 you guys are like, huh? A lot of answers there. What day is it? Well, that's nice. Good. Yes. I mean, let's not make it too complicated. What's today? Saturday. There we go. And it's, sorry, I really didn't mean to do that to you. I'm sorry. Today's Saturday. And it's a first Saturday, right? I want to begin with that fact that today is a first Saturday. The divine providence has made it such that our conference really kicks into gear on a first Saturday. Now, what do we do on a first Saturday? Go to confession. Yes. Well, the first Saturday devotion comes from our Lady of Fatima, right? And for first Saturdays, what we're called to do, according to the message of our Lady of Fatima, is to make reparation, right? You've heard that before, I hope, right? The message of our Lady of Fatima, if not, you guys get a book and read about it, right? It's very important. On first Saturdays, we're called to make reparation to the sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. What does that mean? I remember when I was in the seminary and I was reading devotional books about how to make a first Saturday or make reparation against sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That would be people who deny Mary's Immaculate Conception or perpetual virginity, all these things. But I was thinking, I don't see a lot of people, I mean, surely there are, but you don't tend to see a lot of people denying Mary's Immaculate Conception as like kind of their daily life. I think the real sins or the majority of the sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary are among not just Catholics or not just Protestants who don't believe the dogmas of Mary, but among Catholics as well. It's all of us who reject Mary as our mother, that we reject her spiritual maternity, which is part of a gift that Jesus gave to us and to her from the cross. Woman, behold your son, son, behold your mother. I think a lot of us, a lot of Catholics, a lot of people in the world, we push Mary away. Now if you're a mother, a lot of you, I think probably our mothers, right? Raise your hands, those are mothers. Okay, if your children said, I don't want anything to do with you, stay away from me, how would that make you feel? It'd break your heart, wouldn't it? Now we understand the whole meaning of the first Saturday is Mary's heart is broken because so many of her children, including ourselves sometimes, we push her away. We say, I don't want you as my mother. I don't care about you, I reject you, get out of my life. That breaks her heart. So what are we called to do on a first Saturday? It's supposed to spend 15 minutes with Mary instead of pushing her way, drawing close to her, and consoling her immaculate heart. Now that's consoling prayer, consoling Mary who's sorrowful, consoling Jesus's sacred heart, which is sorrowful. It's an important part, a very, but a sort of hidden part, but a very beautiful part of the message of Fatima. And I think it's not as well known because the main person who sort of gives it to us or teaches us about it is the three among the three seers of Fatima, it's the one that everybody kind of looks, you know, okay, he's not as important. Who am I thinking about? Francisco, right? There's Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia. Lucia and Jacinta, they saw Mary and they heard Mary. What about Francisco? He saw Mary, but he didn't hear Mary. Why? Because he's such a big sinner, right? That's what everybody says. Oh, well, but he was also the one they said, well, will Francisco go to heaven? Yeah, but he's got to pray a lot of Rosaries, right? So everybody's like, ah, that Francisco, I don't know, let's see in Jacinta, right? Ah, Francisco, okay, he's blessed and everything, but he's like down here. Last night I was talking about Divine Mercy, I was talking about my dad, how mercy I was amazed at the confirmation for the message that God loves us, that his heart goes out most of those who are most weak, broken, and sinful. And my dad was an example of that. The mercy didn't go to the Holy Rollers in the family, my mom, my sister, and all that. Who did it go to? It went to my dad. I would say one of the greatest gifts of mercy of the message of Fatima, for among all the three seers, it went to Francisco because it was a sign of God's mercy. He lifted up Francisco, who was sort of in the ground like, ah, I'll have to pray a lot of Rosaries. He didn't get to hear Mary. But God gave him a special gift. He made him a mystic of a very high order. The reason I say that is, remember the second secret of Fatima, when Mary showed the children a vision of hell? Remember that? You guys know this story, right? Fatima's not new to everybody, okay? So they're showing a vision of hell, and for Lucia and Jacinta, what was their reaction? We got to make sacrifices. We got to pray for sinners, right? They were just preoccupied, and we don't want anybody to go to hell, so they were just like praying and sacrificing all the time. What was Francisco's reaction? Was it a little different? He saw hell, and you know what he said? Yeah, I'm sad that all these souls are going to hell, but did you see how sad God was? Did you see how sad God was? Francisco was given the gift of that insight to see how sin hurts the heart of God. And it was interesting, because Francisco was told, you know, that, you know, he was going to die, like Lucia or Jacinta and Francisco both knew that they were going to die. And so Francisco, very practical, you know, when he was supposed to be going to school, instead of going to school, he went and made a detour to the church and stayed in the church all day. People say, Francisco, you need to go to school. He said, why? Mary said, I'm going to die. Why don't I need to go to school? So he went to the church every day, and you would find Francisco in there alone in the church, and if you were to ask him, Francisco, what are you doing here all day? You know what he would say? I'm consoling Jesus. I'm consoling Jesus. Why? Because of all the rejection of his love. And Francisco just sat there in a simple way of a child, loving Jesus and consoling his heart. So that's a beautiful part, that consoling spirituality is a beautiful sort of hidden theme in the message of Our Lady of Fatima. Now, those of you guys who've ever heard me talk or know me that know that I love consoling spirituality, and my apologies to anybody who's read my book on that or have heard me speak because you're going to get a little review here. But it's such a beautiful spirituality. I want to do a quick review, and I am going to get to the Gospel and the reading, so don't worry. But basically, I, the consoling spirituality, the idea that we can console Jesus as Francisco taught us, as Mother Teresa taught us in terms of quenching the thirst of Jesus, that really it was a spirituality that gripped me, gripped my heart when I was in the seminary. And I remember I once went on a pilgrimage to the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and I spoke to the Divine Mercy Guru there, Father Seraphim Mehalenko. And I said to Father Seraphim, I said, Father, it's all about consoling Jesus. He said, yes. And I said, do we want to console Jesus in the best possible way? Right? He said, yes. I said, so what we want to do is remove the thorn that pierces his heart most deeply. And he said, yes. And I said, according to St. Faustina, in the Diary of St. Faustina, the thorn that pierces the heart of Jesus most deeply, and this is very interesting, is lack of trust. And he said, yes. Because in the Diary, Jesus said, what wounds my heart most is when those that are closest to me don't trust me. So I said, so Father, if we want to console Jesus in the best possible way, we need to trust him. We need to remove that thorn of distrust that wounds him so deeply. He said, that's right. You've been reading the Diary. I said, yeah. And I was very content with myself. Great. I got it. I just got to trust Jesus. That's the best way to console him. But then he said, and what is trust? I said, I don't know. And I remember his words changed my life. He said, trust is praise and thanksgiving. Trust is praise and thanksgiving, to praise and thank God in all circumstances. Like we prayed at the beginning of Mass. I thought it was perfect. Lord, you give and take away. But my heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be your name. That consoles the heart of Jesus more than anything. That when the Lord gives, we praise and thank him. When the Lord takes away, we still praise and thank him. Is that easy? Not always. That's why I think our Lady of Fatima, they said the greatest sacrifice, you know, she asked for all these sacrifices. But the greatest of them is to bear our daily crosses that come through our duties. And what does it mean to bear our daily crosses? It means not to grumble and complain and rebel against God, but rather to bless his name, to praise and thanks, and to give him praise and thanksgiving. That's how we can live the sacrifice that we're called to through our Lady of Fatima. Praise and thanksgiving. Now, we have a beautiful encouragement to praise and thanksgiving in today's first reading, don't we? Remember Raphael. So this is from an angel. These are words of an angel. The words of God. What does he say to us this morning? The word of God. Thank God is what he says. Thank God. Give him the praise and the glory before all the living acknowledged the many good things he has done for you by blessing and extolling his name in song, honor and proclaim God's deeds and do not be slack in praising him. A king's secret is prudent to keep, but the works of God are to be declared and made known. Praise them with due honor. But then I think this is my favorite part, as he says some other stuff about almsgiving. And then at the very end, this is my favorite part of this passage. So now, get up from the ground and praise God. Isn't that awesome? That's an angel, right? Get up from the ground and praise God. It's like, yeah, that's it. Because a lot of times, what does that mean? Get up from the ground. Get up from the ground of our complaining. Get up the ground from our bitterness. Get up from the ground of our being Eor. What was me, right? Get up from the ground and praise God. I was in Argentina once when summer, and I was always depressed the whole time, right? Because I'm a melancholic temperament. I remember they always saying, hey, Padre. Or they say, Armando, animal. Get up. Get off the ground and praise God, right? And why is that important? Because it consoles the heart of Jesus. Because it consoles the heart of Mary. Okay, now what does this have to do with the gospel? Well, remember last night I was talking about as a melancholic temperament, sometimes, at least for me, I'm not all happy slappy with my praise. Sometimes it's not so easy to sing praise and worship. Sometimes life can be very crushing, and we can't even smile. I mean, Mother Teresa says, force a smile, right? Sometimes that's hard. But the idea is what we see in today's gospel, God understands where we are. And we give to God what we can. And the message of today's gospel is this poor woman, she gives to God what she has, and that's what's pleasing to God. So even if you're not the best singer or you sound like a frog like I do sometimes, that's okay. Give to Him what you can, right? Or if you're just not in the mood, you can't sing the songs, it's all right. Give to God what you can. As I was sharing last night, sometimes in the deep, deep moments of the deepest darkness, you can't even say with your lips, Jesus, I trust in you. But you say in your heart, Jesus, I trust in you. And you don't give into the darkness. You don't give into the despair. You don't give into the discouragement. That is one of the best forms of consoling Jesus. Because we're giving Jesus what we can. And that consoles His heart. And that consoles the heart of our mother. But there's one other amazing detail about today's gospel. Where is it? He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. He observed, Jesus was watching. Jesus was looking. And what was the theme that was introduced by Father Nathan last night, quoting Pope Francis? The gaze of Jesus, the gaze of merciful love that we see in His face in the image of divine mercy. When we see Him, when we know that He is always looking at us with love in that way, that gaze of Jesus that He's observing us, observing us to see if from our hearts we'll return the love that He has for us in that gaze of love. How can we not praise and thank Him? When we see Him as He's looking, what are you going to put in this box? What are you going to give? He's looking and He's looking at us with love. Will you make a return for love for me? Will you console my heart? We give Him what we can. If we can praise Him with full voice, let's do that. If we're not there but we need to just, Jesus, I trust in you in the midst of life's difficulties, let's give Him that. If we're in a moment of, we're just being crushed in our heart of hearts, let's not give Him despair and say, Jesus, I trust in you. And that consoles His heart most. So today, let's make our praise as best we can, be full of joy, full of the spirit, full of thanksgiving for all of the gifts that God's given to us. Let's also remember our Blessed Mother, whose heart is broken because so many reject her as their mother. Let's thank her for being our mother. Let's turn to her in our prayers and ask her to pray with us and to intercede for us that our praise would be full, so that we would console Jesus and we would console her.