MOTHER ANGELICA LIVE CLASSICS - 1996-06-18 - TRUE FRIENDSHIP

[Music] like alive brought to you from the Eternal Word Television Studios in Birmingham Alabama [Music] thank you she in you but I love the compassion of Jesus glorious work of all to praise God in his kingdom moved by this period one who lives in love lives in God and God lives [Music] what a wonderful thing is our church this whole network is built on trust the essence of evangelization is to tell everybody Jesus loves you we are all called to be great Saints don't miss the opportunity [Music

] thank you [Applause] well Welcome to our family and we have a lot of family here tonight and tonight we're going to talk I asked the producer when I came in what do we talk about and she said sirach oh here it's Iraq the sixth chapter and the fifth verse it's about friendship and and I think today we need to know what is true friendship and you know if you look at our dear Lord you'll find that the place he was hurt the most within his heart that's a an awesome thing he was not accepted when h

e came so he was born in a stable and the only friends he had was his mother and Joseph and we're talking about years like 30 years and some of you that are lonely you've lost everyone you've lost your husband you're your wife and the friends you had are either going or on the way out do you ever get that feeling that you just kind of look up and see my time might be next because they're all gone well you want to understand that our dear Lord had the same problem the same problem he came into hi

s own and Saint John said his own did not receive him awesome that the Son of God would come down and there's no one around they missed they missed the signs you know today we have a lot of people all over the world looking for signs they're right in front of you we're always looking for signs and and Jesus had been prophesied for hundreds of years by great Prophets Isaiah all the prophets and yet the ones who kept studying every single day missed it that awesome that the thing they've been wait

ing for for hundreds of years was right in that City I didn't know it never even guessed it you know a woman wrote to me the other day she was going to marry this man and what happens well he asked her to go uh snow City what do you call these tobaccas there you go they're coming down the hill and she hits a rock she tumbles over and she's unconscious for three months now they're about to be married she only saw him twice when things got difficult he was nowhere to be found you see you have to m

easure your friends this is what could sir act says so this man she was going to marry was not a friend are you a friend with your friend with your daughter or your son or are you just the father or a mother are you a friend with your relatives can they come to you and tell you their heart up story and you've heard it 500 types 500 times you heard about their gallbladder their liver condition their migraine headaches you know it by heart as soon as you see him coming down the road you say aha he

re comes the migraine but being a friend to that person is to listen for the 1500th time see we're so self-oriented today we don't know what it means to be a friend and you know I've often wondered about that but what we hear so often is well I don't have to love you I have to love you but I don't have to like you what does that mean we don't have a concept of friend anymore because we're not honest with each other we're not true to each other and we don't have the faintest idea the first one th

at has to be your friend is Jesus Jesus has to be your friend the one you go to for everything you know when we go and get our groceries we put something on the altar now you can go in the Chrysler chapel and you will find a big hunk of salami or you'll find some olives or you find some bread and I know that he knows we got it you can't surprise God you know but you know what the Lord said the Lord said unless you become as Little Children You shall not enter the kingdom he wants us to treat him

as our dearest Fred says here let those that are at peace with you be many we don't know what peace is today peace is an absence an absence of War an absence of problems an absence of pain an absence of everything foreign people will say well if it wasn't for so-and-so I'd be happy would you yeah they're your dearest friend and you don't know it the person that bugs you the most is your dearest friend but you don't treat them like that we have an idea that daradira's friend will always agree wi

th me no way because no two people think alike we have a lot of acquaintances do you notice that hmm but how many friends do you have how many friends can you go and confide something and they it dies right there that's why I know for sure women cannot be priests laughs uh because they don't have the ability to keep a secret they don't I've never met one that I live with 30 of them that you can't and it isn't that they mean to be untrustworthy they just can't keep it it's just terrible would com

e to me one time and she said she wanted to make a sacrifice for Lent so I said to her or don't gossip she said the whole of Lent I said yeah the whole of Lent she said 40 days I said 40 days well while they talk about said how you telling me that you cannot say a word except the gossip he said well what would you talk about I said try God better than what you're saying see we get into habits and that's why we never keep a friend because as soon as it began to irk then you begin to change friend

s and that's why he says here he says if you if you find a friend you will gain him through testing and you know our dear Lord sometimes tests us did you notice that huh he tests us to be sure that we are able to Bear the next cross that God is so good to us we've learned that here a million times a million times if God wants us to do something great he has to prepare us way down here we grow we go through one test after another one test after another you wonder sometimes how you can accept the

big cross huh foreign big crosses and tragedies if I don't understand and if I'm not a friend of Jesus how am I going to accept a tragedy a heartache if you were going to run a race you would have to start running months ahead of time we're going to have the Olympics here in Atlanta pretty soon next month people from Europe and Austria came here two months ago just to get accustomed to the Heat I don't know what they're going to do in July running a marathon when it's a hundred degrees but if th

ey hadn't come when they did they'd never be able to do it see all the problems in your life are all exercises of faith hope and love God loves you and so many people don't know that and he is your dearest friend in fact to the apostles he said one day he said I you are no longer servants I call you friends I want you all to be a friend of Jesus I want you to trust him in everything talk to him and everything and talk to him as a child speak to a child you don't have to say long prayers all you

need to do is to talk to him if I get a new pair of shoes I go before the blood sacrament and I say Lord thank you for my new shoes I know he knows I got new shoes it's not I don't Enlighten him he knew that 20 million years ago that I was going to get new shoes he wants me to tell him sometimes I think some of you never strive for Holiness because you don't think God calls you to be holy but he does he calls you and called you from all eternity to be holy and I think it's because we have so man

y imperfections huh you see it takes the seed to live with a saint I hope that isn't true but you're all saints in the making you may never be canonized besides it's too expensive it costs almost a hundred thousand dollars be canonized did you know that it's too much to do too many people have to work to find out did she make it did she really have heroic virtue and where is the devil's advocate by trying to go through all that that's where the money is you and I are called by God to be Saints e

xactly where you are in your home in your work everywhere we're called by God to be holy and this is what Xerox is he says a friend is a table companion table companion somebody you feel comfortable eating with you know there's some people you don't feel comfortable eating with do you ever find somebody like that you just don't feel comfortable and then there's some people uh you could eat chicken and corn with that's friendship see if you could take a big lake of chicken and you got a friend in

a restaurant you'll slice it see but if you're eating with a friend it doesn't matter you're at home and that's what Sirac is saying he says a faithful friend is a sturdy shelter meaning you can go with that or to that person with anything at all you can tell them everything and anything and they will understand and that's Jesus Jesus is your personal friend it says here there is nothing so precious as a faithful friend and no scales can measure his excellence Jesus is first of all your first f

aithful friend and then he says whoever fears the Lord directs his friendship a rights we just had Pentecost a few weeks ago and petticos is that awesome time in our lives when God gives us an indwelling presence more and more strong stronger and stronger and stronger so that in the Heart of Jesus you and I live see you and I live in the heart of Jesus you and I were created by God in his mind we've been there for centuries for centuries and all of a sudden out of nowhere one day we became aware

that here we are he was aware for centuries he waited patiently for you and me to be born ah oh most people wait for other people to die God waited for you and I to be born and he gave us himself gave us himself don't be don't be uh disheartened by this veneer we all have you know some people like very thin and some people are very fat some people are beautiful some people are ugly some people are nice and some people are terrible but they're all created by God we would not have wars if we knew

that one fact I think the thing that God is looking for today is a family that understands each other that loves each other and listens to each other and bears each other's burdens I tell the sisters upstairs often it doesn't matter what we accomplish doesn't matter yeah it matters only that we as a community love each other and do things for each other and that love of Jesus is our purpose of being here our goal our aim and you have to say have the same thing you must be a friend of Jesus and

when you are then other people become your friends why because you attract them to you everybody is looking for God today from the very riches to the very poor we hunger for God in our hearts we want the Lord we don't want to pay the price but we do seek God and when we don't see God we're miserable do you ever notice that huh you go around like you lost your best friend and maybe you did maybe you did we have a friend in our lady also those of you that have had terrible tragedies in your life g

o to our lady this man here in front gave me a beautiful painting of of Our Lady of Guadalupe it's all in silver but it's so heavy I can't show it to you but there was a lot of love put into that and our lady is your dearest friend next to Jesus she loves you she's always with you and she prays for you you know our dear lord said one time to his apostles do not be afraid I am with you always that's a friend when he rose he said why do you fear you know these apostles we would have never chosen t

hese men as apostles Peter always thought after he spoke always Thomas was a doubter if someone one of the Apostles came back and he had just healed someone Thomas would go up to him and say well how do you know it was born blind were you there he was a doubter Judas was very jealous and he was greedy he didn't want Jesus to be a lord Messiah John and James were always close to Jesus and bragging about the beloved one I wouldn't that gripe you huh what an egg grape you he was always the one whom

Jesus loved if he didn't love anybody else that would have gotten on your nerves all the apostles had terrible faults and after Pentecost When the Spirit came ah they were changed people changed oh Peter got so brave he opened those doors and he said man of Judea listened to what I have to say oh that's not the Peter I know he changed one time a heretic was in the baths where John was and he got out of the bats he said I can't have a bath with that man he's a heretic his temper he was there to

defend Jesus all of us have the very best inside of us we don't always show it there some of you out there listening to me tonight have all kind of problems with people with those you work with with your family look at yourself and say Lord what's wrong with me he'll tell you try to be loving and kind if a person is not your friend that doesn't matter be a friend to them you know I would say one time if you do good to those who do good to you pagans do that see it doesn't matter really if you ha

ve friends be a friend forgive as you are forgiven it's a hard thing to do today we live in a world that's War torn and hate is everywhere everywhere we have people who hate you for your color hate you for your religion hate you because you're some particular denomination or hate you because you're some nationality they don't like and you and I as Christians we are called by a God to change the world you are I am and you are called by God to change the world I must be compassionate when I'm not

showing compassion I must be loving when I'm not sure in love I must be patient when I have to wait even for God I am the one and you are the one as a Christian and if you're a Catholic Christian you have more responsibility than anyone does the country of all the sacraments you have all the sacraments and the Eucharist oh you can go to any Catholic Church and talk to God to face to face do you know that have you have you lost a reality that you can go and speak to the Lord God face to face in t

he Eucharist huh do you know that as a Catholic do you know that he died just for you do you know that every time you go to Mass you're at the same sacrifice is on Calvary today you know we got balloons up there we got people dancing around nobody danced on Calvary the mass is Calvary do you know that now that's where Jesus showed his friendship for you and me he run through that terrible agony so you and I could be with him forever he said my father's house has many mansions if it were not so I

would tell you it's the same sacrifice as Calvary I am present there and you are present there if we knew that there would be no wars in the world at all we have lost our enthusiasm for the faith and I sometimes think Americans especially are deadheads you know what a deadhead is they lost it that's all just lost it we're not enthused I admire my Protestant brother the little he has he's enthused of it when was the last time you said to someone that was said oh come on come and see Jesus you wo

uldn't say that if you were somebody had a gun in your face you're so afraid we're ashamed and afraid to talk about Jesus and what we believe in I keep telling you what my old mom would she say a good Italian mother had a lot of little things she used to say and one of them some I can't tell you until it is one of them was everybody has to bring his own carcass to Market [Laughter] I bet I heard that a thousand times see my grandmother had something else to say to me she'd look at me and say tes

t the daughter hard head but you see we're all like that well I like that we lost a spiritual realities of our life all we do is act by what we see what we hear what people say what we read in a magazine what you see in a movie that's all we know if I asked you to quote a part of scripture you wouldn't know anything if I asked you to quote As the World Turns from yesterday you could tell me soap operas are indelibly impressed upon your mind but not God now doesn't that seem kind of strange huh y

ou follow those things like they were real before you die you will probably have one third of your life before the television too the other third asleep what are you doing with the last third well I bet you're saying what I think I hear you say I don't know well that's sad you and I have to look at where am I going why did God put me here what does he want me to do we're nearing an election I think we are we got to pray we have to pray so many of these politicians are so afraid to be pro-life yo

u know 75 of the Catholics in America that's a lot of percentage 75 percent I read today cannot explain partial abortion to anyone they don't have the slightest idea what it means do you know what it means it means just as a baby is being born he's turned around taken out and a scissors has put right here the base of his brain and his brains are sucked out for experimentation how is it would 70 million Catholics in America that's about 25 percent of the Catholics in America very few say anything

about such an atrocity see our concept of friendship is so low those poor babies don't have a chance don't have a chance they don't have a friend let's think about that pray heart very hard for this nation who was it one time under God now it's under science and it's under the world not under God you and I if there's ever been an election you prayed over it should be this one it's somebody will have the courage and the strength to be a friend of The Unborn right now I don't see any politician o

r very few that are friends of The Unborn and if you're not a friend of The Unborn you can forget the elderly because then you're judged by your quality of life hmm let's think who am I a friend to and who is a friend to me we have a call hello hello where are you from I'm calling from Terre Haute Indiana oh good what are these two questions I have a question um first of all I might state that I'm a Baptist that's all right and um I have a question on what you believe is the way to heaven you wh

at what is what is your thought on the way of way the person gets to heaven well that's not hard just to know I'm sure you know as a good Baptist you know this book inside out you know this book is a I must obey the laws of God I must be faithful to the Lord I must believe what he said as a Catholic I must believe in the Holy Father in the magisterium of the church I must have that deep faith in the sacraments that no one can shake you as a Baptist have to seek the truth you must seek the truth

if you have any doubt about your religion you must seek the truth you must follow the laws of the Lord do your work for him do everything you do for him radiate Jesus to your neighbor that's a sure path to heaven we have another call hello hello Mother where are you from I'm from Florida I have a question we were talking about friends uh I know that Jesus was turned away by many as she said but was the blessed mother because she was his mother also shunned by the people you have to repeat that u

h I said because Jesus was shunned by so many even by his own was his mother all her life all his life ashamed as well our lady was our Lord's best friend his mother and his friend and she had to suffer from the ridicule of the entire passion and the ridicule at the cross at the cross there's no woman ever ridiculed as much as our mother was she suffered often and ridiculed by the soldiers by the Jewish by the women and I would imagine her whole life she would suffer from the ridicule the church

God she suffered from the martyrs because the people did not believe she was not a a woman that was a popular woman of the town she wasn't she suffered with her son and if you were a friend of anyone a dear friend you suffer what they suffer in fact I think sometimes you suffer more our lady knew pain she knew ridicule and persecution we have another call hello hello Mother yeah where are you from from Florida and what is your question um I'm 16 years old and about Roman Catholic well you speak

a little louder yes ma'am thank you I'm 16 years old I'm a devout Roman Catholic and a follower of the Church of the teachings of the church and I've suffered a lot of persecutions because of it I was recently asked to leave a Catholic High School because I wrote a letter to the bishop and they felt that I was doing something that was none of my concern that was their job and a lot of people don't understand what I'm doing and I I hear that I'm fighting a lot lost cause a lot and I'd like your

prayers mother you you have vocation yes ma'am I certainly feel that I have a vocation to the priesthood and they don't understand well they understand my vocation but they don't understand why I fight so much to preserve the teachings of the church uh because like I said well because for them honey it's easier to just to go along than to fight for the church Fight For Truth everybody in general takes the easy path and and you you make them feel guilty when you stand up for the truth you make ot

hers around you feel guilty they disassoon you shut up but don't if you're a good Catholic you've got to be a thorn in somebody's sight I make a lot of people absolutely miserable and I enjoy doing it I do I think I don't care if you hate me at least I have made you angry you see that's a good thing yeah it's a good thing because now you're going to start to think what am I doing with my life we're not here to Win Friends and Influence People we're here to be truth to be like Jesus to be loving

compassionate but you got to say the truth you keep on saying it don't be a priest if you're gonna chicken out now go with it be strong be strong and you stand up for Jesus he'll stand up for you and persevere I'm going to say prayer for you okay Lord God here is a son of yours Lord who wants to be a priest and it gets ridicule and persecution give them strength give them courage give them hope give him perseverance Enlighten his friends who walk in darkness give them the strength to accept the

truth we ask this in Jesus holy name and his mother amen we have another call hello yes Mother where are you from uh Kansas and what is your question um I was raised Catholic and I'm still a practicing Catholic but I feel like I have lost my faith and I feel like I have lost my love for my family what makes you think you lost it honey due to some circumstances that happened I made some wrong choices and I had quit praying and I just feel like I've lost my faith oh no you haven't lost your faith

honey you wouldn't be crying now if you lost your faith see you wouldn't feel hurt now if you lost your faith you know Jesus loves you find a good Confessor and just sit down and just talk to him and just tell them and maybe you did go but you don't feel better well you got to go to Jesus and sit down before the best of Sacrament and just say Lord I don't have any more faith I I'm dried up I've made bad decisions I've done bad things but sweetheart he's looking for you to come back to him and yo

u have to have faith in his Mercy because it looks to me like you went to confession but you don't have faith in his Mercy see I said this on the air before but I think for your sake I gotta say it again in the life of one of the great Saints uh nobody believed she was seeing the Lord and this Confessor she had said to her look I don't really believe that the Lord appears to you if he does tell him to tell you my last mortal sin to when the Lord appeared to her she told him she said Mike I'm Fis

her doesn't believe her and he asked me to ask you what was his last murder sin and the Lord looked at her with great love and he said tell him I don't remember see I don't remember and that's what you need to do you just go in all your misery sit before the Blessed Sacrament in your walk out a different person and don't wait for some feelings to come along they don't mean anything you want your faith back you wouldn't be listening to me if you didn't want your faith back go to Jesus say Jesus I

want to be your friend please be my friend will you do that good we have another call hello where are you from I'm from Orlando Florida mother my name is Leslie wonderful what is your what is your name your question well I I have a statement I'm first of all very privileged to have the Blessed Sacrament exposed in our church 24 hours a day from now into eternity and every time I go before the Blessed Sacrament which is several times a week your name is first that I whisper to him thank you we l

ove you mother you had said earlier um that all the apostles had tremendous faults or a lot of faults and I was wondering Saint John the Beloved which fault did he have was he was he Authority maybe that he was in love you know he had a couple biggies one time they went into a city and the city did not accept the Lord so he goes up to Jesus and he says Lord shall we called on fire from heaven and consume all these miserable people [Laughter] he didn't have power to do that you know what our lord

said to him oh you don't know what you're talking about that's what he said to him you don't know what you're talking about ah John and James let's put James in with John they're looking at all these Apostles and they're thinking this is my rendition now you're not going to find this in scripture I I've got to make this up but it'll give you an idea because these were men not a man so I can see James and John looking around at Peter and and they're saying to themselves you know some of these ar

e wackos we need to be right next to our Lord in his kingdom they don't know what they're doing now neither one of them had the humility to ask so they go to their mother chicken and they say you go and ask him if we can be one on the right did one on the left now the mother goes she said Lord he said what can I do for you she said Lord grant that my two sons may be one on your rights and one on your left and they're looking so nice you know like and the Lord said well it's not for me to give wh

at a disappointment huh it's not for me to give the father has chosen the one on my right and my left and then he said can you drink of the Chalice I shall drink he said oh yeah we could do that they did there's three nice big faults in John and James that should make you and the rest of you feel good they were men and men have different faults than women Pride being one of them and I even after you know it kind of I I get tickled to John I love St John don't misunderstand me but I get tickled a

t him because even in his Epistles in his gospel he keeps rubbing it in you know the disciple who the whom the Lord loved saw all of this happen he's always saying that well he had his faults you have yours I have mine sometimes I dream of myself being patient I don't think there's an Italian born that way and I have never grown into it yet I have to work at it you see so everybody has a fault or many fault many of you are great Sinners listening to me tonight come back home Jesus is waiting wit

h great love and mercy and compassion come home don't be afraid once he forgives he forgets because he loves you so much so please go to confession we had a man who went to confession the other day after 62 years and you know I thought to myself this entire network was worth that one confession if we did nothing else all these 15 years that one was worth it all so please don't postpone going to confess it but please get a Confessor a Confessor who believes in sin otherwise you're going to walk o

ut wondering why you went in you need somebody to be tough on you I patch on the back but he needs to know yes that was a sin and that's pretty bad but you can change I dear lord always mixed compassion with Justice there was never one or the other it's always both together well don't forget [Applause] British between your gas and electric bill this network is brought to you by you by you I want to thank all of you that give and I want to Pat all of you that don't give somewhere but not on the b

ack because we need you to continue this network God gave us such an awesome gift so write to me will you write to Mother Angelica Irondale Alabama three five two one zero you and I together must build the church Wherever You Are defend her whatever you hear that you know is not true or right when she is maligned by her own Builder up build her up when people speak against her say something nice when the whole world persecutes the church You Stand Tall even if you're alone so don't forget I'm no

t going to be here the next two weeks I made a special tape for you for next Tuesday and next Wednesday please don't stop your contributions because I'm not here last time I went out of town we almost went so if we're talking about friendship be a friend while I'm gone and pray for us last week we were in New York in Long Island and this week or this coming week will be in many places places that we needed to be to save Souls I'm going to say prayer for you before I leave Lord Jesus I ask you to

take care of all these people and those that are listening to me tonight keep them close to your Sacred Heart be with them wherever they are take good care of them Lord while I'm gone and take care of their loved ones stop abortion Lord shave the babies and Lord bless my sisters and brothers and all those that come here and please Lord make him generous while I've got I want to come home without all the worry that with God by my last trip so anyway I love you and we'll be together and father pa

von will be here the next two weeks so give him a big welcome when he comes God bless you I'll see you again bye now [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] thank you