volume 23, February 28th, 1928. Um, what I'm not going to go through that in detail. I'll do that another time. But what came through this kind of testimony was that if you are doing this, if you are constantly receiving Jesus in these situations in the constant encounter, even though you are not feeling it, you are living the celestial life. So what was interesting is this stigmatist James on Good Friday, Jesus took him up to heaven and showed him through the nine choirs that are for those living in the divine will. And he saw in different choirs people who were still alive. Now remember what I'm telling you is um sound in the sense honestly handed over but I'm making no judgment of um obviously until eventually a bishop makes a judgment of it but it rings true to me that he is seeing people in the different choirs and they are still alive. So what we can deduce from this is that Jesus was showing James that if you're living in the divine will, you are already living a celestial life.
Now some of you may be listening going, "Father, that's great, but why on earth don't I feel that? Why doesn't it do some good to me? Why don't I get something out of this? Well, immediately the way we phrase those questions, we're missing the whole point of living in the divine will. Living in the divine will is not something that is primarily about our consolation. It's primarily about giving the glory back to God, consoling the heart of Jesus, and then the peace and the joy will come most assuredly from that. So the first thing I guess as an aside, a little point as an aside is do not, and we've said this before, but it it always is worth repeating, follow the divine will for its own sake, and peace and joy will come. But try not to do it because you want joy and peace. And it's easy for us in fallen human nature to fall into that. It's very easy. We slip back and forwards just like that.
The second thing that I think is very important this and it's interesting me for a long long long time is we do not know what's going on in our soul. You see, we just often think, well, I'm body and soul, so I have my own soul. It has the faculties I use, the powers. Well, surely I know it. But the answer is no, we don't. Mysterious things are constantly happening all the time in our soul without us being aware of it in the least. Take Friday for example. We had confirmations with our bishop here and the candidates came up and they received the laying on of hands and then they received the anointing with crism. Now what would have been going on in their soul would have been quite incredible if we could see it. And it happens because as we know the sacraments work exoper operat by the very working they take place but because the soul or because we're not so aligned with our soul that we see the results that should not stop us. We should not doubt that that's happening. So we in a state of grace endeavoring to live in the divine will doing our acts encountering the will in our life. Our life of heaven has already started here on earth. Our life is already started here on earth. And Francis pointed out which has been pointed out by also by other commentators. There's really only two differences. You may say, "Right, father, we're living already our life in heaven above. What then is the difference?" The first as we know from theology is that only in the next world only when we die can we receive the beatotific vision. So we cannot receive the botific vision here on earth. That's not possible um because it would kill us for a start. So the beatotific vision is reserved to heaven when we will have the veil taken away and we will see God as he truly is. The second difference, of course, is that here on Earth, even though we're living our celestial life, we are still subject to sufferings, pains, weaknesses, ill health, and so on, which will not of course be present in heaven. But do you know what? We should actually give thanks for that. We should actually thank God for that. Why would we thank God that whilst living the heavenly life on earth we still experience suffering and pains because only on this earth can we make perfect reparation to the sacred heart. Only on this earth can the gift of the divine will operate in making reparation. So that this limited time on earth is a blessing because through the pains and sufferings God sends us if we unite ourselves to them not only as saints and a people did in the past but now we join ourselves to them in act in act with Jesus's suffering. Not just contemplating, not just consoling, but in the very act, we are making reparation. And we are creating light, we are creating sons, universes, and we've just had the feast of the angels and the guardian angels. Those divine acts so meritorious and pleasing to God in the divine will are being taken up into heaven. Obviously, it's difficult to just be calm in the midst of suffering. But this then has to become a internal habit of ours so strong that it kicks in automatically. It's an automatic reflex. And this is why not just in the theology or not just in the study of the divine will but even in the natural order of things. We have to learn to always look deeper into things. We have to train our mind to be always aware that things are much deeper than they are on the surface and that they have repercussions throughout the universe and throughout time.
It's amazing. If she receives me, she remains with this celestial light life. But if in it, but if in every act she does, she does not receive this supreme valition. Remember what we said last week or what was um I can't remember who put it. Remember volition is the playing out in practice in the very concrete present moment of the divine will which is all intent for her good on making her happy strong holy divine and as though transformed into a dawn. She remains with her human will alone which renders her weak, miserable and muddy and surrounds her with passion so violence to move to pity. So we can also use this then and turn this around that if we are experiencing our lives what Jesus is saying if we're feeling weak miserable muddy full of vile passions then we got to say oh boy I've forgotten the principle here I've left the divine will I've left it. I've separated from it. Even though it's in contact, I have separated myself. I've not received it. And therefore, I'm left to my human will itself, which as Mary says in the retreat in the kingdom of heaven is the source of all wills.
So going on a bit further, don't you see how many souls drag themselves because of their weakness in being a unable to conquer themselves to do good. Others who are unable to dominate themselves. Others in constant light reads in the wind. Others unable to pray without a thousand distractions. Others always discontent. and others who seem to be born to do evil. These are all souls who do not encounter my will in all their things. Yet my will is for all, but since they run away from it, they do not receive the good which my will contains. This is a just pain for those who want to live involving themselves in all their miseries. So again, you can see this um if you watch a young child having a tantrum, it's very interesting to observe the stages of a child having a tantrum. It gets frustrated. It does not get its way. Its will is thoughted. Let's say as you see now unfortunately so often a young child in the supermarket who pulls the bag of sweets or something from the shelf m you know I want and the mom puts it back and the child snatches it starts to shout and then melts down completely. We've all seen that. We probably all done it when we were younger. That's what Jesus, that's an illustration of what he's saying here. That when we we leave ourselves to our will alone. That's how we are. We end up being and having a tantrum, even though we're grown up and we don't call it a tantrum because people don't see us um smashing things and shouting and melting down. We do it internally. And Jesus is saying this is a just pain. In other words, this is a pain that comes from his justice. Because when we separate ourselves from his will, the end result will be this just result. Movakus said almost that we could imagine the pains of let us say purgatory or hell being left with our own thoughts. In other words, there's a bit of an insight there. Imagine purgatory as being a constant internal tantrum of oneself that one can't get rid of.
However, this will of mind which they do not want to encounter during their life to receive as many goods as for as many times as they would meet it. They will encounter it at their death. Receiving as many pains for as many times as they escaped it because by escaping it they have become guilty, stained and covered with mud. So it is right that they receive a pain and as many painful encounters form for them for as many times as they did not encounter my will upon earth. But these painful encounters will be without merits, without new gains, as it would have happened had they encountered it during their life. Oh, how many moans of sorrows come from the prisons of purgatory? How many shouts of desperation can be heard from hell because my will was not encountered upon earth. Therefore, my daughter, may your first act be to encounter my will. May your first thought and heartbeat to encounter the eternal heartbeat of my will that you may receive all my love. try to make continuous encounters in everything that you may be transformed in my will and I in yours in order to dispose you to make the last encounter with my will at your last hour. In this way, you will have no painful encounters after your death.
Now, it's pretty somber in some ways that passage, but it makes absolute sense and also gives us how in God there is this balance and interaction between his justice and his mercy. If I kind of try and put that paragraph, those couple of paragraphs in a very straightforward manner, it would be it would go a bit like this. I've come I'm your God. I'm your father. I've come to give you all these incredible gifts. and I've come to give you all the light and the strength and the joy that my will contains. And all you have to do is recognize that great good. Recognize that I am God and worthy of everything and open yourself and meet me. Therefore, if that does not happen, Jesus is saying, if we do not encounter the will, then we are going to through our own decision separate ourselves from those very gifts. It cannot but be the case. It cannot be but be the case.
So the good news though and remember today is the feast day of St. Faina. The good news is that God in his mercy enables us always not only to re-encounter his will. But so desperate is he for us to once more enter into it that he wipes away all those times when we avoid in meeting his will. This is clear in the first appeal of the three appeals that Jesus says, "I will forget all the things you did wrong, all your sins and everything and immerse them in the sea of my will. And I desire more than you desire to receive it to give you once more the gift I'm going to take a pause there. It's about 10 minutes. See if there's any questions going on in the chat. Good. Rowena's answered that question. Good. Good. Everyone's got the relevant um volumes of the diary. Is Jillian there? Mark and Jillian, are you there?
>> Yeah, we're here, father.
>> Good evening.
>> Hi.
>> Evening. I'm going to put you on the spot, though. Jillian, would you share with the group because I've talked a little bit about living this celestial life. Would you, if you feel comfortable, narrate that experience again that you had with the man, the poor man on the street?
>> Okay. Yeah. Okay. Father Dominic, so what happened then? Um on Wednesday evening, Mark and myself were in the town center and there was this chap who was just on the corner and he was he couldn't really talk wasn't stuttering or stam was very nervous and um he couldn't really speak very well and um he just said, "Can you help me? I'm very sorry, but he he wasn't really speaking very well." Um, so, um, we worked out what he was saying and we said, um, so I started asking questions and then I felt really drawn to him. So I said to him like, you know, you shouldn't be here. You know, God loves you. And he looked at my cross and he says, "Oh, that's so beautiful. It's my crucifix." And so, um, I said, and Mark pointed, "Yes, that's Jesus on the cross." And I said to him, "Are you a Catholic?" He said, "Yes, I am." He kept calling me miss. He says, "Yes, I am miss. I am." And he was from Corby, the next couple of towns away, and he went to a Catholic school. So, um, we just spoke to him a little bit more. And then he just said, "Oh, there's this light. There's this light." He changed. He said, "There's this light coming from you, and I've got this this this heat, this warmth that's coming into me." I did tell him about my testimony that um of my healing and um he just experienced I didn't see anything not in Mark and I didn't really think of it at the time but he he said there was a light that was coming from us and he was holding his heart at that time and he his he changed his demeanor changed his voice changed his persona changed he wasn't this fumbling he must have been about we told he was 40 he was 43 I think he was this fumbling man. Um, that was nothing, you know, he was nothing. And he was just completely wrecked. And he'd actually come out of prison and um he was he was a wreck. And he changed. He completely changed to a different persona, different person. He saw this light. He had this warmth that was coming from us. He said, and he asked where where we went to church and that he would like to come. And we we explained to where he was. and um he was just a different person and um we just spoke to him about our lady who was wearing a miraculous medal and he said that he would start praying and change his life and so that was an amazing en encounter but I didn't really register it until Francis was speaking and I thought oh that's what happened to us so yeah it was um quite a transformation really.
Thanks Jillian. And also bear in mind that that testimony we can in the divine will that fellow that received and saw that light in the divine will that divine act is having that impact on all of creation. In other words, Jama the concrete situation was the man in front of them. But that in the divine will that is being given that opportunity of receiving that light is being given throughout creation and throughout time. Now he had the grace to respond. You know, this is what's interesting in this encounter we've been talking about there. He is encountering God's will through Jillian and Mark in operation and grace moved him a bit like the good thief to recognize that. So there was a response on his part and what I think is also good is that it shows us that the encountering response doesn't when can be very simple. So an encounter the divine will is it's as simple as as that as as described there. It's all around us. It's all there. And those kind of testimonies are really important because they remind us then that when we're doing our divine will acts, this is the effect it's having. They were given the consolation of seeing it in action and often we don't see that. We don't get that reply often, but it is happening nevertheless. And these are far greater miracles than anything you could do raising someone from the dead. You know, if Jillian and Mark had come across somebody dead on the street and they brought him back to life, there'd be a huge uproar, you know. But Jesus says Mary never did any public miracles. She didn't raise anybody from the dead. But the true miracle of the impact of divine will acts on people is is just so huge. You know, it's just so huge because that one particular example is now being multiplied, multiplied, impacting all of creation. Thanks, Jillian.
Question from Rowena. So, once living in the divine will, shouldn't we still go back and redo our acts in the past that was not done in the divine will? Yes, that that's a paradox, not a contradiction. And it's a bit like confession. When confession forgives our sins, we still have to make up for that. So when Jesus says, "I desire to give you the gift again and I will bury your sins in the sea of my love," he does that. But of course, yes, it is still then good to go back over those sins and to redo our acts. They go together. Just as in confession, the forgiveness of the sins and the penance given enables the um restoration um of what was lacking.
Good. Well, I finished three minutes early because those questions have got me over the line or nearly over the line because I think Yeah. So if people do have testimonies, when we started off, when the group was a bit smaller, it tended to be something we shared more. But it's so important because testimonies like that really bring us back to, oh yeah, this is real. This is going on. This is happening. And so when it because we're poor, weak human creatures, we often get an encouragement from hearing testimonies and it reminds us, oh yeah, most of my life may be fairly ordinary, but it's not. It's not ordinary. All these things are going on at the same time. Good. So that testimony that the chat that Jillian is referring to and I've referred to Francis Chuan's um testimony I think once Jillian's asked Francis I will post the link to the group.
>> Oh I have asked him father he's more than happy.
>> Okay so I will post that link.
>> Thank you
Pat. you got a question or is that just a stop sign saying don't talk any further?
>> Uh no actually it was just um good evening. Thank you for your um wonderful talk and explanation. It's the first time I've come on this group. So um
>> Oh welcome, welcome.
>> Thank thank you. Um I was uh in Vigurier and I met Louanne and she told me the link. So thank you Lorianne. Um um I just came home from Medigur last night and I don't know whether this is a testimony but this is just something that I want I thought I could share when we metura um Father Leon at the beginning of one of the masses he's the one that he's he organizes the English pilgrims uh he said what would you do if you you knew you only had one hour before you're going to die and he told us a story about um I don't know young lad who was playing football um whatever and he he just said well I would carry on playing football um and so he got us all thinking what would we do and I thought oh well I'd go to confession you know we didn't we didn't have cons we didn't have a conversation because it was holy mass um and then he said well he said he said you should live every moment every day is if you you know every moment is if you are going to die um so but if you you're ready for death then um you don't you wouldn't have to do anything. Anyway, it got me thinking and then on the flight last night home, it was a very very very turbulent flight with with an awful lot of wind and the plane was going all over the place and I was as calm as anything. I said to the Lord, Lord, if this plane crashes and if I die, um, then thy will be done. You know, I was I was so peaceful. I I was thinking about what Father Leon said. What would you do if you're going to die the next hour? Well, I I sat in that plane. I thought, Lord, I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to sit here and accept whatever happens. And normally I'll get, you know, we get a little bit, you know, a bit anxious cuz this plane really was um going all over the place, but I didn't. I just felt I felt like I was in a I was in a bubble of peace and I didn't even think about the kids or anything. And I I just thought, "No, Lord." You know, if this if this is going to happen, it'll happen. And I was just peaceful. So I don't know. Uh that that's all. Nothing to totally dramatic but that was that was >> something to share.
No, that that's that's great because that piece and and Francis gives the the example that I think I know Derek and I shared a bit, you know, that he was saying when lockdown happened and everyone was kind of going on about, oh, this is happening and this is doing this and the mass has stopped and there's disqu and upset and France was just saying no, he was just totally peaceful um because you know if you're living in the divine will she was saying you're having a constant communion with God. Um and I I had that similar experience not probably as deep as his but I had that similar experience of not really being bothered by it. Um, you know, in fact, in many ways, it it it gave me personally a period of peace that you don't normally get often as a priest. Obviously, you're concerned about your parishioners. You're concerned about anointing people, but the whole thing didn't didn't bother me at all. Um, and so on so forth. Good. Thanks everyone. We are going to thanks for both Pat and Jillian. I haven't done it for a while, but Derek's right. We should do the prayer for the beatatification of the servant of God. I'm just looking it up. Oh most holy trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ taught us that as we pray, we should ask that our father's name be always glorified so that his will be done on earth and that his kingdom should come to reign among us. In our great desire to make known this kingdom of love, justice, and peace, we humbly ask that you glorify your servant Louisa, the little daughter of the divine will, who with her constant prayer and suffering deeply learned yearned for the salvation of souls and the coming of God's kingdom in the world. Following her example, we pray to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to help us joyfully embrace the crosses of this world, so we may also glorify your name and into and enter into the kingdom of your will. Amen.
>> Amen.
>> And may the Lord grant us a quiet night and a peaceful end. And may his blessing come upon you all gathered here. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
>> Amen.
>> Amen. Thank you so much, Father.