 With the show of hands, can I see how many people, is this your first time here for this conference? Holy Toledo, okay. Wow. All right, me too. This is my first time at any of the Stubb-Mill conferences, so this is very exciting for me, especially because I was a student here. So, yeah, yeah. I remember I graduated, right? This is probably the same stage. I'm not gonna tell you how long ago, but it is an incredible joy to be here. Singing the praise to the Lord, remembering all the blessings, I'm sure a lot of us feel the same way. It's a great way to begin this conference of if we've had problems at the home or problems on our minds. We do some praise and worship of the Lord and it seems to melt away, doesn't it? So what I'd like to do is, in that spirit, I wanna give, I'm gonna tell a story which I apologize if any of you have heard this story already. If you have, it's a Friday, it's a first Friday, and you can offer it up for everybody else here, but I can't not tell these stories because so many of them took place right here. So, if you've heard them already, like I said, offer it up. But I hope it will be a blessing for you, at least that the Holy Spirit will have something for us in it. Now, before I begin giving testimony and telling those stories, I'd like to first introduce the theme of the talk by reading a quote from Pope Francis that he gave last year to the priests of the Diocese of Rome, and it's probably my favorite quote that I've ever heard from any pope, this one in any pope. It's a remarkable, remarkable statement and words that we could listen to with a spirit of faith and I think you'll understand when I read the first lines of why I think it's so fitting for this conference. To the priests of the Diocese of Rome at the beginning of last year, Pope Francis said, listen to the voice of the spirit. Listen to the voice of the spirit that speaks to the whole church in this our time, which is in fact the time of mercy. I am certain of this. We have been living in the time of mercy for 30 or more years up to now. It is the time of mercy in the whole church. It was instituted by St. John Paul II. He had the intuition that this was the time of mercy. We think of the beatification and canonization of Sister Faustina Kavalska and then he introduced the feast of Divine Mercy Sunday. He moved slowly, slowly and went ahead with this. And then he goes on to give a quote from the homily of canonization for St. Faustina in the year 2000 that talks about how now is the time of mercy. And then he goes on. It is clear that now is the time of mercy. It was explicit in the year 2000, but it was something that had been maturing in John Paul's heart for some time. He had this intuition in his prayer. Today we forget everything so easily. Also the magisterium of the church. It is inevitable in part, but we cannot forget the great contents, the great intuitions and the consignment left to the people of God. And that of the Divine Mercy is one of these. It is a consignment that John Paul gave us, but which comes from on high. It is up to us as ministers of the church to keep alive this message. Now what's the message that it's the task of these ministers of the church that he's preaching to at the beginning? This is actually the beginning of Lent. What's the message that they're to keep alive? Actually, I think we have the time. Yeah, there you go, you got it. What time is it? There you go, good, you guys are good. Did you hear this talk before? Most people give the time and I say no, right? But it is the time of mercy and Pope Francis, although this doesn't apply to you guys, today we forget everything so hastily, right? We forget this great intuition, the great consignments that God has given to us in our day, and that is the proclamation that now is the time of mercy. What is the spirit saying? At the beginning of his address, he says, listen to the voice of the spirit. And when we listen to the voice of the spirit for today, what is he saying? What time is it? Now is the time of mercy. That is incredible, incredible news, incredibly good news that should fill us with tremendous hope. But what does that mean that now is the time of mercy? I think the key to understanding what the time of mercy means is what we read in Romans 5, verse 20. We're sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. In other words, in a time of great evil, God wants to give even greater graces. And part of the intuition of John Paul II was that while there's many blessings in our modern world, evil has a reach in our day unlike any other time in the history of the church. That now is a time of unprecedented evil. But that shouldn't depress us because we're sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. And in a time of unprecedented evil, God wants to give unprecedented grace. And that's why now is the time of mercy. Another reason now is the time of mercy is because last century, John Paul called it the century of tears was the bloodiest century in human history. Now that doesn't seem very hopeful, does it? Except when we remember the famous words of Turtilian, who I studied here but I can't pronounce his name. The early church father who said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. We got the program statue of our Lady of Fatima in the back. The last apparition of Fatima that was revealed in the year 2000, or an apparition or a word from Fatima that was revealed like late. It gives a vision of a pulp, right? And he's shot and he dies and this and that. But there's also these angels. Remember what the angels are doing? They have those, I should know this because I'm a priest, but those things that they use to sprinkle people, right? Aspargems or something. That's what it is. Okay, you can announce it afterwards. I can't pronounce it. Okay, but they've got those sprinkly things. But what are they sprinkling? Water? No, blood. They're taking the blood of the martyrs and they're sprinkling on us. This is the time of mercy. That the blood of the martyrs of the last century is the seed of this time of mercy in the church. This time of great and extraordinary grace. The blood of, you're watching on the news and we hear about ISIS and we hear about the terrorism and the Christians being beheaded and all these things that makes us want to turn the channel so that we don't despair, so that we get angry. But there's actually hope in that because the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of this time of mercy, which is really exploding right now. What is the spirit saying to the church? Now is the time of mercy, right now. This is something that John Paul the Great received as an intuition in his prayer and Pope Francis is taking it up so much that what's gonna begin on December 8th this year? The Jubilee year of mercy. I mean, he doesn't stop talking about mercy. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is saying it over and over again. When the Popes are saying something over and over and over again, we know this is not just the voice of the Pope, this is the voice of the Holy Spirit. Now is the time of mercy and that's great news. In a certain sense, I would say even that the saints who've gone before us in heaven, they look at us with a holy envy. Why? Because they look and they say, man, I wish I lived in that time because it's easier than ever before to become a saint. God is giving so many graces, so many blessings in this time of mercy. But that could sound a bit too good to be true. That can sound like slick talk and a PR move in the part of the church to keep us from getting depressed, right? Say, is that really true? It is true. And what I wanna do is give a testimony to show that now really is the time of mercy. It's not too good to be true. It is true, all right? So without any further ado, I'm gonna give testimony showing how I discovered this really is a time of grace and mercy, extraordinary grace and mercy, and how I discovered it in some of the ways we can tap into these graces, okay? So are you with me? All right, so I guess there was some ado, but now I know without any further ado, the testimony begins in Southern California where I'm from. I grew up in Orange County, California, to a family where we were Catholic in name, but pagan in practice. What I mean by that is nobody practiced the faith, except me when I was in high school. I started riding my bike to Mass. I think my junior or senior year in high school. No reason I did that is because I wanted to be a professional beach volleyball player, which makes perfect sense, right? Well, the idea with that was that I actually, I played on this elite club team in Hinton Beach, California. Two of the guys on my club team actually went on to win the gold medal in Beijing. It was, you know, these elite volleyball players. The only problem was I was the shortest guy on the team, and I wanted to be pro beach. A lot of them went on to play professional, but in order to be pro beach, I knew I had to be at least six feet tall. I was five, 10 and a half. I'm still five, 10 and a half, so I didn't get the miracle, but I thought I'll go to Mass and that way I could get the miracle. That was the only reason I went to Mass, and it was to play pro beach volleyball to live a very hedonistic, sinful beach lifestyle. So it was all backwards. Well, somebody in my family eventually, she had a real conversion, that was my mom. And what happened was there's this amazing parish in LA County, in fact, the area that had the worst gang violence of anywhere in LA. And in this little parish, my mom discovered a diamond in the rough where these priests there were just on fire. A friend of my mom's invited her to go to the parish. She went, she listened to the priest. She caught the fire. She came home. She begged my brother and I to go with her. We said, mom, we're not going out there. We're gonna get shot, but she's like, just come. And a miracle happened. So we went to Mass with her, and sure enough, the fire in these priests really was, really got my brother and I as well. We started going again. But I remember that first day that I heard one of the priests speak. I went to speak to him after Mass. I said, father, that was a great homilade ever. We were chit chatting. He said, hey, have you been confirmed? You know, I was about 18 years old, senior in high school. I said, no, I dropped out of confirmation, father, it was too boring. He said, well, I'll tell you what, you meet with me every other week. I'll give you books to read. And you can get confirmed with the rest of the students in the spring. I said, okay. So I was reading these books that he would give me. Saints, theology, all these things. Really set a fire in my heart. I said, this is awesome. Our faith is true. Our faith is beautiful. I want more of this. And the priest saw this fire growing in my heart and he popped the question. He said, hey, father, Michael, or not father, Michael, man. That's what he was thinking though, because he said, Michael, you ever think that maybe you like this theology stuff? I said, yeah, this is awesome. He said, you ever think God might be calling you to be a priest? And I said, no, father, I'm gonna get married and I'm gonna raise a bunch of priests and nuns on top of it, right? So not quite knowing what to do with that logic, he went to his plan B. In his plan B, I was a senior in high school. He said, where are you going to college? I said, I'm gonna go to UCLA. I'm gonna play volleyball. He said, why don't you, you should go to Steubenville. I said, Steubenville. I'm not going to Steubenville. I'm going to UCLA. And he said, well, you should think about it. And I think he gave up. Well, because I was getting confirmed, I had a confirmation sponsor. His name was Ed. I said, hey Ed, listen, his father thinks I should go to Steubenville. He said, no, that's a good school. In fact, I'm gonna say novena to St. Therese of Lisieux that you go there. I said, Ed, well, why don't you just pray that I do God's will? He said, well, it's God's will that you go there and that's what I'm gonna pray. So I was like, okay, well, in the meantime, while he was praying this novena to St. Therese of Lisieux, I just happened to get a tape. Back then there were tapes, not CDs. And it was a tape about the powerful intercession of St. Therese of Lisieux and how she said after her death she would send down a shower of roses. And there was all these stories about people would get different color roses to help make different decisions in their life. I thought it was the weirdest thing in the world, but it also seemed kind of cool, so I said, I'm gonna try this out. So I said, okay St. Therese, you know, my friend's praying this novena. If God wants me to go to UCLA, then I want a red rose. If he wants me to go to Steubenville, then I want a yellow rose. Because yellow roses are less common, right? And I said, if I don't get any rose, I'm going to Steubenville. I mean, I'm going to UCLA, right? So I stacked the deck, right? It was perfect. Except the last lap was on me because I got a whole slew of yellow roses. I don't have time, yeah, thanks St. Therese, thanks a lot. All right, so you're clapping now. I can't get into the details of it, but I wasn't ready to clap at the time. I was actually kind of ticked because I wanted to stay in California. And I wasn't happy about having to go to Steubenville, but I thought, man, if she sends roses and I don't keep my end of the bargain, if she's going to send lightning bolts, I'm going to get destroyed. So I'm going to go to Steubenville, but I was not happy about it. I was angry about it, but I went. I kept my end of the bargain. I got on campus. And soon after I arrived on the campus, my attitude began to change. But the main reason for that is as I was walking around the campus, I soon discovered that there was a three to one girl to guy ratio. I don't know if it's still like that, but back then it was awesome. And so on that part of it, I was a happy camper. And I also realized it was a pretty cool thing to be from Southern California. I'd say, you know, hi, my name's Mike Galey. Oh, where are you from? Southern California. Southern California. And eyes would get all big. Do you know any movie stars? Well, you know, and so it was a really great semester, that first semester, at least the beginning of it. But there was something else where I started getting very depressed that first semester. And the reason I was getting depressed goes back to the parish priest at my home parish. Those parish priests, I said they would really run fire. And the main theme of all their homilies was basically that the meaning of life is to be a saint. You know, it's like the Psychopathic Council, the universal called the holiness, but they would make it concrete and real by talking about like a saint, even if it wasn't a saint's feast day, they would be coming up with some story of a saint that was just like awesome. And so I was sitting there, you know, as an 18 year old, I was like, okay, I'm good in volleyball, I'm good in surfing, I'm good in school, I'll play myself, I'll become a saint, why not? That's the meaning of life, right? Because they were always saying, you know, it's like a French poet, at the twilight of life, there's only one tragedy, not to have been a saint. And I'm like, okay, sweet, let's become saints, why not? The only problem is when I got here to Steubenville and I saw these students walking around, praying the rosary for fun, going around doing all these penances, like eating glass and then smiling. I said, man, these are the kids, they're gonna become saints. I'm not, you know, I grew up in Southern California, my conversion was rather late, I had a lot to go, I mean, I was looking at these students, they were so open and happy and joyful, and I was so cynical and jaded and brooding and you know, and I was just like, I can't be like these kids. Like, what planet did they come from? And I started getting like more and more depressed because I thought I was gonna miss the boat on the most important thing, which is to become a saint. And I was just like, had a holy jealousy of them, I was like, dang, they're so awesome, and I'm just like a mess. Well, that first semester, one of my friends came up to me and he shoved this book in my face, he said, Gately, you gotta read this thing. And he kept shoving it in my face, I was like, man, I don't have time to read anything. He was persistent, I grabbed the book, I took it back to my dorm room, I threw all the books down, that book fell on its face, and on the back, there was a line that really caught my attention. The book was called, True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Manfred. And it said that according to St. Louis de Manfred, a total consecration to Jesus through Mary is the quickest, easiest, surest, and most perfect way to become a saint. The quickest, easiest, I was like, yes. So I said, man, this is what I need. So I took that book, I read it like in a day and a half, and it recommended doing a 33 day preparation for Mary in consecration. I did the 33 days, it was all these prayers, it was hard for me, but I got through it. December 8th, my freshman year, I consecrated myself totally to Jesus through Mary, and everything changed, it was awesome. I stopped chasing all the girls around campus, I stopped at a lot of the social scene, and I started thinking about a vocation. And so I went into what I call monk mode, which means basically I would just study all the time, go to the chapel all the time, and pray. And I could do that because after the consecration, I felt this closeness of the blessed mother that made me be like, okay, she's the most beautiful woman of all, I can do this priesthood thing, maybe, if this is what God wants, all right. Well, that same semester, there was this other guy, he had just come to Steubenville, his name was Moriel, he had just come out of the special forces of the US Marines, that was his first semester. He had just done the consecration. I said, you love Mary? He's like, yeah. He's like, you love Mary? I was like, yeah. I was like, okay, let's be roommates. He's like, yeah, okay. So we became roommates the following semester, and we started what we call Mary's Marines. And that meant the alarm clock would go off, we'd jump out of bed, hit the alarm clock through in front of an image of our Lady of Guadalupe, we'd renew our consecration every morning. But most of all, we'd help each other to avoid all the landmines on campus, all the beautiful holy girls, right? Because Moriel felt like he was called to be a priest too, and we were just like, okay, if we just get through three and a half, four years, we can do this, right? We'd encourage each other and help each other. We listened to a lot of Bob Marley music, especially the song No Woman, No Cry. We were like, yeah, we can do this. And so everything was going great that second semester, Mary's Marines, Monk Mode, it was great. The only problem is that we started hearing all this chatter from a lot of the guys on campus about this new foreign exchange student who just arrived that semester and her name was Blanche. Sorry for those of you guys who heard this story, right? So we're here in Blanche, and it's a Blanche, Blanche, Blanche, Blanche, like this beautiful girl, we're like, whatever, I don't need no Blanche, I got the Blessed Mother, I'm a Mary's Marines, I'm gonna be a priest, whatever. So one day I went into the cafeteria right here on campus and I bumped into Blanche. And I forgot all about Monk Mode, I walked right up to her and I said, hi Blanche, my name's Michael Gailey and I'm from Southern California. So of course she was very impressed with that and we got to talking, but after a couple of minutes she had these beautiful blue eyes, this beautiful French accent, she was this gorgeous girl, like just radiant holiness and I was like, man, Mike, she's too far out of your league, forget about it. So I said goodbye to Blanche, I said au revoir, right? And that was that. So one awesome thing about that second semester was I landed a job on the best place on the whole campus, the best job on campus, guess where it was? Right here at the Finnegan Fieldhouse, the athletic facility and the cool thing about the job was I would start really early in the morning before any of the other students would come in because they'd be praying all night or something and I would be up there in the front desk signing people in but nobody would come in really early in the morning, like 6 a.m. So I'm reading and studying and praying and getting paid to live in Monk Mode, it was awesome. Well one of the first people to come in that morning was Blanche, one morning was Blanche and so I'm signing her in, she's like, oh did you have breakfast yet? I said no, I'll get breakfast later. She's like, oh okay, she goes in and does her workout. Next week, same time, same place. Oh, did you have breakfast yet? I said no, I'll get some breakfast later. She pulls out a brown bag and she says, oh I made you breakfast. I said, oh exactly, just like that. And I said, I said, oh I wonder if she likes me. I'm like nah, she's just one of those nice stupid mill girls having mercy on people. She's doing the works of mercy, feeding the hungry and whatnot. So next week, same time, same place, same conversation. Oh, did you have breakfast yet? No, and she pulls out the brown bag again. I'm like, ah, she's just being nice. Well a week or two later I ran into Blanche on campus. She said, Michael, can I meet with you? I said sure, we go and sit down. Now right in the pub area here, they used to call it the pub, maybe not, they don't sell beer, don't worry. But maybe they do now, okay, that's good. All right, well we sat down and they called the pub and we sit down there and she's like, Michael I just wanna tell you, I can't eat, I can't sleep and I can't concentrate in my classes because I'm in love with you. And I was like, yes. I was like, okay Blanche, let's take it slow, right? Like, what is it about these French women? So we did Stubenville's version of dating, so we walked around the campus, we'd go to the Port Yonkala and pray the rosary. I think we'd walk around, we held hands once, so it was getting pretty serious. And so that was the dating with Blanche thing and everything was going great except the Lord was still tugging on my heart. What about that priesthood thing? And my roommate, Moriel, I mean it was great, he was just like, all right, if you don't have to be a priest, I don't, so he's running around campus. So one day Blanche and a bunch of her friends came up to my roommate, Moriel and I, and she says, oh Michael, we wanna invite you guys, we're gonna go to spring break to Florida. Would you guys like to come with us? And Moriel and I are like, yes. But then Moriel reminded me we had just been invited to go on a come and see visit to visit a religious community in Boston. So we're like, okay, let's see, sunny Florida with a bunch of beautiful girls or a freezing cold Boston with a bunch of priests. But we said, okay, wait, we're Mary's Marines still, we gotta give Mary a chance. And so we did what Mother Teresa calls a flying novena. You guys know that's where you pray nine memorories in a row, right? You know that prayer, remember almost gracious Virgin Mary that never was known. So we prayed nine of those in a row and we said, okay, Mary, if you want us to go, the freezing cold Boston with these priests, instead of nice Florida or to have this break that which we deserve, then have the guy tell us when we ask him how much it's gonna cost for everything. He hasn't told us it's gonna cost between 60, 65 bucks. Otherwise we're going to Florida. So we called up the guys, name was Dan, I said, Dan, how much it costs for Moriel and I to go on this trip? He said, let's say gas food, everything. I say 63 bucks. So Moriel and I went to Boston and while I was there on that retreat, the Lord really confirmed the vocation. He made it very clear. It was a very beautiful retreat. I said, okay, all right, I'll be a priest. I got back to campus, Blanche and her friends came back. She was even more beautiful. Before I'll suntan and happy and everything. I said, Blanche, we gotta go talk. We sat down in the International Lounge, which is in the J.C. And now we sat down and I said, Blanche, it will never, never, never, never, never, never work out between us because Jesus wants me to be a priest. And I think she said, oof. I said, but I'm gonna say a novena. I was very pious. I said, I'm gonna say a novena that all the love you have for me will go to Jesus. She's like, okay, whatever. And that was that. Actually, that wasn't that because the next day she sent me a letter and it said, dear Michael, I think you made the right decision. If Jesus wants you to be a priest, I'll be the happiest woman on earth. But the path you chose is not gonna be easy. So I'll be praying for you. Bye-bye, Blanche. So that was nice, huh? Well, the thing is she was right. The time I had a vision of the priest was this long, lonely, miserable life. I felt like I'd won the anti-lottery. Like, oh, why do I have to be a priest? All my friends, you know, this and that. But I distracted myself because there was finals and papers coming up that semester. Then I went back home to Southern California for the summer. I worked out and worked and did all the, and you know, was at the beach all summer. So distracted myself. But when I came back on campus, you know, I was all buffed out, suntan, everything. I got all this attention from the girls again. Don't look like I look now, but back then. And I was like, what was I thinking about this priesthood thing? This is crazy. Look at these beautiful holy girls. So I was going back and forth with the vocation. I went to Christ the King Chapel, just over there. Nobody else was in there and I was praying. I was really struggling. And in front of this crucifix, well, crucifix like this, Sunday on O'Cross, I was praying and I remember very clearly a great peace came over. And I didn't hear it with my ears, but in my heart, I felt like the Lord said, Michael, you can get married, the very gentle words. You can get married and you'll be very happy. And if you choose that path, I won't love you any less. But I want you to be a priest. Will you quench my thirst for souls? I remember when I heard those words in my heart, so it came rushing my mind, it was all the blessings and gifts I'd received. My friends, my family would be able to be here at Steubenville, the friends I was making here, the things I was learning. I said, Lord, if I say no, who would say yes? Fine, I'll do it. But I wasn't happy about it, right? But thankfully, thankfully the next semester I was gonna do Steubenville's Austria program. We're like 100 of the students of the main campus going to Austria. I thought, okay, well, that'll take my mind off this priestly stuff. So I got to, and that would have been the best semester, and it was a great semester, except that one of the 100 students that went with me that semester was Blanche. Ah! And she started dating one of my best friends while we were there too. Ah, poor me, right? So it was really tough. And one day I remember I went to the chapel and I was praying very intensely. And I was very depressed. I was very angry at the Lord. Like, why are you making me become a priest? Why do I have to have this, the priest said, by the way, priestess is an awesome life. It's a life of sacrifice, right? But it's a joyful, beautiful, wouldn't change it for anything. But at the time I didn't understand that. And I just looked at, it was just gonna be this forever lonely, forever just miserable. And I was thinking to myself like, I'm too weak for this. And I'm going to my mind and I was like, why are you doing this to me? And what came to my mind again was some words in sacred scripture. My grace is enough for you, right? My grace is enough for you. You guys are going like, yeah. But at the time being the knucklehead from Southern California, I was like, Lord, it's not enough for me. You said that to Saint Paul, but for me I feel like I need buckets of grace. I need oceans of grace. I need all this grace. Otherwise I don't think I could do this. And I felt like the Lord said, okay. And I was like, okay. And so then I was like waiting for all these great graces to come. And I think they came in the form of a pamphlet that somebody gave me that semester on the Divine Mercy message and devotion. You guys have heard of the message of Divine Mercy, St. Faustine, all that stuff, right? Now, St. Faustine was a mystic which kind of freaks people out sometimes, probably not for this group, right? But because Jesus is speaking to people, probably won't worry you guys. But a lot of people freak out with St. Faustine and say it was a mystic, but the idea is what is the message of Divine Mercy? It's that Jesus spoke to this nun reiterating the heart of sacred scripture, the heart of the gospels, which is mercy. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, the good news is God's mercy for sinners. It's the heart of the gospel. It's that Jesus didn't come for the righteous, he came for sinners, like you and I. That Jesus is, that God's love is like water that finds the lowest place, the weakest place. That mercy is another form of love when it encounters poverty, weakness, brokenness, and sin. That that is Divine Mercy. That is the heart of the gospel. That God doesn't love us because we're so good or funny or talented or wealthy or powerful or all the things that attract us to other people in the world. That God loves us because we need His love. God doesn't love us because we're so good, but because He's so good. And the more weak, broken, and sinful we are, this is the scandal of the gospel. The more weak, broken, and sinful we are, the more His merciful love goes out to us. This was the inside of Faustina. This was the inside of Therese of Lisieux. As it says in the Diary of St. Faustina, Jesus said to her, the greater the sinner, the greater his right to my mercy. And we need to hear that because we all have original sin. And original sin, we got the same problem Adam and Eve that in the garden, after they disobeyed God, and then they heard Him walking in the garden, what did they do? They jumped up into His arms and said, Merciful Father, forgive us because we've sinned. And they received His tender, abrasive, merciful love, right? Amen, or oh my, no, it wasn't that. They hid. What do we do when our sins weigh heavily on us? We hide, or what do we do when we've done this and we keep a distance. Jesus is gonna love me so much. I'm not gonna praise Him as much as I should here because I did this, this, and this. Maybe when we were singing, things are coming to your mind. Well, am I being a hypocrite because I did this, this, this? I yelled at this person, I was impatient here, no. He wants you even more then. His mercy is like water that finds the lowest place. That's the heart of the gospel. That's something that's so hard to get into our head sometimes. That's why Jesus inspired St. Faustina to renew this message, but also because we need it in this day more than any other in this time of mercy. Now, again, I was reading this as a, you know, I was really struggling with scrupulosity at the time. I was really depressed in my vocation, but this was like, oh my gosh, this is awesome. I can believe this, I can handle this, that God really loves me because I'm not as good as all these other students. He loves me even more, actually. This is awesome. But it seems too good to be true. Who's this Faustina anyway? I mean, she was just a blessing. She wasn't even a saint at the time. And I'm like, who is this? And so I decided I'm gonna test this stuff out and I knew exactly how I was gonna test it out. Because in that pamphlet it said the second Sunday of Easter is Divine Mercy Sunday. And Jesus said, whatever you ask for on that day, I will give to you. He's like, oh poor buckets, I mean, I'm paraphrasing here, but buckets and buckets of graces on the whole world, whatever you ask for, I'm like, okay, let's see. I'm gonna test this out. And so when Divine Mercy Sunday rolled around that semester, I knew exactly what I was gonna pray about and what I was gonna pray for, my target for the test. It's my dad. Because my dad had just been diagnosed with a very serious form of cancer. He had no faith and he was in despair. So all day long in Divine Mercy Sunday, I was praying in the chaplain of Divine Mercy over and over and over again, a prayer that Jesus taught Faustina. All day long for my dad. At the end of the day I called home to my mom. I said, hey mom, how's it going? She's like, good, good, Michael, you'll never guess what happened. I said, what? She said, your father went to confession. I said, what? I said, I gotta see this to believe it. So at the end of the semester, I flew back home to California and sure enough for the first time since I was a little kid, the whole family went to Mass together. My mom, my dad, my sister, my brother and I, I'm like, oh, this is awesome. The only thing is right before Mass started, my dad stands up, goes the other side of the church and sits down and then Mass begins. I'm like, that's kind of weird. So after Mass I said, hey dad, can I talk to you for a minute? He's like, sure. I said, dad, it's great that you came to Mass with mom, Joe and Heather and I. But why didn't you sit with us? What's up with that? And he said, all right, Mike, don't tell your mother this. I said, okay. You see that picture over there? I said, yeah. You see those rays? I said, yeah. They're doing something to me. Then he's like, he said, don't tell your mother. I said, I won't tell her. But he was pointing to the image of divine mercy. Well, so after that, we all sat in the same side of the church every day. Well, you know, my dad would come up to me like, he'd start to have all these experiences of divine mercy. One day, you know, a couple of weeks later, he's like, Mike, Mike, I gotta talk to you for a sec. Come here. Okay, what's up, dad? My dad, you know, just real quick, just some background. My dad's very salt of the earth. Truck driver, sailor. He's lots of colorful language, not in church, and I'm not gonna repeat it, so don't worry. But he's a very interesting character. So he drives a cement truck, starts really early in the morning. He's like, Mike, Mike, look, I pulled in the job. I was the first one in the job. I got in my truck, I stood. Those clouds, they opened up there right in front of my truck. I got in the truck, I stood in those rays. I tell you, they're doing something to me. I'm like, well, that's great, dad. I'm like, oh my gosh, I shouldn't have prayed so hard. My dad has become a religious fanatic. And I didn't tell him I'd prayed about all this divine mercy stuff. But I mean, it was just like, more than I could. I was like, slow down, Lord. So I go back to Steubenville, just wondering what's going on with my dad. In the meantime, my dad is still getting the treatment for the cancer and nothing's really working. He's got his surgeries and all these chemicals and all this. So one day they're going to the doctor, my mom and my dad, our last name is Gately. My dad likes to call my mom, Gate. So he's like, hey, Gate. She's like, yes, Michael? The cancer's not coming back. She's like, oh, Michael, how do you know that? And he's like, I just know. So they go into the doctor, and the doctor does all these little things that checks them up. He's like, Mr. Gately, the cancer's gone. And yeah, amen to that. And it hadn't returned over 15 or 20 years or something. But then, amen to that too. And then, but pray for him, because it did come back like three months ago. But they are doing surgery and so we'll see. So pray for my dad. But the idea was, my mom was like, Michael, how did you know this? And so he let the cat out of the bag. He said, when he was sitting in front of that image of Divine Mercy in church, he said, when I was sitting in front of that image, I could feel the rays warming the area of the cancer. And I knew that I was healed. And this is a guy with no faith, and then he had faith. But so my mom, though, when she heard that, she was kind of ticked. Because she's like, because he'd been a real knucklehead growing up. And she was really dedicated to the rosary. She's like, that's not fair. All these years I've been praying the rosary and I've been doing all this. Jesus never appeared to me, but then I said, I said, mom, are you upset that your husband was cured from cancer and came back to Jesus? And she said, well, I know why he got all those graces. I said, why? She said, because he'd get up really early in the morning. She said, every morning, like two, three in the morning. He said, that alarm clock would go off every morning. He'd hit that alarm clock. He'd sit at the edge of the bed. And the first words out of his mouth every morning were mercy. So she said, he's been praying that all these years. But my dad, I mean, after that, he just fell in love with divine mercy. So much so, he wanted to get a tattoo of divine mercy. I said, dad, tattoo it on your heart, right? He's like, oh, I'm going to get tattoo. So I was like, I called home one day. I said, hey, dad, how's it going? He's like, oh, pretty good, pretty good. I said, what have you been up to? He's like, oh, I started working out. I said, why are you working out? He said, because I'm preparing the canvas for my new tat. And so yeah, he's quite a character. And divine mercy really loves that guy. But the reason I tell that story was not just to tell jokes and things like that, but because there's a very valuable, important lesson there. Remember, I was in that chapel. And I said, Lord, I feel like I need super grace. And then I felt like it was coming in the form of this message of divine mercy. But I wanted to test it out. Is it really too good to be true? And when I tested it out, I'm like, OK. And I prayed for my dad. And it was interesting because divine mercy, even I prayed for my dad, it didn't go to the holy rollers in the family. Didn't go to my mom. Didn't go to my sister. Didn't go to me. And I went to the one who was the lost sheep in the family. And that was like, that it's true. This teaching about God's love is true. And I really was like, OK, I believe in God's love for me. Not because of what I've done or this, but because I need his love. And he knows that. And the more weak, broken, and sinful we are, and the more we recognize that, as St. Therese of Lisieux would say, the more we're ready for the deepest outpourings of merciful love. This is why St. Therese of Lisieux described her little way as totally new. Not some new gospel, but a totally new radical emphasis on trusting in the mercy of God to sanctify us. Because what is holiness but the love of God poured in our hearts? And the more weak, broken, and sinful we are, and the more we recognize that, like the publican in the church, Lord, did Jesus have mercy on me, the more mercy he can pour in there? This is why St. Therese of Lisieux said, the Almighty has done great things for me. And the greatest of which is to show me my wretchedness, my weakness. Now is that something when we see our brokenness and our weakness that we get depressed about? No, not if we know his divine mercy. Not if we realize that it's our weakness, brokenness, and sin that attracts his love, that he stoopes down and picks us up. Isn't that what we do if there is all these puppies in this room and they were jumping around and we'd be like, oh, like in elementary school, there'd be a lot of, aw, right? And the puppies would be all over. But if there was one that was getting bit by the other ones and things like that, our hearts would go to that one, limping and sick and everything. We'd want to take that one and pick it up. That's how Jesus is. That's the heart of the good shepherd who will even leave behind the 99 to go and search for the one lost sheep. That's the gospel. That's the heart of the gospel. That's the good news that Jesus loves us. We know that up here. But in this time of mercy, Jesus wants us to know it in here. He wants us to experience that he loves us. And the things that we think are obstacles for his love, they're not. Look, here's the idea. This is the way I would describe it. All of this took place through that image of divine mercy, right? With my dad. The image of divine mercy. It's not one of those magic pictures that like, you know, you move it in an angle and it switches. Those rays aren't like a faucet that turns on and off. Like, oh, here you go. You get mercy because you're good. Oh, none for you. And now, okay, first one for you. It's not like that. The rays are always there. There's a reason for that. There's a reason he asked Faustina to paint that image. Because his love never changes. His love for us never changes. We may change. We may turn our backs on that love. But that love is always there for us when we're ready to turn away from sin, even if we're having a hard time with it. As soon as we're striving and we turn to his love and try and give up sin in our lives, that mercy is always there for us. Just as it's depicted in the image of divine mercy. That's the good news. That's the heart of the gospel. That's the joy of the gospel, as Pope Francis says. What is the joy of the gospel? It's the encounter with the mercy of Jesus. Father Nathan was saying in the beginning, one of the themes of Pope Francis is saying over and over again, about the merciful gaze of Jesus. How Jesus looks at us with love. You know about Pope Francis' conversion when he was like 17. He went to confession. He came out of confession. What was his experience? Jesus looking at him with love. Do we let Jesus look at us with love? It doesn't matter. He looks at you like that anyway. But do we know it? Do we believe it? Look at the image of divine mercy. That is how he looks at each and every one of us. And as Mother Teresa says, sometimes the devil will use the hurts of life and sometimes our own mistakes to make us think that it's an impossible for Jesus to love us. But she says it's so sad because it's just the opposite of what Jesus is really saying. Not only that he loves you, but that he thirsts for you. That he misses you when you don't come close. Jesus is the one who always accepts you. Even when you don't accept yourself sometimes. He is the one who always accepts you. That's Mother Teresa. And she says, it's a danger for all of us to doubt that love at times. It's a danger for all of us. But in this time of great mercy, Jesus wants to remind us. Okay, I'm running out of time so I wanna finish up the story. So that would have been enough for me. That's where I got the message. I'm like, okay, I believe that God loves for me. I mean, it's been a long process and it will be a lifelong process for all of us to get that truth in deeper and deeper and deeper into our hearts and let the joy flow out that comes the joy of the gospel from knowing that we're loved by Jesus and that we live under that gaze of love, that merciful gaze of love. And I was all in. I was like, okay, Jesus, you did this for my dad and it doesn't always work that way, right? I mean, people have free will, but in my case, he pulled all the stops, part of it so I could give a testimony of this, but he always hears our prayers, maybe not in the way that we expect, but he always hears them and in his time. But what he did for my dad, I said, okay, I'm all in. I'm going in the seminary, I'm not gonna look back and I'm gonna proclaim God's merciful love. But the idea is this time of mercy, the graces that are being offered are so great, it's like more than we can ask for or imagine. God gives more than what we ask for. He wants to give more than we ask for. And so the story continues. I went back to Steubenville for my senior year. At my senior year, I got a phone call. It was Blanche. Blanche had graduated a year before me. So I'm talking to her. She's calling from her house in Paris. I said, hey Blanche, how's it going? She's all, you know, we're catching up a bit. She says, well, I just, I gotta get going now, but I just wanna tell you, next week I'm gonna be entering the convent and I'm gonna be giving my life and prayer for you to be a holy priest. Said, every day I'll be praying and sacrificing for all priests, but specifically for you. So give your all, Mike. And I said, Blanche, I'm gonna work hard. And I did. I went into the seminary. She went into the convent. She became Sister Bernadette. I went into the seminary, became Brother Michael. And while I was there, I worked my tail off a little bit too much because all work in no plane makes Jack a dull boy and the other seminarians who didn't like it so much, because I was pretty intense. And I was thinking about leaving the seminary one day. One day I got a phone call from the founder out of the blue when I was having a hard time, the founder of Sister Bernadette's community. There's like 300 nuns and all this. And so I'm like, why is this famous priest calling me? They're like, oh, I said, hello, Father? He's like, yes. All right, he said, no. I said, hello? And he said, Michael? I said, yes. He said, this is Father Paul. I said, oh, hello, Father. He said, I just want to tell you, I have holy envy of you. I said, why? He said, because I've never seen a nun pray for someone. As much as I see Sister Bernadette pray for you. I just wanted you to know that. Bye-bye. There's a little bit more to it, but that was the essence of it. Now, why do I tell that story? That was because, remember when I was in the chapel, I said, Lord, I feel like I need buckets of grace. I need super grace. Otherwise, I don't feel like I can do this. And he's like, yeah, you do. You need lots of grace. So he inspired this wonderful gal to go into the convent and to pray for me so that I could have those graces. But why? Because it's the time of mercy I asked for them and his mercy and seeing that I needed, he gave them. And this was a real sacrifice for Sister Bernadette because I'll put it this way. I'll put it this way. Her dad was given a medal by the President of France for increasing the economy of France. So they were very high French society. A friend of mine went to visit their house in the Beverly Hills of Paris. He was at the address. He's like, okay, there's this house and then there's this museum and then there's this house. Wait, that's not a museum. That's their house. But Sister Bernadette gave up all of that. She lives a life of simplicity and prayer. And it's like, holy Toledo. That's what I call mercy for Father Michael, that knucklehead from Southern California. But what is the message? Now is the time of mercy. Now is the time of great and extraordinary grace. God wants to pour out huge graces right now. And his heart is broken, according to Saint Therese and Saint Faustina, because he longs to pour out that mercy and there's nobody to receive it. Or there's few who will receive it. They are nervous. They don't wanna get too close to them. They're afraid, what's it gonna cost me? This and that. I think that the message here for this, at least tonight, they were saying, Father, do you have a word for the crowd? I think this is the word. That you here are a special, special group that I think will be open to receive that rejected, merciful love that others don't want. I challenge you here to tell the Lord this night and throughout this weekend, Lord, give to me all that rejected love that others don't want. Give me that ocean of mercy that you long to pour out in the world, but that you find hearts that are not open to receive it. Give it to me. Now, I would say to you, if you start getting nervous, I would say, Jesus, I trust in you. What's that image on the bottom of the image of divine mercy? Well, this is what I always say to Lord. I say, Lord, make me into a saint. Well, please be gentle, right? You can do that. And the other thing is there's an image of our, there's the statue of our lady of Fatima back there. And I told the story about the consecration of my freshman year. And also I'll talk more about that in the talk tomorrow. But the idea is a consecration of Jesus through Mary, the quickest, easiest way to holiness, is another one of the great gifts that God is giving this time of mercy. How many of you guys have done the consecration? Okay, if you haven't done the consecration, do the consecration. I hate to do book plugs and things, but go get the book. You know, there's a book about it. And if you don't use that one, get another one. Just do the consecration. But do, if you've already done it, renew it. But renew it in this way. I beg you, go to the Blessed Mother. Look at her eyes in that statue. See how she almost looks like she's crying. That's our Blessed Mother, because we all know times are tough. And she knows it more, some of you guys have children that break your hearts because they've gone astray. She sees all the children of the whole world and her heart is bleeding. And what a consecration is, is to go to Mary and say, Mary, I get, look, not for my sake, but for the sake of your children, I give you permission to use me. Use me as your instrument to help all of your rejected, broken, sinful children. And I'm the first one, right? But you're my merciful mother and I put myself in your hands. And I'm not afraid, why? Because when I consecrate myself to you, this is the quickest, easiest way to become a saint. Hello. And she's a gentle mother. And she knows what we can take and she'll be more gentle than we are with ourselves. But let's be generous in receiving the generosity of God in this time of mercy. Let's trust in him to receive that merciful love so that his heart doesn't continue to break. And let's cry out to the heavens for mercy on ourselves and on the whole world. Jesus told St. Faustina, for your sake, I withhold the hand that punishes. For your sake, I withhold the hand that dishes out the punishment that the world deserves. If three people, John Viennese, right? Remember, the devil said to John Viennese, if there were three men like you on this earth, my reign would collapse. Well, even better, we got all these women here and more than three guys too, hopefully. But if the thing is that if we say it, my time just ran up so I'll end with this point. If just three of us say, Jesus, give me all that rejected mercy. And if you're worried, well, but that's not fair to other people. No, he'll give it to us. And our sanctification and our prayers for the world will give people who have rejected a second chance through our prayers. So let's cry out for mercy for ourselves and for the whole world. And all the doom and gloom that we hear can be reversed in a new springtime in the church could be given to us. Why? Because now is the time of mercy.