 So before I get serious, when I taught, I was serious. But before I begin the talk today, I just wanted to share one anecdote with you. It seemed to amuse many people, and so I thought I would pass it on. In 1975, I was one of the people that Father Michael Scanlon invited to come here as he began his tenure as president of Franciscan, and we were very small at that point. But he invited a number of us here to support by prayer and by ideas and by our work with young people, just a helpful support as he began his tenure. And so I came, and what he actually said to us, I will now make public, he said, I can give you, I'll give you free room and board, I'll give you $10 a week. That's all I can afford. And my superior said, yes, go. And there were about 16 people that responded to that. We were in Thomas Moore, Tommy Moore building, which was vacant at the time. I think there was something like 51 students living on campus. There were a number of commuters, but 51 living on campus, so it was quite a time. And one of the things that happened was Father Michael began the conferences very soon after his coming. And I don't know if he intended it or not, but it certainly did shine a spotlight on the University of Steubenville over the years. So he began these conferences. And the first conference had just ended. The first conference was a priest conference. It had just ended 1975. And Father Michael apparently was starting to talk about another conference that he should do for youth. And there was a priest who was a Franciscan friar here who I had known in high school. And so he knew me very well. And he came to me one day and he said, I just, I can't figure this out. Why would he take on another conference when we just got this conference off the ground? We have so much work to do. And it wasn't like he was bitter or anything, he was just puzzled. Why would he take on another conference? There wasn't a big staff, there wasn't a staff, it was just us. And he said, what, what is he thinking? And I said, well, I kind of think I would trust his instinct right now. I know he's praying a lot and he said, yeah, I do too. And I said, well, I trust his instinct. And this priest looked me in the eye and remember he had known me from high school. And he looked me straight in the eye and he said, I will believe that this is from God. If a Boy Scout troop from Japan shows up at the youth conference next year, I'll believe it then. And he kind of stomped off, I mean he was friendly but he just made his statement. So I just kind of tucked that in the back of my mind. So the following June, I was one of the people standing at the, when you come up the hill there, standing there to greet people as they reached the top of the hill. And I looked, I looked down the hill and there was a Boy Scout troop from Japan, literally. I believe they were from Tokyo. They had a long banner and their Boy Scout uniforms on and they had a big banner they were carrying. And I took one look at it and they were just coming up the hill, but I took one look at it and I ran. I ran to the monastery and I got this priest and I said, Father, you have to come. You have to come now, right now, because things were moving. And he said, what? And I said, just come. So I brought him down the hill there and they were just coming up, it was perfect. They were just coming up over the hill. And he looked and he said, did you have anything to do? And I said, no, but God did. So I saw God's sense of humor too. I think that I learned, especially from that experience, that God has a great sense of humor and I am delighted to know that. What I want to speak to you about this afternoon, I want to speak to you about hope, hope in a time of war. And I'm going to come at it from a couple of different angles, but I think you'll be able to see how it all fits. I don't think any of us doubts how difficult things are right now. We have a whole generation, as we know, not the entire generation, but a whole age span that is almost wholesale leaving the church. And in the statistics that we have seen, and I'm sure you have seen many of them, but the statistics indicate to us by the Cara Institute at Georgetown University. They said the Catholic population in the United States has gone along with the general population of the country in recent years. More Catholics, however, are leaving the church than ever before and more so than any other Christian denomination. Of all major denominations, Catholicism has experienced the greatest net losses as a result of affiliation changes. And then they go on to say the percentage of use that have left the church. We know these things, but I just thought I would line up some of the statistics here for us because it is for us essential to see the battle that we're in. And at the moment, and I don't have state to say this, at the moment Satan, I think, thinks he's winning. He hasn't contended with you. Well, maybe he has, personally. But in this issue, I want to put out a challenge to you to be willing to fight. You've had to fight a lot of battles in your life, I'm sure. But be willing to fight this particular battle for the salvation of a generation. They have a lot to give us, many of them. But many of their peers seem to be lost. From 2000 to 2010, one archdiocese, a major archdiocese in this country, reported the following. Infant baptism declined 42.4%. Adult baptisms declined 51.2%. Catholic marriages declined 45.3%. And those seeking full commitment with the church dropped 43.6% in a war. And there's a war on a lot of levels. We all know this, and I don't need to repeat it all, all that we're experiencing in our country right now. The divisions, turmoil, the unrest, the confusion, the lack of accurate reporting, balanced and slanted news articles that don't give us the true picture. We're facing a very difficult time. And the question is, what are we to do? Where is our hope? Our hope is in God, yes, absolutely. But how do we find that hope? How do we kindle it into a fire that is undaunting, that no matter what happens, we're not going to back down? We're going to fight for this generation and the generations to come by prayer, by personal sacrifice, by faithfulness to God, by our intercession. We're going to fight. And God will never be outdone in generosity. When we give him all we have, he in turn will give us everything we need. I'm sure that there are a number of you here who have nieces and nephews, grandchildren, perhaps children, but certainly grandchildren. Children that you have been God parents for, many, many turning away. And the future of all that does not look very bright. But here's what Pope Benedict said. I'm sorry, this is Gregory of Nisa. He said, man is a reflection of the original beauty which is God. Man is a genuine reflection of the original beauty which is God. Everything God created was very good. Man was honored by God and placed above every other creature. The sky was not made in God's image, nor the moon, nor the sun, nor the beauty of the stars, no other things which appear in creation. Only you, only you were made to be the image of nature that surpasses ever intellect, likeness of incorruptible beauty, mark of true divinity, vessel of blessed life, image of true light, that when you look upon it, you become what he is. Because through the reflected ray coming from your purity, you imitate him who shines within you. Nothing that exists can measure up to your greatness. That's Gregory of Nisa. Do you understand, really understand who you are? Do you understand that you honestly reflect the image and likeness of God? That when God, when people interact with you, they should be drawn closer to God. And that doesn't mean everything has to be a religious conversation. That doesn't mean that at all. But that your life is clear and that God can shine through you. That honestly can happen. And I'm going to tell you a little story about myself that I, I don't know why I'm telling you, except it's such a clear example. And I was stunned by this. And it's what helped me to know that it was real. I was, I've had a couple of experiences of this in Ann Arbor, which is a pretty secular city. And I, this particular time I was going into a gas station and I was as usual frustrated because I had too many things to do and I had to get them done and this was holding me up and that was holding me up. And so I was just mumbling and groaning to myself. And I got to the door of the gas station to go in and pay the bill. And they, all the pumps were full. Places where everybody was out there, but nobody was inside. Very interesting. And I opened, as I put my hand on the door, I heard these words, not audible. So don't think I'm crazy. But I heard these words in my head. Remember who you are. I'm your daughter. I'm a spouse to your son. I'm a temple of your Holy Spirit. Got it. And I opened the door and I went in and the counter was up this way. And so I turned and not a soul was in the store. Just amazing. Every pump full outside, nobody in the store. So I turned and I walked up the aisle and this young man that I wasn't sure, he was Middle Eastern and I wasn't sure if he was Chaldean, which would make him a Catholic or whether he was a Muslim. I didn't know. And as I walk up toward the counter, I'm about three quarters of the way up the counter and the Lord remember, has just told me, remember who you are. And I'm walking up the counter and this young man leans over the counter. And this is what he did. And I went, I was just stunned for a second, you know, and I started to stumble because I thought, is he Muslim or is he Chaldean? I don't know what I'm speaking into. And so I just said to him, well, my name is this and I work for an organization called Renewal Ministries. We do Catholic evangelism around the world. And I'm the words are coming out. Do you know how you're just not sure? Am I getting across or not? And he leaned across the counter and he said, just right then he just stopped me. And he said, I want to make something out of my life too. What did he see? That would make me a stranger walking in there, cause him to ask that question. I'm not a saint. Ask anybody who lives with me. I'm not a saint. But I wish to be. And God takes the little that we are and he multiplies it. The world needs to see the light that shines in the darkness. I'm glad you're getting degrees. I'm glad you're getting all the education that you're getting, but for God's light to shine through you, you simply need holiness of life. Simply. Holiness of life and repentance for your sin. And he can work through you. And he'll do it in his own way, in his own time, what you say is I'm available. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness shall not overcome it. He loves you. And because we're having such a decrease in people coming to church, many denominations are experiencing this, but Catholics are experiencing it more than any other. Because we're having that people are saying, who cares if there's something else? I don't know, I'm just gonna live this life. The rest doesn't matter. I live for today. You bring the light into the darkness. I know that sounds poetic, but it's very real. Because God in his mercy chooses to work through us. He didn't have to. He could just come and do whatever he want, but he chooses to work through us. So how does that happen? How do we become the light that shines in the darkness? How does God work in us? How do we become what Gregory of Nisa says we're called to be? First thing that I wanna say to us is that we need to know God as our father. We need to know him as father. Whatever your relationship with your earthly father, and we have a dearth of true fatherhood right now, God wants to reveal himself as father to you. And he wants you to be able to impart to others the faith that you have in your heavenly father. He's calling you into a deeper personal relationship with him by the Holy Spirit to know God as father. For you, Abba, daddy. Father Francis Martin, who taught here many years ago, he spoke, I don't know how many languages, one priest asked him one time here, while we were preparing for our conference, this priest said to him, Father, do you have the Bible memorized? And he said, I think so. And father kind of joking, said to him in the original language, and he said, yeah, I think so. He taught here for a while. I don't know how many languages he spoke, but he did. And he knew it. And he always said, it's knowing the God the father as Abba, protector, guardian, defender. Do you know God the father as that for you, that he is your father? That you can come to him as father. No matter what your relationship with your earthly father, do you know him as father? Ask the Holy Spirit. Help me to know God as my father. Help me to know him. Help me to love him. Help me to draw near to him, because God wants to be your father. That's what gives us confidence. That's what gives us protection. And God wants to impart that to us. He wants to be your father and mine. I was very blessed with a very good earthly father. We didn't have much money. Wasn't like he could give us the world and everything we wanted, but he gave us himself. He was a very good father. And I'll give you one example of how good I knew that he was when I was about three years old and I was sleeping in my own little bed in my own little room and I was the first child. I woke up in the middle of the night and I was terrified. I didn't know why, it was just dark and I couldn't see anybody and I wasn't used to waking up in the middle of the night so I jumped out of bed and I went over to my parents' bedroom and they weren't there. And that scared me, even at three. But for some reason I didn't call out for them. I just went looking and I came into the kitchen. And in the kitchen I saw my father standing at one end of the kitchen and I saw a man next to him who was our neighbor standing there with a knife, like a butcher knife in his hand. And I saw my mother standing here with the wife of that man and she had her arm around her and this woman's arm was bleeding. So I hid behind my mother's legs and she didn't even know I was there which was unusual but obviously the situation was so difficult. They were neighbors of ours in an apartment complex. And my father said, Joe, give me that knife. Joe didn't budge. And my dad waited a moment and he said, Joe, give me that knife. He waited a few more minutes and he said it again, Joe, give me that knife. And Joe reached down and he started sobbing. And he handed it over to my father. About 30 years ago I went back home for a visit with remaining relatives in the area and I saw in the paper that that couple was celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. How did that happen? Because my father protected us and then he went to care for them. My mother and my father became good mentors. The man was terrified. There was no money. It was the war. Everything was very difficult. I learned concretely what it was to have a father who protect it. We need to know all of us, men and women, but especially as women, we need to know we're protected. That's when we have the strength and the courage to step out, to do what God is asking us to do. You have a father who will protect you. A father who will guard you, guide you. Ask him, ask him every day. Papa, what do you want? However you want to speak to him, but talk to him. Build a relationship with your father. And what did the father do? What did the father do for you and me? He gave us his only beloved son, his only son. He gave him to us knowing what we would do. But he gave him to us that we might be saved forever. We know this, but what I want you to do is understand it personally that God in Christ died for you. He didn't die for billions of people. He died for you. He knew you before you were formed in your mother's womb. He knew you and loves you. This world today, our world, at least the Western world, we need to know we're loved, honestly, genuinely. We're trying to make our way and make a name for ourselves and do this and do that, and above all make as much money as we possibly can. What do we really need? We need a father who loves us. We need a father who walks with us, who gave us gifts, who gave us gifts to use for the rest of his family, for his children, for us. He loves you. And he loves you with a everlasting love. Do you know he knows you by name? He has no limits like we do. He knows you by name. Do you know he really does know the number of hairs on your head? We don't. We might try to guess, but we don't know. He knows you intimately, and we just use those external images because the scripture mentions them. But if he knows that kind of thing, what does he know about us? He knows our struggles. He knows our triumphs. He knows our joys. He knows our fears. Bring everything to the Father. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, come to me. I will give you rest. I'm sure that all of you in here are carrying burdens. I'm sure of it. We all are. And you may be discouraged. You may be fearful. You may be anxious. You may be angry. You may be frustrated to the end of your rope sometimes. Come to me. Bring it to me. Bring the need. Wait upon me. I will show you. I will teach you your Savior, His Son, the Father's Son He gave. Just gave Him to us. His only beloved Son. I've seen fathers lose their only sons. To lose any child is horrible. Any child. But I've seen fathers, two fathers in particular lose their sons and it's the pain is inexpressible because it's your flesh. And God the Father willingly gave His Son for you. Not for the world, for you. He loves you. You are infinitely valuable to God. That's why my heart breaks and I see so many people leaving. Because I know they don't know. And yes, as a church, we've made a lot of mistakes. Yes, there's no doubt about that. And for that, we are culpable. And for that, we need to repent. But it's also true that God's love has not been exterminated or extinguished for us. He's there and He loves you. I remember many years ago, and this is one of those examples where you pull out of the storehouse, both the old and the new. And one day, a number of years ago, I knew a family very well. And they had a number of children, two sons and I think three or four daughters. And I had gone to visit them and they had a farm and I had gone to visit them one day and no one was home except their oldest son who was about 16. He's quite a guy. And he was sitting in this chair. He said, come on in, come on in, sister. And he got me something to drink and we just sat down to talk. And we were talking about car racing. My father was an auto mechanic, so I got into all that kind of thing. And so we were talking about racing cars and what was on the dock for that week. And we were just having a great discussion and it was a lot of fun. And then right in the middle of it, I had this sense of the Lord tell him to run after me. How do you change a conversation? From speeding cars to, but again, do you notice the personal love? Listen to this, listen to this. I said to him, Tim, I think God wants to say something to you and he was leaning back on his chair, you know, just on two legs. And he's leaning back and I said that and the chair slammed down and he said God wants to say something to me and I said, yes, he does. And he said, what? And I said, God says to you, outrun me. Win the race, outrun me. Does that mean? And I just gave it to him. Two weeks later, he said to me, he was a good kid and he said to me, okay, it's a deal, I'll run it. In two weeks, three weeks later, he was on a fishing trip with his father for his 16th birthday and he got caught by a shifting current in Lake Michigan and he drowned. And I saw the pain of the father. And even today, I still know that pain. And yet, God the father weeps for every one of his children who've walked away. It's a death and he weeps for that. If you've got sons or daughters or nephews and nieces or God children who are in that trajectory at the moment, you just pray because you are not alone. God, your father, prays with you. Jesus, before the face of the father, prays with you. Don't ever give up, pray. About the day before his funeral, I was helping out the family in the kitchen and was washing dishes. And I looked up and you can test me out. I think I'm a sound mind and sound body, I think. But I clearly heard him call me by name. And I was washing dishes and I turned because he would always talk to me from this particular corner of the kitchen if I were visiting the family and I was helping out. He'd be right there. And so I just kind of automatically turned and there was nobody there that I could see. But this is what I heard rejoice with me. I've won the race. And you can say, oh yeah, you really made that one up. I wasn't capable of coming up with anything like that. At that point, I've won the race. Isn't that what we want for our children and our grandchildren? Isn't that what we want for all those we teach, all those we relate to, pray, pray, pray. The forces against them are great, but they're not insurmountable. And your prayer is one of the key pieces you play in addition to teaching, in addition to encouraging, in addition to, I was gonna say monitoring, I don't, mentoring. And all those things which you do, do them. But the most important thing you can do for them is to pray, to pray that the desires of the world and the things that the world offers won't take them away from him. Pray for it, pray for it every day. You could do no better thing for the people you teach, the young people you teach, the older adults that you teach. There's nothing more you can do for them, nothing better, I mean, that you could do for them than to pray. It's a battle, it's a fierce battle. And it's become a war right now. And it's very easy in our families, it's very easy to lose hope. It just is. I've given them everything I can, I've done everything I can, and they're still gone. And you grow weary and you grow discouraged. It is a fierce battle. It is a very fierce battle. It's a battle for eternal life. So, I think that there's something in particular that the Lord wants us to do and it has to do with prayer. Let me give you one more example of what I mean. Here in Ann Arbor, one day there was a windstorm while I was working here back in the 70s and early 80s. There was a windstorm. And after everything calmed down, I was walking home, I was about six blocks, eight blocks from the university here. I was walking home. And when I turned the corner onto the street on which we lived, it was a street that was lined for about six blocks with maple trees, beautiful maple trees. And every tree for six blocks had been uprooted in the storm. The storm was strong, but short. But the one tree had hit the next tree, had hit the next. And I saw roots that were about this long. And I thought, I grew up around maple trees. I've seen the roots on maple trees. They're big. These can't be maple trees. I must be wrong. I asked around and people said, no, they're maple trees. I said, why are the roots so small? And nobody could tell me. So about three months later, I was speaking in Nebraska. And so I raised the question and I said, here's my experience, all you farmers out there, tell me. And this one man walked up and he said to me, describe the leaf to me. And I described the leaf. And he said, yep, that's a maple tree. And he said, show me the roots. And I said, they were about that deep. So they were easily uprooted. And nobody said, he said, sister, that's a maple tree. And the roots are very shallow because they didn't have to fight to find water. Water was easily accessible. They had everything they needed. They didn't have to go deep. That's where we've been in some ways. We have not had to fight the kind of battles that may be before us. I've gone to country after country, Eastern Europe, the part of the East. I don't name countries for obvious reasons sometimes, but I've been in a number of countries. And one of the things I see in them is a realization of what a gift faith is and how hard they have to work to protect it. And we, in what is an affluent society, generally speaking, we don't have to look hard to find water. It's easily accessible. Mass is right there. We might have to drive a little while, but it's not that bad. We have more masses on Sunday. We have this available, that available. We have to make some sacrifices, but it isn't that hard. Just it goes against our wishes sometimes. But they didn't have anything. Part of the Eastern part of the world, I was with a group of people who were, we were having mass celebrate. A priest was celebrating mass for us one night. And it was very, very challenging because it was unlawful to do it. And we were gathered in this little room, and the priest was probably in his late 20s, early 30s. And right before the consecration, or I'm sorry, right after the consecration, there was a pounding on the door. And it was frightening. And I thought, well, I'm gonna be sent out of the country and I won't get back, but for these people, it's gonna be a lot more difficult. And it turned out to be a neighbor and the situation was resolved, but what happened was when that knocking came to the door, this priest, who was, by the way, 30 years old, and his name was Peter, he stood up and he laid his body across the coffee table and covered the chalice and held the host. He just stretched out on the coffee table. And I looked at him, and I thought, this is real. He's laying his life down. It wasn't just an image. He was laying his life down. And after mass was over, I went up to him and I said, Father, I don't think I've ever been to a more beautiful mass than this. And he said to me, gladly will I give my life for the sake of the Eucharist. Gladly will I give my life. Just a simple statement. He knew what the Eucharist was. He knew it and he was ready to give his life. I don't know that I'm ready. I want to be. I wanna practice what I'm preaching. But how real is my faith? How real is your faith? Am I ready to die for what I believe? I know that sounds dramatic, but I think we really need to look at it. Our roots are shallow because we haven't had to fight for it. It's easily accessible. Our roots haven't had to go deep. Just like the trees up there. Just a few blocks from here. Their roots didn't go deep because they had such easy access to water. We have easy access. God wants our roots to go down deep in him. In him. There is a beautiful, how much more time do I have? Seven minutes. Okay, all right. I'll get it to you in seven minutes. One of the things, in fact, probably the most important thing that we need to know has to do with our life prayer. That's where it all begins. That's where do I really believe when I come to pray? Do I honestly believe that Jesus is here, that he is present? And that when I pray, I am heard. Do you remember the passage in Mark, in the Gospel of Mark, where it says that Jesus went up on a mountain to pray and then it says he called those he wanted to come and be with him. And then it says, and then he anointed them and he called them to be his disciples. There was a process there. Jesus called them, and if you, the scriptures, most of the translations just say, Jesus called them to be with him and he appointed or and he called forth so and so and so and so. But if you really look at the translation, accurately at the translation, what it says is he called them to be with him. And then he called them to be his disciples. He called them to be with him. So my question to you and the most important question, for you, for your families and for all those you teach, all those you deal with, how close are you to the Lord? Are you with him? Or do you just say reporting for duty, pray for this person, pray for that person, pray for the other person. God to go, God to give this talk, God to handle this. Thank you, God. There are times when God will accept that. But every day, brothers and sisters, every day before God's face, give him time, whatever the cost. Give him time every day. Pray for others, pray for those you're teaching, those you care for, those you love. Yes, absolutely. Read the scriptures, read the scriptures daily, the living word of God. That's what has power to change you, to transform you, to give you the courage you need, to give you the wisdom you need, to give you the hope when you wanna give up. Every day come before him. He called them to be with him. That means live with him. Live your life with him. It's not prayer and then I go back to my normal life. It's a particular expression of my life when I pray, but it's all my life. I give him everything. Read the scriptures daily. Repent of your sin when you fail, don't hide it. If you wanna be light shining in the darkness and that's what God has called us to be, light shining in the darkness. If you want to be that, as I hope and pray you do, because we need light right now in the darkness of our world. The stupidity, I won't, I'll be careful what I say, but the stupidity of what's out there, we should be able to see through. We should be able to see through. I wanna urge you, come before the Lord and say, teach me what to do here. Teach me what your priorities are for today. Teach me what I should focus on. Teach me, help me, and ask the Holy Spirit, walk with me. Walk with me, accompany me. Do you know that God really wants to do that? He wants to walk with you and you say, I'm a sinner. Well, we all are. We all are. And go to confession as fast as you can because as I said at the beginning of the talk, if you don't, what happens is that your eyes become dimmer. Your ears become more stopped up. You can't see and you can't hear as clearly as God wants you to see and wants you to hear. He wants to reveal himself to you. He loves you. He loves you as though you were the only person on the face of the earth. He can do that. We can't, but he can do that. He loves you totally. You don't in a sense have to take less love from him because he has to give it out to somebody else. He has infinite love and it's all for you, every bit of it. But he needs us, he needs each one of us to give him time every day with the scriptures. I'll add in that you might want to take a look or listen to my radio program, Food for the Journey. It's just 15 minutes a day. It's the readings of the day. And on Fridays I do the readings for the following Sunday. It's just a 14 minute, 30 second. But people tell me all over the world that it's been very helpful to them. So I want to bring it to your attention. You just go to renewalministries.net. Renewalministries.net. Click on Radio. My program is called Food for the Journey. We keep five up at a time, sometimes seven so you can catch up if you're behind or go ahead if you need to. I want the word, because it's the word that changed my life. It was when I realized that the word was living, that the word was active, that the word had the power to change my life. And it has, I'm still in process, very much in process. But I want you to walk out of this conference saying, okay, okay Lord, use me. I want to be used by you. And for that to happen, you've got to draw very close to him so that he can impart to you the gifts that he wants you to have. And may many, many, many souls be saved because you were willing to grow deeper so that those trees out there that had such shallow roots, when the storms come for us, your roots will be down very deep and you will withstand the storm very well. That's what God has for us. It's an analogy, but I believe it's true. He wants to use you. He wants to save us, to save the church. We're all in difficulty right now in both faith and hope and love. We're in difficulty. So come, as Jesus said, come to me all you who labor and are heavily burdened. That's us. And I will give you rest. He will give you himself. And when he gives you himself, you have all you need. May he be glorified in you and through you for the honor of the Father. Amen. God bless.