Father Larry Richards – I bought BE A MAN for Max when he began high school. He is nearly there. And now he gets SURRENDER. Do yourself a favor and get his books and CDs for the men in your life.
No Bible, no breakfast; no
Bible, no bed. Pull out your Bible – it is your instruction for life. Love one
another. You are not a disciple of Christ if you pray and fast but don’t love
one another. But love isn’t just a sweet feeling. Jesus didn’t tiptoe through
the tulips. He spoke the Truth even if people left him. Padre Pio wasn’t a nice
guy. But he loved fiercely. Enough to make you want to change your sinful ways.
The saints are people who are in love with God and their love overflows to
others.
Fr. Larry gave a beautiful
lecture on FAMILY, the place where love begins.
F is for faith and
forgiveness. Also fasting on bread and water on
Fridays for your kids, for the difficult members in your family, for your
friends, for conversion. Dads, be St. Joseph to your kids. Be a man of prayer.
Pray or be damned. Prayer is how you protect your wife and kids. When St. John
Paul II was a little boy, he walked in on his dad in the middle of the night to
find him on his knees in prayer. CS Lewis says, “we must forgive one another or
be damned.” Forgiveness is an act of the will. It’s not about feelings. On the
cross, nobody asked for forgiveness, but Jesus forgave them all anyway.
A is for affirmation. Tell every person you love that you love them. We need
it. Every day a kid dies inside because of lack of affirmation.
M is for making memories. Spend time together. Eat dinner together. Take joy
together. Family is more important than anything else. Our problems in the US
are because we let everything else take the place of family.
I is for intimacy (into me see). If people don’t have it at home, they
will seek it elsewhere.
L is for Love. Read
Ephesians. Wives are to be submissive to their husbands. She should ask: how
can I serve my husband. Husbands are to sacrifice themselves for their wives.
He should ask: how can I die for my wife. You are to be slaves to one another. He
shared a very personal story that’s in his book, so I won’t repeat it here, but
even so, I get teary-eyed thinking about it. Love – it’s powerful. Remember
love is not a feeling, but an act of the will. It is to will the good of the
other.
Y is all about you. Forget about me; it’s all about you. Remember, God
first, others second, me last.
Father Larry gave a good
lecture on confession for adults. So if you have little kids reading over your shoulder, you should probably send them off to play.
“You shall name Him Jesus
because He will save them from their sins.” ~ Matt 1:21
People are afraid to go to
confession. Don’t be. The biggest problem is that people don’t talk about
the sins of omission.
To be in a state of mortal
sin, three things have to be present: it’s a serious matter, you have full
knowledge, and you consent to the will.
The closer you are to God,
the more you realize how bad you are. All the saints believed they were
terrible because they could see even their minor imperfections.
You’re sorry because you’re
scared to go to hell. This is imperfect contrition because it has an element of
selfishness. You should be sorry because you love Jesus and hurt Him.
Final question Matt:
25:35-40. For I was hungry, and you
gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and
you took me in ... Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of
these my least brethren, you did it to me.
Pray that you might love
well.
We are saved by grace. But
we need to cooperate with God’s grace. We can’t earn salvation – that’s Pelagian
heresy – because then Jesus didn’t have to die. Neo-Pelagians think it’s 50/50.
Wrong. Jesus redeems us but we still have to cooperate.
So, the Examen.
Go through the Ten
Commandments and the Beatitudes.
1. Love
God above all things. You love
what you give your time to. Really examine whether you love God with your whole
heart.
2. Don’t
take the Name of God in vain.
All those OMGs have to go. The name of God is holy. Use it appropriately.
3. Keep holy the Sabbath. Sunday Holy Mass is an obligation. It is a mortal sin
not to hear Mass on Sunday. Yup. Serious matter. You owe this to God.
4. Honor your father and mother. Do you call them? Do you pray for them? Do you take
care of them?
5. You shall not kill another human being. Abortion is murder. Do you know whether you had a boy
or girl? Name them. Ask for forgiveness. And you don’t need to confess it over
and over because you are having a difficult time forgiving yourself. Your
feelings don’t matter when it comes to confession. God forgives the repentant.
6. Don’t
commit adultery. That is
sex outside of marriage. Sex is holy and reserved only for the married (to each
other!) for loving and giving life. Do not use birth control. It is not part of
God’s plan. Do not masturbate. It is self-focused. Same-sex attraction – do not
act upon it. Fornication is sex before marriage. Don't act upon your
sexual feelings. This includes oral sex. In marriage, it is fine, if both
husband and wife agree. No part of the body is unkissable. However, it has to
end in intercourse so that it can be life-giving. Couples should pray together
before having sex. Right now the greatest addiction is pornography and it
starts young – 6th grade. Protect your children. If you have a
sexual thought, let it fly. Don’t let it make a nest in your head. If you see a
beautiful woman, thank God for her beauty. Don’t turn her into an object for
your pleasure.
We never got to 7, 8,
9, 10 because people fall into sexual sin very easily now given the permissive
culture. We could’ve talked about sex all day long. LOL.
Jesus pays the price.
The priest, in persona Christi, sets you free from your sins. Go to confession.
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