 Hey everybody welcome to this wonderful Wednesday webinar. It's a very special webinar because Honestly, I got two very special people on this webinar with me And I'm excited to be able to spend time with them and with you We are here at the first week of Advent this great season where we prepare our hearts for our coming King Jesus Christ and You know just coming out of how it been celebrated the Feast of Christ the King this limited that honors him as the king of the universe And everything that that goes with that and then in admin as we once again spend time Looking at ourselves and saying we know that Jesus is the king of the universe But is he the king of our hearts? And that's that's the most important thing in all this is that you know We allow Jesus to be our own personal king that we submit our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ We're going to talk about that and what that looks like in Paul's story I'm going to share about what that has meant to them in their lives How they've experienced the Lordship and kingship of Christ and offer some practical advice to each one of you About how you can have a deeper experience of the Lordship of Christ in your life And we'll have plenty of time for Q&A. I'm going to start us with prayer And I'm going to ask sister and Paul to introduce themselves I'm going to give you a few tips on how you can be interactive and ask questions of us as a panel And then we're going to turn it over to sister to get right into it before that Let's just turn our hearts and minds to Christ our king and our Lord name the father son and holy spirit. Amen Jesus you are the king you are the king of the universe and we Turn our hearts to you because we love you. We want to live under your Lordship We want to know what it means to be children of the king Help us as we journey through Advent and Just growing our anticipation of your return that we would live in this moment under your Lordship Pour out your grace upon our hearts open us Open our hearts to your truth and let us be changed by that truth and just thank you Lord that you love us That you have already come and died for us and that you now sit on the throne of the universe May you also reign on the throne of our hearts Pour out your grace that we would be able to do all this and we ask this on your name jesus. Amen Son and Holy Spirit amen oh Now obviously I could do an introduction, but it wouldn't do justice to how awesome This lovely sister is a sister marion. Would you introduce yourself to our webinar audience this afternoon? Yes, hi. I am sister marion james hideland and i'm a member of the society of our lady of the most holy trinity i'm a part of a missionary community And i live in south texas and i've had just a distinct privilege and joy of working with Moveable conferences and in the past several years and getting to hang out with cool people like y'all So it's it's great to be here this evening and i'm delighted. So thanks for having me all right Also on this webinar. We're very blessed to have uh, some of that. I'm just Have been really blessed to be able to call friend. We've done a lot of ministry together over the years But more importantly just his friendship and brotherhood my life has meant a lot Mr. Paul george all So tell us hey john How's it going man? Thanks for having me on it's a pleasure to be with you I don't have a I have it like sister, but um It's great I know I know I'm down here in south Louisiana. I've been working with stew and bill conferences for many years And um, it's just a pleasure to be with you guys In particularly as we begin the season of ad net. So I think it's an amazing season where we Kind of pause and stop for a moment and begin to think about the question is jesus lord of our life Amen, amen All right, so everyone else Who's on this webinar, you know across the fruity plan and maybe even some neighbors to the north One of the things that you see um, you probably have on the side of your screen is a go to webinar control panel And when you as you look down that you'll see a box that says questions Now this is where you can type in questions for anyone on the panel We're going to be glad to respond to those So what I'd ask you to do is to click on the arrow that says questions and type in your name And where you are from so we've got to get a sense of who's on this webinar with us um, and uh, once again at any point during the webinar if you have a question or a comment Uh, you know, please just feel free to type it in we've got people from clinton Clinton, Ohio, Ohio, Missouri People from the Bronx. Hey, shout out to all of our new york friends Thank you for being a part of this that florida People from piss burger. Hey new brunswick canada. Welcome aboard wisconsin chicago People from a fellow louisiana, maryland dc all over the place and that's just exciting We've got a lot of great people on this call. We're glad that that you've joined us on this webinar this afternoon Alrighty And so we're going to be talking about the lordship of christ This is an important thing because if we have a solemnity a solemnity that celebrates jesus as our king We need to know what that means to us as catholics that we can truly live under the lordship of jesus christ and to start us off I'm going to turn it over to sister mariam and maybe sister you can just share about how you've experienced that and And then what's on your heart for everyone that's on this webinar with us today Thank you. Yeah, you know i'm really lately I've just undergone a major transformation in my life and it still continues to happen and One of the things that I find myself You know just continually encountering god in his beauty and mystery and I often just ask him You know, I ask the lord like show me who you are like, who are you? Who are you this magnificent god and the the title that for me? I've been proclaiming out loud over my life is that god is sovereign He is sovereign and I was just reading the catechism and I was thinking you know, because as that it's baptized christians were baptized into the Crisis priest prophet and king and I think for americans, you know, we have kind of a suspicion of kings. We say well, didn't we Did we get rid of that a few hundred years ago? So I knew this idea kingship. No, it's kind of foreign to us And but I was thinking of one of my favorite stories the Lord of the Rings I hands down my favorite stories and you think of eribor and the return of the king and how Middle-earth is set right again when the king comes into his sovereignty and but um in the catechism number 786 so If you want to pull that out again So part of the paragraph says finally the people of god Shares in the royal office of christ. He exercises his kingship by drawing all men to himself through his death and resurrection Christ king of lord the universe made himself the servantable For he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many And I'm continually amazed especially as we finish this year of mercy Of you know, hope christ is the very beginning of the year with a beautiful letter And the prayer for a sentence was that jesus christ is the face of the father. There's mercy And I just and so Just transfixed at times by god. It's like who are you like? It is goodness and his kindness and his mercy and love and beauty and justice and truth and It's overwhelming and all of us, you know, have a deep desire in our hearts to be seen and known and loved and you have a desire to worship and um I think that when we encounter christ and who he is not who we think he is Not our old broken patterns of thought not, you know Who christ reveals himself to be Is the man who loves us who lays down his life for us and to bring us into his divinity You know the catechism number one says that you've got an internally perfect and blessed in himself And a plenty of sure goodness, you know creates us to bring us into his own blessed life his own divine life and That kind of god who's you know outside of our control who's outside the box who just brings us into sure glory I just to me it just is so utterly captivating and Who wouldn't want to love a god like that? Who wouldn't want to be loved by god like by god like that? And so I think for me when I think of christ the king This continual prayer to be drawn into that for you know because he loves me He gives his life for me through his death and resurrection and calls me into that life and That is his kingship not somebody who lords it over not somebody who is a tyrant Not somebody who's trying to manipulate us or trying to you know, uh Give us to do something we don't want to do. Uh, he's trying to bring us into his glory I just can't because That's christianity like that is the heart of christianity that comes to this He takes honor sin and death to destroy it to bring us into his divinity and glory And I say amen to that Even and what was that passage from the catechism that you shared the first one? number 786 I'll bring it up here and we talked about Yeah, this is a princely prophetic and royal people Our inheritance is just so great. I feel like I live so impoverished most of the time And I have some great inheritance that I don't even first know about but then secondly live out and there's so much more You know, there's so much there's always more, you know, like they say when they're not yet Very further up and further in, right? I love it Awesome, awesome I'm trying to get it here for everyone That's a great idea 786 All right well, you know sister How have you grown? I mean, what what what do you do? I mean, obviously you have a a community of prayer that you're a connected guest But for you as a as a child of god as you stand on the floor What do you do to make sure that you're living In that proper relationship with jesus as the king? Well, I mean obviously Being a sister a religious sister, I mean, I would see the sacrament of a christian or seeing the sacrament's often So I go to daily mass and and go to confession often and obviously the devotion to our lady I'm consecrated to our blessed mother But I really firmly believe and I'm more and more convinced every day of the the necessary step of encounter every conversion daily conversion and I go to god every day throughout the day when I see parts of myself that are broken that are that need Redemption that need his that I need to save your idea to save your I can't save myself I try to save myself in 40 years. I haven't worked yet. And I you know, so I go to him as his child and say I need your help and I need to I don't I don't understand myself or You know, what is this about me? Why do I keep doing this? Or why do I have this deep dream this deep desire that sets me on fire? Come and encounter me come and encounter me come Reveal myself to come reveal yourself to me. So it's it's simple really it's just going to god and asking to see his face Because he's already drawn. I'm near to us. He's already here. We live in his universe. You know, it's his world We're just living in it. And so lord reveal who you are reveal your beauty reveal your justice reveal your truth Like it's such a simple cry from my heart Of a daily encounter, you know, he corrects me and Elements me and guides me and I hope it never ends. You know, I really do awesome awesome Wonderful and Oh, you know part of being Living with crisis king is is is living in obedience to that king. You know, we owe him our allegiance We have to approach christ even though he's friend and savior and And are in the lover of our soul like you're talking about this divine glory. There's still A radical obedience, which is the proper response to that to that love How do we how do we grow in obedience to christ? Especially when we seem to have unruly passions and desires that sometimes pull us away from the lordship of christ What advice would you give somebody who's like i want to live with jesus christ's lord But i'm just struggling to to get things under his lordship Uh, well, I think we all do that's the journey. That's the battle that st. Paul talks about that We all have parts of our hearts. We have parts of ourselves that we do stuff We should be doing and I know i shouldn't be doing it, but i'm doing it No, there's some reasons why we do what we do but I think to to really be honest about that and say lord, you know I need your help. I need what it was is going on here and sometimes, you know It's a neglect of our intelligence in a sense that I don't I'm ignorant of my faith or I just don't want to I want to do what I want to do. Don't tell me what to do Okay, so sometimes we're just like that and we just want to do what we want to do We don't want to obey but to obey really means to listen And to hear and ultimately god God is not asking us when he asks us to obey him. He's not asking us to obey him as a tyrant He's actually asking us to obey and what's gonna Make us happy as to what we want to begin with And you know Everybody watched the olympics this last summer. I think and we watched michael felts again when you know pretty much every medal There was to be won and you know, there's a discipline that came from that There's a whole I mean he went to rehab. I mean he he had a whole life discipline But you see that discipline for what a discipline not To be miserable because I'm sure at times it's hard for him to understand But a discipline to become excellent and that's what we're called to as human beings is to a love of excellence And so that means I need to do what I need to do because crisis asked me to be obedient because it's going to Leave me to glory. It's going to make me complete as a person. It's going to leave me to excellence as a person And the more I'm at war with him the more it seems like these rules are being imposed upon me But honestly, you know what? What I think I love about christianity is I love that christianity is rational It is rational and so any question that we have and why do I have to do this? The church provides and the gospels provide a reason why we do what we do and It might be hard because excellence is hard love is hard I mean as you both know is married then it's hard But it's worth it and it's beautiful and the more I can give myself Even when it's difficult to that discipline of excellence The more beauty my life takes on and as soon as that means going to 12th step Meetings means kind of counseling if you're an ad if we're adding number we're coming out of myself And so that's constant maintenance of me going and receiving mercy and and freedom of truth and correction and honesty But ultimately in the end that's what we want. Anyway, it's a very interesting paradox Yeah, yeah you know we had One of my name of grace that's on with us is happening and she said we say Lord, I open myself to you in our prayer. How can we know that we are truly? And uh completely opening ourselves to him And that's that's an excellent question excellent question because I think sometimes we get We want the signs or the evidence that that this is actually happening um You know And the sister paul, how would you how would you respond to that question? You don't want to answer my chat um Can you repeat the question john? Yeah, you know Grace just wants to know when we say the lord, I open myself to you. How can we know that we are truly completely opening ourselves to him? well Honestly, I mean, you don't really know other than your if your prayer is authentic And you're surrendering your life to god the trust that that the lord obviously hears your prayer I think what we struggle with and I know I struggle with is feel like our prayers aren't answered when we want them to Be answered Not as quick as we want and we don't see the results And the interesting thing about advent. It's a time of waiting It's it's literally sitting with mary who's pregnant Who's expecting who probably at times You know felt the uncomfort of it all And just wanted it to be done and over with and yet she had to wait um that whole period and so In our own prayer of surrender There's this discipline as sister talks about of waiting And trusting that god's with us in our prayer even though we don't feel like it's being answered Sure, sure Especially you want to add anything to that And I think it is that continual asking of surrender and I can tell you know by my life You know, what are some of the fruits like you know by the fruits, you know the tree You know, what what what kind of fruit is my life bearing? And so my life is bearing good fruit It's good indication that I am surrendering more and more to the kingship and lordship of god If my life is not very good proof I might want to look at that again and say what are the barriers because all we all have barriers So what is my barrier of deeper surrender? What is my barrier that's preventing me? Is it that I don't trust god? Maybe I do think god is a tire I mean, you know, just so we know ourselves and kind of like what am I what am I facing here? You know ask the holy spirit to come in and open my heart You know open my heart break down the barriers renounce those areas of my life where you know I'm living a fear or discouragement or despair and you know Try to you know allow Christ more deeply And he's already there but to allow that to flourish for sure Yeah, the only thing I would add is you know Grace and no one else is listening. You know this This love of the lord that comes from us is an act of our will And if you say to the lord, I open my heart to you right Understand that you know doors open slowly And the more they open the wider they get you know We don't you don't don't feel like you have to open your life completely to god the first time you do it Because you're going to find out even though you've said I open my life to completely god That god's going to show you other ways that you need to open up But that continual yes and like paul said that trust that the holy spirit is going to lead us and get us there You know like we just have to to put ourselves in the position where we let god Get into our lives and do what he needs to do And that is what prayer is about it So I just being with the lord and say okay lord do what you do in the way that you do it and us kind of Detaching from having this unrealistic expectation that if I say lord, I open my heart completely to you that Some other one prayer is going to fix us And it's going to change everything it's going to start it's a step But we need to know that we're in this for a long time like sister said, you know, we've got brokenness That sometimes god does quick miracles and heals other times It's just working it out over time in cooperation with his ongoing grace at work in our hearts And so, you know trust that you know, you know your own heart In fact Your heart is the only thing that you have that you can give to god that no one else can give And he's the that's the thing he's most desired so so if you say to him go lord I gave you my heart He's going to run to you And he's going to come draw very close to you much closer than you could ever draw to him Now that's the beauty of it is is we don't have to go very far You know, you know, the prodigal son was a long way off when the father spot spotted him and he ran to him Why because the father the prodigal son turned back He just made that simple move like i'm going back to my father and the father You know ran to him, you know, so that's a that's just a beautiful thing And just having that trust You know Alana is on the call with us and she said I think opening yourself to prayer annoying is more It is more like god peels you like an island more layers of our self are peeled off as we grow closer to god And I would say yes, you know, we get that that that layer of our brokenness healed Layers of our personality Our unruly passions and desires that peel the way and become purified And as we become more pure We are able to enter in more fully into communion with god This is this is we're given a lifetime because we need a lifetime to grow in our relationship with christ You know, I always say we're we're practicing catholics. So someday all this practice is going to pay off and we're actually going to be good catholics And that'll be nice. I'm looking forward to that day But you know, the most important thing is like paul said trust And and continue to move forward and knowing that our king and our god is more desirous of us at any moment than we are of him And all we need to do is just open our hearts a little bit and help do the rest because he's that he's that awesome He's that wonderful You know, and I want to encourage if you have um Any other thoughts and other ideas, you know, like another a follow question. We'll get to this. I'm going to ask paul to kind of share a little bit keep putting those questions out there We will get to them all but paul, you know Obviously, you know, sister has a beautiful community of love that supports her in a community of prayer and and all that You and I are married guys with children. We have Lots of bills to pay lots of little things to deal with big things to deal with day in and day out Um practically speaking What what does it mean for a man of god like yourself to to live? And experience the lordship of christ and the kingship of christ day in and day out Yeah, I mean there's a lot of moving pieces and I think you know for all of us including sister lives busy It's crazy a lot of moving parts and I think oftentimes we feel like um How do we even evaluate our relationship with god, right? Which I find interesting that right for advent begins Is the sunday of christ the king where we're where the church is saying, you know god is Is god he's jesus's king and lord of all and it really it really places us in a position to ask the question Is jesus lord of our life? And I don't know about you guys, but but that time of year I'm walking through the stores and the christmas stuff is already out Uh, it's advent for us as catholics But certainly we're attracted by Thanksgiving shopping um, all the all the things that that surround us And and then it just flies by and this is what I find so important about advent is that It really sets us up as catholics to enter into the mystery of god But for me here are the three things that I really struggle with and I find in my conversation with people that they struggle with One is busyness um Two is materialism and envy And three is worry and stress And uh, I I'm struggling with one of those at some point And I know a lot of people during this time and season those those things are sort of Even heightened more around the holidays And it's interesting because advent We have this imagery to draw us in the jesus to draw us in the gods if you're struggling with busyness Uh as I often do Mary and joseph take this very slow journey to egypt Where she's riding on mule. He's walking She's pregnant And uh, it's the middle of the night They don't know where they're going to go or stay And that image of their journey to egypt Um calls us to slow our pace down and To ask the question. Am I walking the pace that jesus wants me to in my life or am I way ahead of it? right and because of jesus jesus is lord He's also leader Right and that's something that we have to look at the second materialism and envy and often I struggle during this time It's easy. What are people getting and having and buying and all these things? uh There's no greater image during this season for us than the major That calls us to simplicity There's nothing more simple than the major I don't know exactly what it looked like But I know it didn't look like sister's curtains In her background You sure I know that It's exactly because of the major of paul georgia But they ended up a major that that simplicity that mary and joseph and jesus um stated and um But that's a that's an image that I often longed to be in and worry and stress the third thing during this time of season Jesus has come to me all you who are labor And burden I will give you rest and often You know when mary was first pregnant. She goes and visits elizabeth And elizabeth says who am I that that the mother of our lord should visit me? And mary's like what I'm here and jesus is is within her And they come to visit elizabeth And they stay with her both of them the lord and mary stay with elizabeth And that's exactly What jesus and mary want to do with us they just want to stay with us That's beautiful. I think what you're uh, what you shared paul resonates with a lot of people on this webinar You know, we we know that this is a very holy time that gets very much encroached upon by very worldly concerns Just we try to do too much. We want to spend too much. We want We want to please everybody and that causes us a stress um, and I'm looking at some of the con uh comments, uh, you know, like People are struggling out there. Um, we'll get to these, uh I somebody said, you know College they're a college student that's with us Gabrielle Going off the shows going off the problem of worrying stress college can be stressful Not only with school but also with feeling alone and not fitting in. How do I walk with jesus this advent season when I feel You know, it's oftentimes I think You know, we can get very much caught up in loneliness. Um, you know Uh, what do you think? It's not sister and what advice would you give to somebody who's like going into having a feeling lonely and like they don't fit in I think that that's uh Probably a sentiment that we all have at times, you know, how many of us at the times you used to feel ugly alone You feel like amen. Is anybody senior? Does anybody understand me? And I think I'm inviting christ into that not trying to numb it I think the first impression like paul was saying is to numb it like through getting busy or getting more Stuff or a bit that I think really to take time to To visit a church go visit christ and spend a time in front of a nativity scene I love that paul brought up the imagery of the And you think of christ of his life, um Yeah, many times of him being incredibly lonely and now he takes that on he understands that I think to really get to the bottom of that But I think also so it's a really important for us This is also a season of getting as well like christ, you know God gives his son to us and so it's also a season to Maybe there's people in my life that need to visit maybe there's people like or I can go and visit them or go reach out to them That's amazing what many times that some reaching out can do that it's a gift to both people So to really acknowledge that part of us and allow christ to encounter part of us But also to reach out to others as well because all of us, you know How those parts part that are lonely at times and we all know people that maybe live alone or the nursing homes or Just really some great opportunities and seats and to reach out and to be a human to other people And to meet them one on one Absolutely, you know, that's whenever I pray the rosary and I'm meditating upon the the joyful mysteries and we get to the visitation I'm always struck by what paul is saying like The mother of god comes to us to serve us, you know, even in the midst of her own You know, I mean I love her first response to angel. How can this be? You know, she didn't have all the answers. She wasn't given like perfect fore knowledge of how everything was going to work out for her But even in her state where you know, you think oh pamper me watch over me care for me She's coming out of herself and I think sometimes that's a great cure for loneliness It's just wants to come out of ourselves and do something that serves other people And I think during the seasons. It's so important for us to remember that Um, we need real contact with people not just the things you know, not the materialistic things like people You know Jerry Seinfeld has this great bit where he says look every gift that you're going to buy and get to some of this This to somebody this is it's going to end up in a dump eventually. Okay It's going to end up in a dump, but the love that we share is going to go on Into eternity Let's not forget that you know like the Giving of our hearts makes us better people You want to know how we can live under the lordship of christ and serve christ as lord and king? It's by serving other people It's not about us, you know Like like how I serve the king by serving his children those who are made in his image of likeness the christ That's right in front of you and being able to pray and recognize Christ in the person in front of you and serve that person as if you were serving christ himself because you are That is the face of jesus that that that broken human face that that that relative that frustrates you that That co-worker that irritates you. That's the face of christ that we can love and honor Through our lives and and reveal that christ is the king, you know, and it's it's very human It's not super spiritual like sometimes we think oh what's going on in me is christ my king's like How do you treat other people that's a good indicator Are we you like the blessed mother in command of our selves? um Yeah, john You know one of the things to go along with with what your sister was saying is I love the line from elizabeth where she says who is it that the mother of our lord should come to me Which means nary and jesus come and that's an authentic Feeling a human feeling that she had I don't deserve For you to come visit me I'm lonely. I'm old and pregnant. I I this is weird. What's going on, you know with elizabeth and and uh And and and yet mary and jesus come and stay with her and in the midst of our loneliness I think that one of the greatest heresies of christianity today is that People begin to believe that once I know christ or get involved in the church everything's great All my issues and problems go away And that's it's a big fat hawk and lie. It's simply not true And we see in the gospel that jesus continuously Comes into our mess This is what advent is Advent is proof that christ came into the messy world That messy world Is included in our messy hearts our messy lives our confusion our brokenness our loneliness And that for me was a turning point. That was a transition in my conversion of going from I believe in god to Jesus is the lord of my life Because he's willing to come into into this broken guy into this sinful guy into this lonely guy and transform me from the inside out Uh, I had a dirty manger. I still do it, but christ comes in you see and the the true belief In christ is believing that that christ comes in our messiness and the messiness of this world Amen, amen. I love that and I think I think there's a freedom that comes when we understand that the only thing that god can bless Our yeses and messes And I'll have to say i'm a mess. Here's my yes jesus. Yes to you come in and do what you do And we don't have to clean up for the lord. We have to let the lord come in and clean us up He's the redeemer. I think sometimes we think well, I have to redeem certain aspects of my life and get it in proper order And then jesus can embrace it And it's not he's the redeemer. He's the one that comes into that mess and and when we when we embrace that And and and kind of find joy in that Then living under lordship of christ is so much easier I sister mentioned lord of the rings and I'm on tolkin not I love I love reading the books There's so much more to the books than the movies but like like when we think of the king You know and this is like any any movie you've ever watched where there's a king who conquers right the king comes in His armies conquered and those conquered enemies at some point Right, they come into the throne room and the king sitting up there on this throne, you know I've conquered you kneel before me and pledge your allegiance or you will die Yeah, and so when we think of what does it mean to be conquered by jesus the king For me He conquered me with love. I mean he he doesn't take what's not freely given to him Our lord conquers with love He broke down my resistance my fears my doubts by pouring out Isn't that incredible amount of love and mercy upon me at a moment in my life when I was completely lost When I didn't know who I was or why I was on this earth The king of the universe conquered my brokenness my resistance my sin by just This massive outpouring of grace And that's you know for me, you know when I look at it and I say, you know if jesus What is the geography of my heart where jesus isn't worth it? And how can I continue to surrender that to the lord where where are there still Where's the brokenness still in my life? That's what I want to do because every time I've surrendered another part of my heart to his lordship He's come in and made it shine He's redeemed and he's turned it around And and to have that kind of king in my life You know if the if the old testament teaches us anything is that human beings make lousy kings You know when the people broke up and said All the nations around us lord have kings. We want a king. We want a king in the words like you have no idea what you're asking for I'm your king No, we don't want a god king. We don't want a The ultimate authority king. We want a human king like everyone else has and then guys like, okay Be careful what you ask for and we gave them a number of human kings that just totally screwed up everything You know worship false gods disobeyed gods commands led the people corrupt broken men And when we try to be our own king we do a really lousy lousy job We need The protection of christ one of the things I shared in the description is like one of the five amazing benefits of having You know jesus crisis came to life I want to share those and then we're going to get back and answer some more your questions like number one When you have a king and you know think of this Why did the king have a castle with high walls and and thick? You know stone and high towers with guards because when enemy invaders would come to that land Everyone would be invited to find refuge and protection in that castle. That's why the king built a huge castle That's where his people would go when the foreigners would invade and we have in christ Our strong tower we can go to him that's number one He's our strong tower where we can always seek refuge and protection when we are under attack He will stand with us. He will guard us. He will protect us. That's his oath as king Number two he can bring in to submission all of my unruly passions emotions in the diet I can't have that I can't see the control jesus christ can be the lord over those and I give those to him and he Gives me the strength and it gives our he'd be the grace to overcome Third he has an army of angels that he's always willing to send to me To guard me protect me and guide me I have my own personal guardian angel assigned to me by my king who's got my back my front my sides my top my bottom He's always there you know and and when I'm under Certain attack that army of angels can come to me because jesus christ is my worthy king fourth and this one comes from The return of the king and it's a scene that's kind of not given enough credit in the movie And that's that there's the house of healing that the camera You know where fair mirror after he gets wounded in their battle goes And you you see it in the movie He pours water on his wounds and then he lays hands on And he can't see that he's actually praying but you get the sense and talk his mind that the king is praying for the healing The pheromone and he's restoring Not just restored physically, but he comes out of there a different person You know you see him at the end of the movie This this boy who wondered if his father loved him who always lived in the shadow of his mighty warrior brother He's a different person when the king Gives his hands of healing upon him and that's what our god does He has that power those hands of healing to heal any one of our broken wounds and finally And sister maryon talked a lot about this in her sharing is that his kingdom is a kingdom of Love where our hearts can drink the joy and peace and love that we most desperately thirst for And our god pours that out and lashes it apart subjects with the pundits So how do I live under the lordship of christ? I have a prayer I pray every morning Lord god, I play probably I pledge my allegiance to you I give you my heart my life and my work And return I ask that you give me the grace to obey your every command to the fullest possible extent That's the first thing I pray every morning when I get on my knees to pray I just pledge my allegiance to the lord Do I feel in that moment this awesome connection? No But it plays itself out during the day when I am called to Obey when I'm called to love when I'm called to make a particular movement the grace is there Why because I've made that fundamental decision that I want to put jesus christ on the throne of my heart every day I want to enthrone him and say jesus you're the king You sit on the throne and I think as we grow in that as we learn to do that He'll expose and he'll reveal the areas of our heart that need particular attention by his grace by his spirit for goodness healing whatever Sometimes, you know, he Polishes us like silver and sometimes he hits us along side the head with two by four because that's what we need But it's all good because as the lord he knows what we need, you know, so, you know That's that's kind of where where I am with the whole the whole name with jesus being the king um let's see We have I don't know if you guys can you see the question, but there's one on here Yeah, for some reason it just is blind, but okay. Well, I'm just going to share they there's a A woman online with us today and she wrote in I'm the mom of the family. She's a single mom I'm the mom of the family that had suffered great abuse and trauma I'm working with a team of counselors and some of my kids have drifted from god because of the pain How can I best need them How can I best need us through this time of suffering as we work through the need to constantly kneeling process And her children ran in age from 11 to 22 She said it's so painful to see them not recognize god's love for them despite the pain of their young lives That's a heavy burden to carry and uh, you know Let's just take a moment to operate. Um, and then we'll uh Maybe whatever is on the heart lord god, we just lift up the situation Catherine and her family And as the priority of grace upon her and her children as they seek healing under the word of christ And as as a loving mother Who has a deep passion so your children come to know what christ they ask that you especially bless Catherine with all the grace that she needs Jesus we just entrust this to you knowing that whatever you give us in terms of crosses and suffering Will bear fruit of righteousness and salvation as we will continue to submit to your your lordship and join the blessed mother we pray for your intercession as well So pa you're getting ready to say something Yeah, I um I'm a product of a single mother home uh divorce family and I definitely feel You know the pain of This woman and uh You know there's no good answer other than You know first of all just just honestly Giving your life to the lord And and trusting your kids even though, you know, they're certainly affected by The situation and I don't know the whole situation but um, I know as a parent now four kids that um You come to a place as a parent where you realize Your kids aren't yours. They're gods. They belong to him. And so certainly you can do everything you can to form them and help them and guide them But ultimately you Just like Mary did with Jesus as hard as it was as an earthly mother She had to hand Jesus back to the father And let go and and we have to give our kids and trust for the lord So I'm gonna in particularly be praying for the situation through admins So I want to just thank whoever it is for sharing your story with us Thank you sister, you know I've been blessed to hear you share about your life and some of the things that you've gone through and you have You know you're shining an example of that continued faith And working out the things that you need to work out with the lord in such a beautiful way What would what would you want to say Well, my heart goes out to her. I know that's just tremendously painful and I you know the suffering that's that's really you know For every generation of boys the question isn't it if God is so good Then why is there so much suffering and all of us had said that you know, why would that allow this to happen? You know And as we wrestle with those things, I think that to me continually, you know In 12 step groups, you know, it's you know, how do we recover hlw how by being honest open and willing and I think for For her to continue to pursue like Paul's saying to the lord in honesty openness and willingness And allow him to continue to encounter you and it's not an easy journey like life is messy is you know, everybody knows But I think that to hold on to the truth of that. I I really think that To remind ourselves and that's really the why the gospel is good news It's so the suffering is not the end of the story The story isn't over in your family And she's listening to you know, this that's not the end of the story I mean the god will work miracles through that as we continue to allow him to to transform it and Um, but it's truly we all have to do our own work But I think if there's a particular scripture passage that I want of encouragement or maybe it's just spending time with christian's death and resurrection You know, those are truths like the word of god is living in effectiveness So that might be really helpful even in your bathroom mirror to put in one of your favorite scripture passages That reminds you that god is sovereign And if he sees you he knows you he loves you and this story is not the end. It is not the end god will Bring glory to it Yeah Somebody said the how do we grow and trust in that christ will come through for us? I pray for a greater trust every day. Well, what are some practical tips for trust in this kingship? You know, I would just say You know, I'm a big fan of sainteres in the suit I can I can really relate to her spirituality and her feeling a little And inadequate and needing so much and she's Her life and her her prayers and her Writings have taught me so much about trusting the lord and one of the things that you know, she she shared is that We can never show god the love he deserves, but we show god what we love and by trusting in his love So how do we trust how do we grow and trust in christ? I'll share real briefly It's just a matter of giving him the things that I struggle with and not being afraid to do that To sing to god. I will be completely honest with you my prayer So when I show up on prayer to pray someday and my prayer, you know, I'll pray that prayer in Jesus I pledge my allegiance to you I give you my heart my life and my work in exchange Give me the grace of obeying your commands the fullest possible extent So I submit to but now I'll say god, I'm just struggling And I don't even know if I want to pray right now because I'm struggling I feel distracted. I'm feeling this. It's very much in the in the in the vein of what sainte Ignatius I taught his uh his his people and people in his order to pray is like Just take all your feeling in that and give that to christ and say, okay I want to trust you jesus, but i'm struggling I have a hard time letting go of this And the most important thing is after you say these things and be honest with god Is just let god speak back to you on there because he wants to speak to you directly Where you're struggling that he cares about you and he wants you to know that he is aware And able to deal with it and if we don't come to god, honestly We'll never get that response that he is more than capable of dealing with this He might not fix it right that in the moment most times. He doesn't he'll let us know And we can continue to move forward What what would you bad sister paul feel free to jump in I think if um, I think if trust was easy jesus would have said that in scripture Right, he would have just said trust is easy. Don't worry about it And I think a moment of his deepest trust. He sweat drops of blood In the garden Where he was like father, I don't know what's going on But I trust in you it was painful the trust was painful Sometimes trust is easy. Sometimes it's very difficult And I sister mentioned earlier and I kind of want to book him in a little bit because I don't want to forget is The sacraments remind us of who god is Do this and remember it's of me. It it god continuously reminds us it In our life and walk with christ We have to assume it's be reminded of his love and one of the greatest ways we're reminded of that is Do the sacraments where where god tangibly says remember that I love you remember But every mass or every confession That's what god does for us. He he reminds us Um, and that he's there and when we know god's there Even though we don't feel it And it's easier for us as humans to trust In his in his plan That's beautiful. Thank you for reminding us. I honestly believe that one of the One of the most painful wounds that we all have because of the original sins we have Really poor short-term memory of the goodness of god. We can forget So easily in the midst of the day to day how awesome our god is and how passionately he is in love with us How he is always on our side always there Closer than than our next breath to animate us and give us hope You know and and all the ways that he's proven to him to us himself faithful over the years We can forget in those moments and fall into almost a panic of oh my gosh, how's that, you know Boy boy, you know like and I and I pray for that. I like I pray god Don't let me forget because you're coming and he said that remember me and do this in remembrance of me That's beautiful. Paul. Thank you for sharing that and also thank you for reminding us that in the garden Jesus's trust was it was the most painful thing, you know that Brought him to his knees and caused him to sweat blood You know if that's if that's the way the lord would draw his trust in his father Why would it be any different for us? Why should we expect it to be easier for us to find ourselves growing and trust that's hard Let's see Did you want to did you had anything you wanted to add to that In terms of growing and trust Right, I mean really trust it's like it's like a muscle, right? I mean we grow We are we a muscle grows stronger by use of it, especially, you know And if you ever out of your mid snowscreen, you know you at the next day or sorry your sore muscles You didn't know you had You know and so I think that You know all of us have opportunities every day throughout our day. Am I going to worry? Are my going to choose to trust us and I think it's those times where I I mean, I don't know I guess I'm very introspective. I have to be like, why am I not trusting here? Like what's triggering me some kind of like what's what's the deal here so I can confess that or I can allow About to heal that but I think many times it is choosing like lord. I I'm just going to choose to trust you here I you I look through the gospel you've never failed those who put their trust in you are never put to shame And I am going to choose even that looks crazy. I'm gonna trust you I'm not gonna worry about this and it's easier said than done like Paul said But it really is a muscle that becomes easier to use when we when we use it Yeah, and to add to that sister You know one of the things about working out or sports is that we can get bored with it and so Sometimes changing your workout helps you reinvigorate working out and You know, we're coming out of ordinary time where we're just kind of cosmo and I think advent's a hard right term In the reality spiritually and we have to ask the questions advent I do as well as How does God want me to change my routine so I can wake up to the reality of the life that he's calling me to live Because I've been sort of sleeping through ordinary time And I need to decide like how am I gonna how I'm gonna change my routine song and board What is God asking me to do so I can trust more but maybe I need to Wake up earlier and pray or maybe I need to go to mass more during the week Or maybe I need to make a list of people I need to reach out to I need to do something That's gonna help me to grow some muscles that have been sort of relaxing Sometimes we just have to do that and I think advent's sort of this wake up call for us to To you know, maybe the prayer you've been praying for trust just seems to be getting old Find a new one, you know find something new to do that kind of pops you out of it and says okay and I know one of the things that I I did to a season Through spiritual direction My spiritual direction suggested that in my prayer That I don't ask God for anything And I simply just talk to God and ask God how he's doing Oh, that's great And I and I went through two months of that And it just changed my whole attitude of prayer my whole attitude of I would see what was happening as I was going into prayer Constantly saying God here's everything in my life. What was me? I need this. I need this I trust in you And what what this did is it just popped me out of that rhythm into a new rhythm And it was good for me. It was good for me at that time. So Advent does that for us. And so maybe we need to ask the question What is it that God wants me to do this advent that's going to pop me into a new routine a new reality of who I am Through the lenses of God Yep, I love it. You know because I think you're right, you know, we're waiting but we're also preparing You know, I mean like the call of you know, the prepare the way of the Lord I I know for me one of the things that had that kind of Broke me through can got me to a new level of Intimacy with Christ and that's a thing, you know, I You know when I put together the title like, you know, the first line is Come let us adore him You know, that's one of my favorite hymns You know, come let us adore him Oh God You know when we seek about making Jesus Christ, he wants to be adored and what I realize is in my heart If I'm so full of myself And so full of my anxieties and so full of my concerns and so full of the materialistic things that are happening around me And it's so easy for me to get caught up in those things every day That the thing that really has helped me is fasting If you want to do something this advent that will kick your spirituality to the next level fast create some room for God to do something I remember Pope Benedict the 16th A few years ago. He talked about making room for God And he said, you know In the midst of your life when Jesus Christ knocks on the door and you open it up Will there be room for him to actually come in? Or will you be so full of yourself and the concern of this world that he's like You've opened your heart, but I can't come in because there's no room for me Give something up Whether that be food, television Some comfort that you cling to Whatever it is that you turn to to you know, when you feelings give that up for a while And say, okay, I'm not going to check it that I'm going to turn to you Christ I guarantee you I guarantee if you create that space that will be filled by God And the more space we create for God in our lives through denial and and letting go For the more space will have for Christ to come in and dwell and and and when he fills us He fills us with love and peace and joy And when we're full of these other things You see we can't There's no spiritual progress without a level of renunciation I mean Jesus Christ himself said but you must deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me And so we must deny ourselves as we prepare to receive more of Christ And I I tell you that you won't find it. I think a better discipline that would you know help you break through Uh and and deepen your spirituality than fast and if you haven't you haven't tried to imagine it go for it um somebody else Yeah, it was uh sarah who wrote and said uh I was told that I've been a similar dilemma ourselves for Jesus and that's absolutely true It's a special time of preparation special time of being with the Lord um With so much going on what a waste to prepare yourselves for Jesus. I just shared about fasting and and she also said by the way It's not too much to ask Her boy from josh is watching and she wants me to say Josh god loves you So there you go. Josh you're loved by God And I'm telling you right now on the authority of the church god and the witness that Jesus Christ has been the lord of my life That he loves you and he's coming after you buddy this first of all, okay, john You cannot ask her to marry you over webinar. Okay, but I tell you what Josh if you got a girl if you got a girl this good who's telling you that god loves you. She's a keeper Josh just was fine All right, yeah, here's the other thing You gotta communicate like job. We'll do another webinar on on dating and Oh my gosh, um, let's go back. I don't I don't want to skip over how Especially in the idea of the dory price and showing him love As we prepare what are some other practical things people could do this ad bit to uh to live more in that moment Abortion of just community and being with Jesus Christ sister. What would you what would you advise and share with people? Uh, well, I think I certainly think taking concerted time to pray and I'm you know, um, as was mentioned earlier If you haven't it to be seen it just if you could put it on your room and put on your prayer room It's really important just to kind of spend time there and just to read Just to reflect the reality that christ draws near to us He started it and he's so humble God is so kind and so humble and he just comes to dwell with us, you know That is just it's completely changes kind of how we relate and I think to you know season also This season also being as a family of people and so to really try to put the self on away and really talk to people and spend time with them You know when you have that opportunity It really does make a huge difference. I think just to really be um, I hate the word attentional right now Because it's so cliche but it's really the attentional about spending time with the Lord and in that, you know Beautiful imagery and also with one another looking at each other in the face Eye to eye and listening being present Everybody wants somebody to be present to them and we know when when people are present to us and it makes a huge difference So those are little things that we can do that really do change our lives I agree. I I I find it, um Interesting, you know that uh, you know, we want to Learn how to be intimate with God, but you're not interested in learning how to be intimate with one another How are we to grow and and being real with God if we can't be real with one another? And and that takes risks that takes coming out of ourselves and but I have found, um You know when you when you do that the fruitfulness of that in terms of just self-discovery and just growing in love for somebody it comes from vulnerability You know and Yeah, I'm saying you tell your deepest secrets to everybody and broadcast them on the radio like that or post them on your facebook Well, but I'm saying Find somebody that you can be real with and learn how to do that because it'll spill over new relationship We got and having like you said put away the distractions and focus on people That'll be a discipline that will spill over to your spiritual life as we do it more in the relationships We have caring more about being with people than You know doing something for them or having them do something for you. It's great advice All and what was you at? um So I'll just tell you what I'm doing for admin, you know to answer the question of the group admins a mini lit To prepare our hearts for jesus Uh, so certainly prayer, but but what could what could revamp or lighten your You know in live in your prayer life. So I'm I'm going to try to go to mass more visit the sacraments more with my prayer life this this admin um To waiting Uh, that's a form of fasting. So so fast maybe from asking Fast from social media fast from food fast You know find something that you can That you could carve out some space like john said earlier. Um, and so you know For me, uh, you know, I'm gonna fast from something and then and then three give They're an admin so in the middle of our table. We have an admin brief. Um We also set up our christmas tree already. Don't judge but anyway, um All right, I don't know I know I'm going to have them but Um In the background the christ We we have a jor a giving jor this advent that our family is giving to mission and hady Uh, it's called hady 180 Which are going on a trip in the spring with choice for us. You could Yeah, visit that website, but so for us. We're giving tangibly as a family So those those things I think actively help us to carve out space Uh, so so that christ can come More intimately into our hearts That's cool. When are you when are you going up? I'm going down to march with the shon So spring break. We're doing a trip in my family with shon and there's spaces for people to go People want to go on mission trip to hady. So then go to hady 180 dot com Uh to get information awesome Uh, one of the traditions that my family has is uh a few years ago um We bought this really cool looking wooden crib And it is a a baby jesus But we don't put baby jesus into christmas and during advent every time you do an act of kindness For uh, you know, remember the fame you just take a piece of straw out of the straw But we can put it in the crib and the idea is we want to make the crib as big and comfortable with full of straw So when jesus comes he has a great place to rest And we and we do that, you know little kindness During lent we have a we make a dough crown And we stick toothpicks all through us as a crown of thorns and every time you do a kindness to somebody you get to Break off one of the thorns and so by the end of lent It's we at the end of lent all the thorns are gone and we spray painted golden Glove jewels all over it and then use it as a better piece that are Easter dinner So little things, you know to remind, you know yourself of why you do Why would we do what we do? We are a little bit over time. It's five. It's a little after eight in the eastern seaboard. I'm in california, so it's a little after five I need to wrap up, but there's one last comment that I want to be able to Share I asked from peter. He says I'm I'm a high school sophomore at an all-boys school And I'm struggling following the commands of god our king's the best of my ability is exhausting I feel sometimes drains of life due to the strains and hardships of christian life Part of the problem is that I sometimes get the sense That the quantity of my prayer exceeds the quality of my prayer I know god's commands are supposed to be life-giving and not life-draining. What am I doing wrong? How can I submit myself to the authority of the life-giving king? um You know peter first of all your desire to serve god is beautiful Your desire to know god is awesome and your desire to love god is the greatest desire you could possibly have um except for The desire to know god's love for you first first john chapter for We love because god loves us I would I would just encourage you brother to put aside all the expectations you have of yourself before christ And come to him as and just say i'm a i'm a I'm a broken bucket that leaks because obviously god's pouring grace, but it's not holy. Where are you leaking? Why aren't you why aren't you able to hold this love in and don't go to god saying What are the demands go to god and say look i can't love you until you love me first And i'm not going to leave this prayer until you speak love to my heart And just hold god accountable to speak love to you I know that I oftentimes try to perform and earn my father's love I can forget so quickly that the first movement of god is his love for me And everything that I am as a man and as a follower of christ is in response To that movement of god's love for me and when I find i'm struggling I usually can step back and say okay even what I haven't just let god love me I haven't Because I get pride for all I can do this. I've got this guy. I don't need you as much I don't need you know, and then I'm like no I always need god's love And and and the eyes of god i'm always this child and a child always needs their father's love They never outgrow that um you know, I want to encourage you to just Go to god And don't worry about the quantity or the quality of your prayer just be with god and say god this is one air I want to know your love more. I want to serve you more deeply. I feel like I'm being drained You know, I will also say there's times that it is exhausting to follow christ It is hard But that shouldn't be the norm and that shouldn't be the way you look at yourself like you've got a problem following christ And she You know, I would just encourage you to let yourself be loved by god and we'll let sister pause you I don't think you want to add to that That's what just came to my mind. It's maybe that's a great thing for advent is just to ask Lord, show me how you love me Show you know, show me you love me and banish all fear You know keeping me from fear and show me how you love me and that's god delights to do that. He does And it's very simple, but that's what advent is he's supposed to Yeah, I just want to affirm you man. You're a teenager and you're on a webinar with a bunch of nerdy people So good for you And it's it's not easy especially as a young person living for christ and so I just know that showing up is half the battle Don't worry about what to say to god. Just open your heart and Make it real Don't don't don't make it formal And god's there god's always there and shows up even when it's difficult. So Keep pressing on my friend. You got this And and reject this idea that you're doing something wrong Because satan will grab ahold of that and try to mess with your mind and believe that not only you you're doing something wrong But there's something wrong with you. That's that that that god can't work in and that's not that's so far from you That's a lie from the on the depths of hell You know Peter god looks at you and he sees your honest desire and he's going to reward that Persevering prayer and just take time and let god love you and be transformed by that encounter with that love And you know, we I guess we this was Come let us adore him I would encourage you know like go to the Eucharist Sit before the blessings act me even if it's not exposed in the monstrance Even if it's just in front of the tabernacle if you can find that one other time a week where you can just spend 15 20 maybe even 30 minutes just Looking at jesus and let him look at you don't come with an agenda. Don't come with a list of prayers. Just okay, jesus I'm just going to be here And there's something beautiful about the Eucharist where it radiates god's love to north souls whether we're aware of it or not Like if you were to take the Eucharist out of your church's tabernacle and put like a piece of radioactive Isopope in there and just sit in front of it that radiation would pour forth from the tabernacle would permeate your body It could even mutate you on the cellular level and you would never feel it Until it had completely changed you on the inside And maybe even done irreparable harm to you in the same way when we sit before that Eucharist God radiates his love and it penetrates us and it changes our souls And it's in a very way they're constituted, but it's not in a bad way. It's always in a good way We don't feel it And you don't feel it as guys who I was penetrating you sometimes But it is that's the promise of that of that presence of christ body blood soul and divinity And his spirit is poured forth for you. So if you're looking To uh to to go deeper in this lens, you know spend some time just adoring Christ and being with him in love Amen, and if you're hungry go make a sandwich It's real Paul Listen, I want to say a special thanks to sister Miriam And and the paul for being a part of this I want to thank everyone who took time out of your busy admin, you know the piece of what can I do come on a webinar And let's know a bunch of weird people talk to you about Jesus for the that might even help you grow in your faith Any final words that you want to share sister? Um, you're loved god loves you and you're dear to him and he's drawing close to you now That's the best. That's the good news. You were deeply deeply Paul and then you want to Yeah, no, this is great. Thanks john and for everyone listening Uh sister has a book out, uh loved as I am it's I think it's a great book if you haven't gotten it Get it or get it for someone it just speaks volumes about a lot of what we talked about today And uh sister i'm gonna have you on my radio show soon. Paul george show we can talk more about that So that can be on itunes or on soundcloud. You can find that we have these conversations continually And so there's great resources out there. So john thanks for doing this and You know, hopefully more more people can uh Can log on and we can have these conversations. So thanks Yeah, and this uh, this webinar was recorded and it will be up on studentbookconferences.com on our webinar page We're going to be doing one uh on december 7th, which is called the art of accompaniment So if you do ministry young person or your parent you want to know how to walk with a teen on a faith journey What does that look like in the his letter to uh to the church pope francis? And evangelicality have said we need to learn the art of accompaniment how to walk authentically with people in a consistent loving way So we can lead them to christ and that's what that webinar is going to be about And then on the 14th we're going to have it's called the breath of god listening to the holy spirit I think somebody else we didn't get to about i wanted to point it out that how do we know Here's something In prayer that it's god speaking We're going to be talking about that in the role of the holy spirit and making that a reality for us So, uh, you'll find more information on how to register on our webinar page for those two webinars as well Before you log on off if you um Want to uh text in the comments section here any other ideas topics that you would like us to address in webinar format Please feel free to do that once we get the webinar up feel free to direct your friends And we're able to be a part of this to that to watch it and it'll it'll be up soon And once again on behalf of uh, sister maryon and paul himself and my staff and everyone that helps make these webinars happen Thank you and god bless you adamant stay close to his love and and be that instrument that he needs you to be to uh To make a joyful, uh christmas for yourself and for your families, right? Everyone take care