 This has been such a feast. It's a little, it's a little challenging. I feel like a cook who is coming in at the end and everyone looks a little satiated. Like really? Is there something more? But there might be. There might be something more for you. Let me just have a quick prayer. Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord Jesus, I thank you for this day. I thank you for these brothers and sisters in Christ who have gathered here and heard the challenge that you have brought to us through St. Paul. We thank you for the gift of St. Paul and the gift of sacred scripture that we can read in the mass and privately. And we ask, Lord, that you would do your work in our hearts that we may imitate Mary in our yes to you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. You know, I have a granddaughter who I think will probably become a fount of quotable quotes. And she's just a very direct little child. And so when she was four and her little brother was two, they had a conversation. My daughter-in-law overheard. My little grandson, Gabriel, said, Jesus is the good shepherd. And Eliza said, and we are his dumb little sheep. And he said, he was a little constrainated. And he said, but he loves us. And she said, it makes no sense. I heard that. I thought, you know what? On one level, she's right. We think of ourselves as so eminently lovable. And yet we also know ways we're not. And yet God continues to love us. He does shepherd us. Gabriel was right. He does love us. So we're going to bring this book to a close. Turn to Philippians 4. And I have to tell you, as John made references, it was awesome to see at least half of your heads down, looking at your Bibles. I love to hear the turning of pages. And I have a lot of scripture I want to go through. So it will help me if you get your Bibles open now and we're going to go through a lot. I'm doing the concluding verses, but I will go back and forth throughout the book of Philippians and a few other passages. So beginning in verse 10, I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Paul was rejoicing over many aspects of the Philippians living faithful and faith-filled lives. And this is somewhat of a concluding statement, but he's already made a lot of statements. Turn to chapter one. John read this earlier, verses three to five, where he talks about how thankful he is for the partnership that they share together and that he always prays for them with joy. Verse 18, Paul has joy that they are spreading the gospel. And then the next verse, verse 19, he rejoices over their prayers for him. So he knows they're sharing the gospel. He knows they're praying for them. And then verse 25 of chapter one, Paul ministers to them for their progress and joy and the faith. He believes what God has begun in them is going to bring it to completion and he's bringing that to the forefront. Then in chapter two, verse two, what will complete his joy if they are united? I was thinking of that because Taylor Marshall mentioned his talk was about St. Paul as a father. And I thought, wow, I can really hear a dad in this. You know, you get your kids together and you're like, if there is anything that you can agree on, okay? Let's focus on that. I don't know in your family, but we have probably at least five chiefs and maybe one Indian and everybody has an idea. And now we have grandchildren that are very similar. It's going to be interesting to see how it all washes out. Then on in verse 28 and 29, Paul's co-worker Epaphroditus is to be received with joy just as Paul has greeted them with joy. And then he says, imitate me. What's so beautiful is Paul is not too busy to teach the Philippians and to communicate his love for them, his joy in them. And I have to tell you, one of the singular blessings for Scott and me is finding out just three years ago that another saint was not too busy to jot us a note. Out of the blue three years ago, I got a call from a woman and she said, I feel terrible. There is a priest who used to minister to Mother Teresa of Calcutta and he would come in and he would drop his things and then he would head off again and he would go do retreats. And she said, I just found two notes, one written to you, one written to Scott from Mother Teresa of Calcutta. And she said, I am sick at heart that we didn't send these. And I said, could you overnight it please? I said, all is forgiven, but I want to get them in my hand. My note is longer, but I think probably Mother Teresa knew that I needed more help. But this is what she wrote and it's so fitting for our time together. Dear Kimberly, keep the joy of loving Jesus in your heart and share this joy with all you meet, especially your family. Ask our lady to help you. God bless you. I even know that she had taken a moment. How could she have taken the time? And I just want to mention to you, take a moment. If God brings to your heart someone you should jot a little note to. Don't get stuck with thinking it has to be this great epistle. It could be a little note. My mother-in-law is very, very ill. She probably will not live to the end of August. And Scott hasn't referred to it at all in this conference, but it weighs very heavily on our hearts. And the other day I found a birthday card that I had already bought for her, but her birthday is in January. So I wrote her the card. I said, it's your half-birthday. And I just told her what she meant to me. And she received it. She was still alive. When she received it she was able to read it and it was a blessing to her. So maybe God will put someone on your heart today. Don't delay. Write the note. In Ephesians 4-10, Paul is rejoicing particularly for the concern of the Philippian people for him. They have revived concern, which means they already had expressed it. And John referred to this, or maybe someone last night referred to it, in verses 15 and 16, where when he went out on that first missionary journey he came to them first, and then when he left they sent gifts when he was in Macedonia. And then later they sent gifts more than once when he was in Thessalonica. For a time they didn't have the opportunity to help. And we're not always in the same circumstances, right? Sometimes we have extra and we can donate something. We can make it possible for someone to come on a retreat. Maybe some of you made it possible for someone to come with you to this conference. And then there are times where the means aren't there to be able to care for someone or minister to someone, but they were eager to help Paul. They were looking for that opportunity to help provide the rent that John referred to and the food, money for food. Paul had already set a great example for the Philippian people in generosity. I can look back at chapter 1. In verses 3 and 4 he says his prayers are so that they will grow in their partnership in ministry in verse 5. In verse 7 he speaks of the defense of the faith so that in verses 12 and 13 the gospel will spread. He speaks of his imprisonment in verse 7 so that they will have courage to continue to proclaim the gospel in verse 14. He speaks of his love in verse 8 so that they will love more in verse 9. And he's writing so that they will grow in wisdom and in knowledge again in verse 9. So throughout the epistle Paul keeps bringing to their minds not only, yes you have been generous with me, but a variety of ways in which he has been generous to them in the Lord. And Paul's sacrificial acts combined with his teaching are to spur the Philippian people on to be more generous. Paul acknowledges that they have been concerned and just weren't able to help at that moment. But now that they could act on that concern they blessed him. And for that they will be blessed and it reminds us of a passage Jesus is quoted in Luke 6 38. Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put into your lap for the measure that you give will be the measure that you get. And there are times in our lives when different ways of expressing that generosity are possible. I just thought I'd give you a couple little illustrations. When we lived in Milwaukee Scott was in PhD work and we were on an extremely tight budget. We lived in a bad neighborhood where there were people involved in drugs and prostitutes, but it was what we could afford and he biked down to Marquette so I could use our one car and we made many sacrifices. And at one point an engaged couple called and said we want to come over and so could we pick up some groceries for you? And so I thought quickly okay what could I use and I gave her a little list and they walked about 45 minutes later with bags of groceries. I mean pretty much the only beef we had was steaks that came from someone who kept saying you know we were helping them clean out their freezer. I mean I didn't buy a whole lot of meat and anyway they had like fruit snacks and they had all these little treats and I'm thinking oh my gosh how am I gonna write a check for all of this you know? And then they just said oh no no no you're not paying for these we're just giving them to you. We had to fight tears. It was just such an overwhelming gift. Well fast forward about three years we had moved away and when this couple got married we came back for their wedding and even though they were not Catholic they really understood openness to life and they were eager to embrace it. And so even though most of their Protestant friends didn't understand and there was a lot of joking about it at the rehearsal dinner I just went up to him and I said I hope God does greatly bless you. It's such a good thing that you're saying yes to him in this way. So two years later they have a baby who's not even one year old and they just found out they're expecting again and I had a chance to visit. Now we didn't have a big budget we had a little more than we used to have and so I went to the grocery store I got them two roses symbolizing the two lives and then I got them two small steaks. And when I walked into the apartment there's a lonely little hot dog sitting in a pot cold that I know was going to be Jim's dinner when he got home that night and they were just a little, little tiny apartment and when I handed her just that much two roses and two steaks I said I want you to have a special celebration for this new life God has given you. She burst into tears and she said you have no idea what this means. And I'm like sweetheart do you not remember a few years back what you and Jim did for us? You know when it is in our power to do good do it, do it. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you those nudges to see the needs around you to minister to others. I'll give you another practical example. How many of you have a cell phone that has an alarm? Okay, this is a very practical take away. I have something that I have offered my daughter and my daughters in law because years ago I did this with my sister and that is when you hit a day which is so overwhelming that you can't imagine how you're going to get through that day. Call me and I will set the alarm and I will pray every hour of this waking day for you. Earlier this week Hannah texted just a horrible night's sleep. Neither child slept through the night, you know needs were great, lots of tears, her tears. I mean it was just so overwhelming and I said today and tomorrow every waking hour I will pray for you on the hour and I just my alarm would go off and I would okay Lord I'm going to pray for her and then I'd reset the alarm one hour, one hour. All day long, every waking hour. What a simple thing and then little thoughts came to me and I would text her just prayed for you, love you. You know God is giving you this special gift of loving these two little ones in sacrificial ways. I'm so proud of you, etc. Use the opportunity. Okay verse 11 in chapter 4. Not that I complain of want for I've learned in whatever state I am to be content. I'm so grateful he said the word learned because it's a process. I was contemplating this verse I'm like yes I want to be content Lord I want to be content. I drove off of the campus and right away someone cut me off and I slammed on the brakes and I thought oh my gosh I can't even take the fact that someone pulled out in front of me. How pathetic is that? And I hear I'm thinking oh I want to be content like Paul who's imprisoned in his house you know all this grand and glorious stuff you know. It's like oh yes if I had a broken arm or leg but then if I only am suffering from poison ivy you know then that's oh so it's whatever state I am it will change. Our circumstances change but God does not. How can Paul rejoice in all circumstances because God is present. He is powerful when we feel weak. You know in 1 Timothy 6 6 to 7 it says there's great gain in godliness with contentment for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. Now Timothy is echoing someone that's familiar from the Old Testament. Who do you think that is? Someone who referred to not bringing anything into the world and not taking anything out. Job good. After the loss of all of his children, not one child, all of his children, all of his property, all of his crops, all of his animals and all of his servants except the ones who came in to tell him this horrific news. It says Job quote arose, rent his robe, shaved his head, fell upon the ground and worshipped. You worshipped. Trust in a mighty God in the midst of unspeakable grief and then he says these words naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I will return the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name. That's amazing. Now his lament, his cry of grief is not a complaint. It's not discontent. This is such an amazing expression of faith. And when Paul talks about having learned to be content, the Greek word is actually the same word that the Stoics would use to talk about being content in a sense that they would so disconnect from having personal relationships with other people that they in a sense were steeled from any grief, any emotion, any compassion in a sense. It was to be seen as a serene self-sufficiency but it's not what Paul means when he uses that word. He does strive for a certain self-sufficiency and that's why we call him a tent maker because he tried to earn his own keep so that it wouldn't overly burden Christian people to try to provide the finances for him but his confidence was not in himself. His confidence was in Christ and he learned to be content because of his trust in the Lord and he could receive help so when the Philippian people give him help he receives it with gratitude. It's not like he has to say, no, no, no, I'm going to do this all by myself. Now sometimes when we think about being content we think self-sufficiency. We think I need to be able to do this all on my own and yet maybe the Lord has planted you within the body of Christ not only to serve others but to receive service. When I was expecting Hannah she was placenta prea which means that the placenta attaches to the cervix and at odd moments if there's an abruption I would bleed and then if it was a major abruption we would have had less than 10 minutes to get her out alive. So it's a very serious condition and throughout the pregnancy I had different times that I would start bleeding and have to immediately go in bed rest and there's nothing like the doctor saying to you, I know you have a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old but you need to be off your feet for the next 24 hours. And I was very busy with PhD work. So at one point after another session of breakthrough bleeding I called one of my friends and I said, I am so embarrassed to call you but I don't know how else to get help. I've got to get off my feet and she said, do you want me to go to heaven? And I'm thinking, oh for Pete's sake what are we talking about here? I know, I just want you to babysit for a couple of hours. And I said, what do you mean? And of course I wasn't a Catholic at the time and she wasn't talking about work's righteousness in trying to get to heaven but she said, I need opportunities to grow in grace and service. If you don't tell me you have a need, you rob me of the chance to serve you. It's like all turned around so all of a sudden now I'm thinking I'm doing her a favor by telling her I need help. That was beautiful. That was beautiful. Very, very well put. If you look at James, okay. If you look at James, you know what, I'm just going to refer to it because I'm already seeing the clock going. Okay, James 1, 2 to 4. We're saying James talks about counting it joy when we hit trials because it produces steadfastness. It produces good fruit in our hearts and in our lives. Paul does this in Romans 5 also that when we hit difficulty and suffering we're actually to rejoice in our sufferings because they will produce great fruit. Paul gives examples in the book of Philippians about how he is content. Again, John referred to this, when the rivals preach out of envy instead of feeling helpless that he's trapped in his house and he can't get out there and defend the truth and these people are promoting the gospel in ways that he wouldn't he chooses to rejoice in chapter 1 verse 18 because the gospel's being preached. When his options are to die, to stay in prison or to come to them in verses 23 and 24 of chapter 1 Paul chooses to rejoice and even wants the Philippians to rejoice because in a sense it's all good. If in that circumstance he says to the Lord, I will be where you want me to be. It's up to you. You release me from prison, I'm going to go to the Philippian people. If you leave me in prison, I'm going to continue to talk to the Praetorian Guard and I'm going to write, if I die, it's better to die, I'm going to go be with Jesus. So like the Philippian people and Paul, we have a choice. We have a choice to be content or what's the alternative to be contentious. There's some really humorous proverbs about this and I'm just going to refer to them on your own. I would love to have you look them up. Proverbs 19, 13 and 27, 15 it says, a contentious woman is like a nagging wife, a constant drip. Proverbs 21, 19, better to live in a desert land than with a contentious and fretful woman. Or this was Scott's favorite. Proverbs 21, 9 and 25, 24 say better to live in the corner of a house top than a house shared with a contentious woman. And how that was relevant was his office was on the third floor. So if we were having an argument, he would say, okay, I'm going to the corner of the house top. But it doesn't only apply to women. Proverbs 26, 21 says, as charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire sow a quarrelsome man for kindling strife. So what's the solution? We have to choose contentment. Someone shared this thought and I thought this was so powerful because it's so simple. I should desire no one else's life than mine. No other husband or wife than mine. No other children than mine. This is God's will to be embraced with joy. Now according to Philippians 2, 14 were to do all things without grumbling or questioning. And the consequence in chapter 2 is that that contentment is part of our bearing witness to the world that we belong to Christ. And to do that, we've got to hold fast to the word of God. Again, I made this comment in the scripture study. I'm going to say it again. Protestants don't have an extra gene that makes scripture memory easier. Okay? Memorize the word. Put it in your heart. Have that opportunity to meditate when you're in the car, when you're gardening and when you're doing things you can't open a Bible, when you're in crisis and someone needs a word from you. You don't want to be saying, well somewhere in the Bible it says something about hope or something about anxiety, you know? How much better to look at them and say, have no anxiety about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. We request be made known unto God and the peace of God, which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And then you just move right into prayer. Lord, we're going to pray about this and we're going to pray, not in desperation, we're going to pray with thanksgiving because your word says to. And so we're going to do that. We're going to honor your word and we know that you will honor this prayer and you will give us your peace. You're bringing God's words, not just your own, to a situation. Finally, joy isn't just a suggestion, it's a command. It's not like this would be good to put on your to-do list today. See if you can rejoice sometimes today. Chapter 3 verse 1, finally brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Or 4-4, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. We're to rejoice in the midst of difficulty and others will know God's presence and God's power through our forbearance. And I've never read this before when I was preparing this. In Deuteronomy 28, when it's going through, you know, 28 is Moses giving them the blessings of being obedient and the curses of being disobedient. And just listen to these two verses, 28, 47, 48. Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart by reason of the abundance of all things. Therefore, you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and in want of all things. We are commanded to rejoice. Now going back to chapter 4, verse 12. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound in any and all circumstances I've learned of facing plenty and want, abundance, and hunger. What's the secret? Again, this is really easy to memorize. Memorize this verse. Verse 13. I can do all things in him who strengthens me. I can do all things in him who strengthens me. What are the challenges that you face right now? I just put my challenges in there. I can love this child through Christ who strengthens me. I can forgive my spouse through Christ who strengthens me. I can face this day through Christ who strengthens me. Verse 14. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. Paul has that humility to share, to receive, to receive the help that is offered. The Lord is sufficient to meet our needs, but he often does that through each other. There was a story of a little boy who was a neighbor of a man who had just lost his wife. And he told his mommy he wanted to go over across the street. And so when he got back, the mom said, what did you do over there? And he said nothing. I just helped him cry. Second Corinthians 9, 6 to 8 gives up some parameters from St. Paul about giving. And I'm going to just read it real briefly. Because how we give is also important, not only what we give. So second Corinthians chapter 9. Most of these I wrote out to save time. I should have probably written this one out. Okay. And it's very familiar. The point is this. He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly. And he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do, as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. And God's able to provide you with every blessing and abundance so you may always have enough of everything. And they provide an abundance for every good work. How are we to give? Paul's commending them on their giving because they have reaped, they have sowed generously and they're going to reap generously. But there are other elements. We're not to do it reluctantly. So it's interesting having tithe conversations with your children. We always had our children on a budget. And so when they got a dime, then I gave them a nickel and five pennies so they could take a penny to church and give it to Jesus. And then when they earned a little more, it may be $10, then they took a dollar to give to Jesus. And at one point one of my children said, so if I make $100, I'm going to give God $10. I'm like, that's right. And you get to use 90. And if I make $1,000, I'm going to have to give God 100. You get to give God 100. Yes, you do. You know, it's like, wow. And I said, you still get to use 90%, okay? But it needs to be done in cheerfulness. It needs to be done in cheerfulness, not reluctantly. Okay. Chapter 417. Not that I seek the gift, the gift that the Philippian people sent, but I seek the fruit which increases to your credit. I've received full payment and more. I am filled having received from the Paphrodite is the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. Paul wasn't seeking their help, but he was so happy they gave for their sake because it was good for their souls to be generous. Who's the real beneficiary? It's both of them. It's the giver as well as the receiver. And this is cultic language. It's a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable, pleasing to God. And that's really who we are supposed to be. We are to be living sacrifices. The gifts we give are just small representations of giving our whole self, right? Turn for a moment to Romans 12. This is one of my favorite passages and when I sign books most of the time I put these verses in. I appeal to therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship, do not be conformed to this world. But be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. There is so much in that passage and I'm only going to mention a couple things. First of all, it's an act of worship for us to place ourselves on the altar. And especially at Mass, you know, when we bring up the bread and wine, it's to really represent us. And when it's placed on the altar, we're really to be saying to him, I'm on the altar too, Lord. And as one dear friend said to me, the trouble with being a living sacrifice is we keep crawling off. If we were dead, we would just lay there, right? But we're not dead yet. And so when we say, oh, Lord, I want to give you everything. And then we realize he's asking us to, you know, maybe lend our car to someone or offer hospitality to a large family. Or, you know, it's like, wow, it's starting to pinch. It's starting to be a little more challenging. And we begin to crawl off the altar and then the Lord says, no, honey, you really, you want to be up there. Come on, let's get back up on the altar. I'll give you the grace you need to do it. And a big part of how we can be faithful in that is we've got to keep being transformed by the renewal of our minds. Part of why you're here is to renew your minds so that you won't be conformed to this world. So that you will be representatives of Jesus Christ in this world so that you can have the supernatural joy that makes no sense in so many circumstances unless your confidence is in Jesus. Then it makes sense and that will draw others to you. Pope Francis just says so much about the joy of the gospel. Can they tell our joy? And especially in difficult circumstances when we're joyful, it's just such a paradox and they're like, what's going on? How can you be joyful in this very difficult circumstance? Number 19, 419. My God will supply every need of yours according to His riches and glory in Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus. He will supply every need. Every need. Not every want, but every need. Turn for a moment to 2nd Corinthians 12. There will be things that come to your heart. What the Lord is asking you to give up or to relinquish to Him. I'm going to give you a few suggestions at the end of this talk. I don't know what that will be, but I can tell you that there will be things that when you think about it you will say there is no way I could do that. And the great news is if He's called you to it, He will give you whatever you need to be able to give to Him what you need to give to Him. Look at verses 7 to 10. 2nd Corinthians, I'm in first. 2nd Corinthians 12. And to keep me from being too elated by an abundance of revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. And three times I sought the Lord about this and it should leave me and He said to me, and this is the key, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in your weakness. I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. This is one of the interesting things about the passage from Nehemiah. I'm sure you've sung the song, the joy of the Lord is my strength. And it's mostly like a little children's song, the joy of the Lord is my strength. And you're kind of like da-da-da-da-da. And you know, it sounds very bubbly and joyful. But do you know the background? You know, Ezra and Nehemiah had come back after exile with the people of God willing to come back and they're building the walls and they're trying to rebuild the temple and then they find the book of the law and the people gather to hear the word of God. And it is so devastating when they hear the word of God because they are so far from living the truth. And in the midst of that, Nehemiah says, that they're to eat and they're to drink and they're to share with others and rejoice. Because it's with the joy of the Lord they will have the strength to respond in obedience to what they heard. For the quote, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Now we are all in different places, but we all know we're at centers in progress, right? Every one of us has something to say when we walk into the confessional every time. What the evil one wants to do is say, you can't be a good representative of Christ because you've got this sin, you've got this problem, you haven't resolved this difficulty. What the Lord is saying to you is you are my precious daughter or son. I have called you and given you my Holy Spirit. I am calling you out into the world to redeem the world. To redeem the world through me. Bring me in joy to others. Something I'm going to share Sunday morning but I know some of you won't be here, so I'm going to share it. When the ruling came out, actually several rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, I just looked at my husband and I just said, what is this world we are giving our grandchildren? And I'm not prone to feeling down. I just could hardly think. And he said, well, Kimberley, we've never given them the world. He said we give them grace. We give them faith. We give them hope. We give them wisdom. And we pray. So our eyes need to be on Jesus. The example of St. Paul and the other saints that John was mentioning. And then a heart opened saying, Jesus, what do you want me to do? How do you want me to serve you? What do you want me to give up? And we do this service not in cheerfulness, it's not about cheerfulness, it's about joy because we know who we are and what we're doing. Now, I want to give you a few practical examples. We've got 12 minutes left. What might God be calling you to do, to say, to give up, to give away? Now, first of course, money is something we think of all the time. And money is not the root of all evil, is it? It's the love of money. So we need to detach from money and other things enough that we're really honoring Christ. Everyone is not called to give away everything. But with the resources God has given you, is there something he wants you to do? Is there something he wants you to do in a new way? There's also the gift of time. Maybe some of you were being called for the first time to offer a Bible study in your parish or in your home. You've taken the training, you now have materials, and you're like, I think the guy next to me is going to do it. I don't think I'm going to do it. But I want to challenge you. Maybe Jesus really is calling you to do that and to step out in faith and say yes. Maybe being on campus and hearing these challenging talks is opening your heart in a new way to pursuing an actual degree. We have a distance education degree in theology, and we also have an online catachetics degree. Maybe God is stirring your heart to go deeper and even connect with the university more in an actual program. Scott mentioned I'm running for city council. It's a little crazy. But it's a very exciting thing to say yes to the Lord to serve our culture, to bring Christ to bear. And I would really ask your prayers for this. I think that there are strongholds that I'm not sure anything besides prayer is going to break here. But I think the Lord wants Steubenville to be as a city to be a sign of hope. And say, yeah, thank you. I really do. But that takes a commitment of time and money and energy and creativity. And I'm very grateful for Scott's support in pursuing this. I know it's God's will for me to run. I don't have any idea if it's his will for me to serve. But you have to do the next thing, right? Okay. There's a woman here who told me that she ran with an idea I had and we organized Franciscan students to go into people's homes three hours a week. You should, on average, 20 to 25 women to volunteer each semester. And they go and help free of charge a young mother in the area. And I mentioned on a tape when my children are grown, I would love to be one of those women who goes and helps. And so she picked up on that idea and she began volunteering with young families in her parish. You know, maybe there's a morning, every week, one morning, that you could commit to a young family. And you might be like the one that is releasing the top of the pressure cooker. Giving that woman a little bit of space so that she sees how beautiful her children are and has joy in that challenge of being a young mother. How about possessions? You know, we give away a lot of things. And for a lot of people, I guess, their home is their castle where you close the doors and you bar it. This is where just us, where we're just us. And when Scott was introducing the people the other night, it was such a joy, truly a joy to hear him refer to different ones as having lived with us. We've had 35 men and five women live with us here in Steubenville in the last 25 years. Just on this team alone, Michael Barber lived with us for three years. Curtis Mitch lived with us. Ted Sree, Matt Leonard. Other people that you know, like Tim Gray, lived with us for two years. Father Gadget and Cuddy, you will hear about soon, and he lived with us for three years. They're three ordained priests now who lived with us for different periods of time. But there are also lots of people who are just mothers and fathers and husbands and wives. And we have been so blessed. The example was my parents. My parents came to this conviction in, like, I think it was the 70s. When I turned 13, that some people were in great need, and so they wanted to open the doors to a new convert to give some discipleship and to model marriage for them. One man moved in. He had just come to Christ. He had dated a girl seven years, had been engaged three years, and it got down to six weeks before the marriage, and she just said, if you're not a Christian, I don't know that I can marry you. And so it was a pretty emotional circumstances. He met with my dad, and my dad led him to Christ, and it was a real leading to Christ. And the next day she broke up with him. And so my dad just looked at me, and he said, do you want to move in with us? I mean, his life was really devastated. And so he said, yeah, and I didn't know the circumstances. So as we're helping him move into the third floor, we're like, you know, the only way you get out of our house, is to get married. And he said, I guess I'm here for life. But a few years, he lived with my parents about three years, and then he did move out, getting married. They did it a little differently than we did it. Ours was more connected to studies, and to the university, and to Scott, but they didn't come live with Scott. They lived with our whole family. We shared meals, we shared work, we shared prayer, we shared life. We were not interested in renters. We wanted to be a household, and we knew that the gifts they gave to us are immeasurable. The privilege we had to live with each of these people is so wonderful. You can't out give God. I'm going to give you one more example. Something that maybe you need to pray about. Something that maybe you need to pray about. We're giving up a son to the priesthood. Now you give up your children in marriage, unless there's an unhealthy dependence where they live right next door to you. Not that living next door is unhealthy, but I mean, unless it's almost like you don't actually relinquish your child, but you only add the other, you experience loss. Now there's game. You get the in-law, you get the grandchildren, and it's beautiful and wonderful, but a lot of parents are very resistant to the idea that they would have a child and they won't get married. My parents don't understand it. They're very concerned he's going to be lonely. My mother-in-law said, but he's such a good dancer. As soon as Scott became a Catholic, our two little boys who were three and one mentioned the priesthood to me. Now I was not Catholic. I was putting him to bed and the three-year-old said, I want to be a priest, and I did not know that every little Catholic boy was at some point in time, so I'm thinking this is definitive for the rest of their lives. And the one-year-old says, me too, me too, or maybe he was almost two. Me too, me too. And so I said, I couldn't even speak. I just put my finger up and I walked into my bedroom and fell on my knees and cried for about three minutes and then just gave it all up to God, and I came in and said, that's beautiful, Michael, and I put him to bed. And like Catholic, I was very concerned about how do I as a Protestant raise children who will say yes to Jesus no matter what. And so what hit me was if I prepared them well to be husbands and wives and fathers and mothers, they could say yes to Jesus for anything because the call to be a priest or a nun or a brother is not a call to be neutered. It is a call to bring amenity to Christ in service to him. And so that became what I wanted to do, really wanted to relinquish that to him. So obviously we baptized our children and at one point and it was defending the faith when Jer was about four years old, I had raced into the house, I wasn't done with my talk, and I was trying to get everything together but I didn't have an ending yet and I saw him right as I'm running out the door and I said, Jer, pray for mommy, pray for mommy, and he just went, dear Jesus, and I thought, not now, I've got to go, you know? But I couldn't say that, you know? So I just knelt down and let him rest his little hand on my head and I gave him a little kiss and as I ran out the door I thought and there's my ending. Because our child becomes our brother or sister in Christ. Well now, my son who is my brother in Christ Wow, that's a thought and I know in future years there are going to be a lot more thoughts that come with that. One probably will not be what it's like to go to my son for confession. I don't think I've got enough humility to do that. What is Jesus asking of us? What is he asking of me? In what ways am I holding something back that he wants me to give him? Is it a sorrow? Is it a sorrow that I don't even know I'm holding on to and I need to give it back to him? Or a suffering? In what circumstances is he saying Kimberly or Mary or Bob or Joe? I want you to be content and trust me in a new way. And his words to the Philippian people are so important for us. We are to be generous. We are to give God everything. We're just about to go into mass. What has Jesus withheld from you and me? What has he held back? No, no, I'm not going to give you that or I'm not going to do that for you. There's nothing. And so the call of our life is to give it all back to him. Weaknesses and our strengths our joys, our sorrows everything. And in this Mary's example is so powerful. When she's faced with her mission she doesn't say, oh I'm perfect for the job and she doesn't say, oh I could never do that. I could never do that in false humility. She just says, behold the hand made of the Lord be it done unto me according to thy word. That's what he is asking of us. Will you yield? Will you trust me? Will you trust me? I am trustworthy. Come to me. Give it to me. Lay it down. I know he will lead us and guide us. And thank God for St. Paul for putting these words to paper so that we could contemplate these mysteries. Let me lead us in prayer. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord Jesus, you are the king of kings and the Lord of lords. We owe it all to you. And we give it all back. Please show us anything we're withholding from you. May we trust you in new ways Jesus. And thank you that your power is made perfect in our weakness. Mary, please pray for us. Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. God bless you.