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Maybe we'll sit outside, Hear those birds sing. Sweet spring. So today's the feast of St. Louis de Montfort. And so I feel called to share a word with you about the way saints come forth from a particular time. So there are always, like, a certain set of circumstances that give birth to Christianity, since Christianity really is like God's merciful response to life. And St. Louis de Montfort is an important saint to know about, because St. John Paul II loved him very much and was devoted to him. I just want to say that he came from a specific time and place. My understanding of it is it's early 18th century. He died 1716. So it's Catholic France after all those wars of religions, the tensions between the Protestants and the Catholics. But the Catholic king was calling people to adhere to the Catholic faith. And then they did so sort of fearfully. And mixed into that was a heresy of Jansenism within the Catholic faith, this thinking of a kind of real emphasis on sin, which was discouraging but not encouraging the faithful at the time. So. So those are the things that were around St. Louis de Montfort as he comes to be. And what he preaches is repentance as conversion. Not just repentance as follow the laws to get Jesus to love you, but to come back to him for the sake of the joy of belonging to him. In that same spirit preached the renewal of baptismal vows. So remembering what we've been given, remember what you received, remember that he has come to you, as opposed to again, fearfully trying to get him to come to you. Renew your baptismal vows often so that you can remember that he has come to you, that you do belong to him, that this is a kind of holy belonging to Him. It's different than belonging in a more legalistic way to the state, but rather you belong to him by grace. So then he promotes devotion to Mary, the Blessed Mother, as the path to Christ, because the Blessed Mother is the mother of this Jesus. So right there there's a natural affection and bond that is intimate. So it's something that transcends the merely legal relationship we have with, say, a state or even our neighbor who shares a country, but not necessarily the faith. The Blessed Mother shares a close intimacy with her son. So St. Louis de Montfort, again, trying to heal this kind of mere external application of Catholicism that was all around him in the culture. He's trying as much as possible to help people to take it into their heart the way that the Blessed Mother took her son into her very heart, even though a sword would pierce her heart for doing so. But it was a sword of truth. And St. Louis de Montfort taught us that devotion to the Blessed Mother could help us to see him, her son Jesus, to see him as he is and to hear him more clearly. She magnifies the Lord so that we can see him more clearly. And as a mother, she recognizes his voice and understands his cries. So she helps us also to understand his voice, the voice of the good shepherd. But you can see why St. Louis de Montfort would find the Blessed Mother helpful, because it personalizes the relationship. She who receives the gift of her Son Jesus, as a mercy for the world. And this is St. Louis de Montfort's way of saying to us that God wants us also, in the times in which we live, to receive his Son Jesus, as a gift for the mercy that he wants to offer to the world. Does that make sense? And then he established small confraternities, you know, small prayer groups, because, again, the church felt like a large organization. And even the parishes, because it was a Catholic country, 18th century France, the parishes were more like entities of the state in some ways. The point is, if you live your life well in the world, you're sanctifying the world. So what does well mean? What does it mean to live well? This is the virtue that comes from a life of thanksgiving and also purification. So to disenthrall ourselves from the powers of the world that enslave us to them so that we can belong to Christ through a kind of holy slavery, as St. Louis de Montfort called it. Holy slavery. Talk about that expression that St. Louis de Montfort used. A holy slavery. Again, it's a time when the people just belong to the king, right? So in a sense, you're kind of enslaved to those in power with authority over you. And then Christ comes to offer us a freedom through a kind of holy slavery belonging to him. So by his spirit living in us and the communion we share with him in the Church, we can make decisions with him that are truly pleasing to God in whatever circumstances we live in. And not long ago, Pope Leo said something that helped me to understand this a little more. He referenced, and I forget in what context, but he referenced how when the Hebrew people were enslaved by the Egyptians and then set free and then made their way out into the desert to this promised land, they were leaving a certain degree of comfort. Comfort. Even though they were enslaved by the Egyptians, they had food, drink, shelter, and a certain degree, I think he said, of comfort. And then they're out in the desert now set free by the blood of the Lamb. An extraordinary action of God on their behalf, a gift, his mercy, which becomes a real defining moment for them. They make their way through the Red Sea like the way we make our way through baptism. The sea even swallows up the Egyptians who are following after as a sign of God's protection of them. And it doesn't happen immediately that they arrive at the promised land. And so they're tempted to wish that they were back in Egypt. And that happens. You see it in the Old Testament, the story of the Exodus, like, as they're making their way through the desert, the Jews sometimes quarrel among themselves and against Moses, Aaron, who are leading them. And they're saying, we're tired of belonging to you in this way. We'd rather belong to the Egyptians again. But you can hear what they're saying. It's like we're tempted to abandon this holy slavery to you, Moses, and go back to the worldly slavery of the Egyptians. So it made me think the way we said, I think the last time we were together. You know, we're either going to suffer for loving in this world or suffer for not loving. So too, with slavery, we're either going to belong to the devil and to the powers of this world who are under his dominion and under his influence. We're either going to belong to that, or we can belong through a holy slavery to God, through Christ, and with Our lady, even consecrated to Our Lady, I entrust myself the words of the consecration to Jesus through Mary, from which John Paul II took his motto of Totus Tuus, totally yours. The words of the consecration contain this. I give myself to you, O Mary, as a kind of slave unto you. A servant is a more common word used today, to belong to someone in this way. But I give myself to you. I consecrate myself or dedicate myself to you, O Jesus, through Mary. But that expression, then, that papal motto of John Paul ii, totus tuis, is totally yours, O Mary. But it's a holy slavery. It's like belonging to Moses and Aaron as we make our way through the desert to the promised land, as we follow the inspirations of the Lord as he leads us through this world to heaven. So it's a slavery of belonging to him, which is better than the slavery belonging to this world. I just wanted to remember, though, that I said at the beginning, you know, these saints, they come out of a particular context or time in history, a place and certain events, a cultural climate, and so too, the times in which we Live where we see Christ associated with and even forced to sponsor in a kind of superficial way, movements in the world that don't ultimately serve God and don't come from His Holy Spirit. Right. We live in this time where we need also to clarify our relationship with Christ as much as possible. Like, what does his face really look like and what does his voice really sound like? So we turn to the Blessed Mother because she magnifies the Lord for us so that we can see his face more clearly and hear his voice more clearly. But I wanted to rejoice today to say, you know, the times in which we live are. They're not an objection to our becoming saints. They're the very source, soil and the stuff that can, with God's grace, be transformed into the life of holiness. We could emerge from this cross, this crucifixion, and then the burial, you know, like the soil of this culture. We can emerge from this resurrected, raised from the dead. So I was thinking about how Christ carries His cross and wants us also. And Our lady stays with him the whole time and even stands at the foot of the cross saying, like the good shepherd who lays his life down for the sheep. The Father knows this is happening and in fact is even willingness. Like in every time, in every age, there's a kind of crucifixion of Christ in the heresies that are all around us, the different ways that Christ gets used to sponsor sin and all that stuff. Also, just like the battles, the warring between the nations, ambitious men, violent men. Like in every age, when this is happening, saints emerge, saints emerge. And I don't think they emerge despite the fact that these things are so, that their times are so trying, but because they allowed God's grace into their trying times. I would love for you to be unafraid of the trials and hardships in your life, but cling to Jesus through Mary and to the communion of the Church. Befriend and allow yourself to be befriended by Christians who love him and who are trying to do his will in wrestling with one another in the Church. Somehow it is formative for us. It is purifying for us, and it also helps us to recognize our own need for mercy as we cry out for patience and the grace to carry the cross of loving our labor. So the church and the prayer, especially the prayer of the rosary, the Scriptures, the living word of God, this is how we stay with him, we remain with him, and he leadeth us right as we say he leads us through this world to the promised land of Heaven. Through a kind of holy slavery of belonging to him. So I want to just reference. Leslie. The first reading at Mass today, we heard that Barnabas was a. Was a good man, A good man filled with the Holy spirit and faith. St. Barnabas. And that's why the church grew. These Christians lived in such a way where they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they were so attractive. The face of Christ was being reflected on the way that they lived and looked at each other. And the voice of Christ was heard through the way that they prayed and spoke to one another, especially as they prayed for their enemies and for those in leadership positions. They prayed for the state, they prayed for the governors, they prayed for, prayed for the Caesar, those leaders of the nations. But the early church taught people that if we need to be set free from our conditions, to escape from our circumstances in order to be happy, then we'd still be enslaved by our circumstances, you know, in any case, Barnabas is described as a faith filled man, a good man. The scriptures call him filled with the Holy Spirit. And they were called Christians in Antioch. Barnabas was part of that. Why these followers of Christ start to be called Christians or other Christs. They had the spirit of Christ in them. They realized, people realized that Christ was present in their communion, in the communion of these Christians. And so then they're called Christians, okay? And what makes a Christian different than, say, like the soil from which this Christianity grows? Judaism was following laws about following laws in order to get God to come to us with his mercy. Okay? And they were actually following laws that were given to them by God, divine laws, all of them hold true to this day, most especially the Ten Commandments. All of that was leading them to be able to recognize the face and hear the voice of the Messiah when he came. And let us never forget that the first Christians are the Jews who did recognize him as the Messiah. They recognized him, they recognized his face and they recognized his voice. And then Christianity is living in thanksgiving for having received this Messiah. But we still fulfill the law. But now it's like in response to or as a consequence of having met Christ, you know, no longer fearfully as the conditions necessary to meet Christ, but in thanksgiving for having met Christ. Like Barnabas is the son of encouragement. He's called, and he was encouraging people, which was itself a kind of healing of the Jansenism of the time of St. Louis de Montfort, which was discouraging people from approaching Christ in the Eucharist by overemphasizing sin and filling people with fear and worry. But there is a way to appreciate, with St. Louis de Montfort's devotion, that we can renew our baptismal vows because we've already been given the kingdom. And we can go to confession because we've already received Holy Communion. And we can give ourselves to our Blessed Mother in devotion because she was given to us by Jesus from the cross, you know? So when he establishes little confraternities or prayer groups throughout the church and his mission work, this missionary, St. Louis de Montfort, he wants those prayer groups to be prayers of thanksgiving and gratitude and affection for what we've already received, so that Christianity can be what it was meant to be be, and what it was in the beginning, a movement of thanksgiving, a communion of thanksgiving, of eucharistic prayer. The word Eucharist means thanksgiving to no longer afraid. But for us to be unafraid in this time in which we live is to appreciate that saints emerge from the times in which they live. But the work that you and I have to do is to remain with Christ by remaining with one another. That's why I make these little podcasts, if this helps you to hear, so that you can stay in communion with the church wherever you are right now, good. I just want you to know I need that help, too. I said it in my last podcast to you, and I have experienced it many times since. I need you too. I need the church. I need everything that God has already given to us, that it might be preparation for the abundant and even the more life that he wants to give, give to us in heaven, the closest and the most perfect communion of all, the glory of being with him in heaven. So there is more to come. But so much has been given to us already, as Jesus says, as the good shepherd, and he said this past weekend, I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. So he gave us life by giving Himself to us through this church, through communion, through our baptism, and now he wants us to have it more abundantly, more abundantly, more abundantly. He has given us everything, and now he wants us to be saints.