Four talks by Father Pio Mandato,
FMHSJ
Two talks by Sr. Veronica
Nugent, CN
Plus Mass of Pledging and talks
by CFP members.
Excerpts from Fr. Pio's and Sr.
Veronica's talks follow:
Fr. Pio
We have been born into this time. The seeds of
our vocation are planted in our heart at
baptism.
Fire always burns. Before it gives light, it
burns away the chaff.
Francis was a spiritual genius. We follow St.
Francis in his holy Gospel.
We need the Spirit in the spiritual life; the
law strangles.
Reform means going back to the original charism
of the founder.
The people of reform are people of charity and
character. The heart of reform is love. If
reform is genuine, love deepens.
Reform is always ecclesial if it is genuine.
Francis was THE Catholic man. He was right in
the heart of the Church. Francis went back to
the sources, the Scriptures. With reform, you
are always at the beginning.
What do I desire? For an examination of
conscience, we ask, “What did I desire today?”
The more I get in touch with the darkness within
myself, the more I go into the depths and let
the work of the Holy Spirit purify me.
Legislation never works. You can’t impose the
Gospel on anyone. It is always my free will to
accept it. We propose the Gospel, never impose
it.
Balance is a hallmark of genuine reform.
St. Bernardine of Siena moved people to action.
He preached on the Holy Name of Jesus. He said
to make the devil a castle of all that he uses
to lead people into sin, and then to burn these
things.
Our language must be the language of love.
Invoke the name of Jesus over anyone as a
prayer. St. Bernardine of Siena fostered reform
at the cost of division. Humility is greater
than poverty.
“How many ways are there to God? As many ways as
there are people.” “Authentic reform shows
love.” --Cardinal Ratzinger.
St. James of the March was a man of prayer and
silence.
Pope Benedict the 16th said we should have a
heart of fire for God, our heart of flesh for
others, and a heart of steel for myself.
We have an encounter with God and we follow Him
with fear and trembling. Jesus is always our
Lord and master, and we always fall with our
face to the ground before Him. Jesus drove seven
demons out of Mary Magdalene. The more we get
closer to the Lord, the more they show their
ugly head. Mary Magdalene underwent a lifetime
of purification. The seven demons correspond to
the seven deadly sins. She had a great desire to
find God and was panting for her lover.
Mourning is a beautiful gift if done in the
Lord. Tears of joy are connected with sorrow and
repentance. The Saints were men and women of
diehard fidelity. Wisdom begins at 50.
We live in the
crucible of contradictions. If you do God's
will, the kingdom of God just shows up. We need
to have a lifelong long fidelity. When you taste
one drop of the kingdom, nothing else satisfies.
Jesus always comes to us disguised.
The fire of resurrection is the fire of the
risen Lord.
He always says your name and He hears your
prayers. We know we are known because Christ
recognizes us. He knows me by name. I know you
by yourself. No one can know you as Jesus does.
Jesus knows me as he knows himself.
Mary Magdalene said “Rabboni,” my master.
Sr. Veronica
Most High
glorious God,
enlighten the darkness
of my heart.
Give me
right faith,
sure hope
and perfect charity.
Fill me with understanding
and knowledge
that I may fulfill
your holy and true command.
May the power of your love
O Lord,
fiery and sweet as honey,
wean my heart from all that is under heaven,
so that I may die for love of your love,
You who were so good as to die for love of my
love.
Amen (both written by St. Francis of Assisi)
Family means ‘Forget about me. I love you.”
God is the only one who can initiate a
relationship. He has to call us first. "You
would not have been calling for me unless I had
been calling for you." God thirsts for the day
when we will thirst for him. "May the power of
your love, fiery and sweet as honey, wean my
soul from all that is under heaven." Agape is a
discerning love. I love you no matter what. God
only has love for us, the love of desire, of
Union. He desires to be united with us. Penance
is a way to wean ourselves from ourselves and
from sensual desires. God weans us through
suffering.
The first stage of love is infatuation. We fall
in love with an image of the person. Then we
have a crisis moment when we encounter the real
person. We can walk away from that person or we
can stagnate in the relationship and grow weak
or we can go deeper into the relationship and
love the person for who they are. On the third
level both partners sacrifice for each other.
The moments following communion are the most
precious in our lives. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi
said "God is worth everything." I will to love
You, God, because You are worth it. I choose to
love You. We keep a relationship with God and
communicate on a deep level.
In our morning offering we practice the presence
of God. We live in the presence of God. Would
you be doing what you are doing if Jesus was
sitting next to you? Talk to Jesus throughout
the day. Speak to God and listen to him. He
whispers. Say "Jesus" over and over again.
"Jesus, I trust in you." These are small words
that go to Jesus' heart. They are like darts or
little arrows. "Jesus." Another word to say is
the word "mercy" over and over.
We need a relationship with God to serve him and
not to serve ourselves. The Saints helped others
because other people were Christ to them. We
need people to pray for the world. God has not
shown many people His life. We don't see the
results from our prayers. We don't know what our
prayer is doing. But we keep praying. God
knows.
St. Veronica Giuliani was humble, joyful, and
obedient. She asked for all the love of which
creatures are capable. She wanted a real
relationship with God. She chose to love God's
will above her own. If you do all for the glory
of God, you can intercede for the whole world.
Fr. Pio
Jesus says, "Come and follow me," and when you
come, he tells you to go! Reform is the desire
to go deeper into God, into the Commandments.
The reformer is willing to put God first. The
diabolical influence is “I get time.” Reform is
a recognition that I don't have time. You put
other things first. Give God the primetime. Put
God first and everything else falls into place.
Reform is not in externals. The heart of reform
is always in meditation. Whatever you ask of
Christ, St. Peter of Alcantara said, will be
given to you.
Francis and his companions lived by faith, not
by holy prudence. They wanted to absorb their
Rule of Life to the letter. The deeds of love
make us holy not just aour actions. Francis's
expression of prayer is fired with love. Let the
Holy Spirit run away with your heart. "The
Spirit praising you, my God."
God wants us and what is in our hearts. The
primacy of a contemplative life was what St.
Francis sought. When St. Francis prayed, "My God
and my All," that was the Holy Spirit praying in
Francis. "Lord, I offer you a sacrifice of
praise."
A great obstacle to our prayer life is
impatience.
Women need to teach men how to be receptive to
God. People are men or women to the depth of
their soul. The complementarity of the sexes is
essential. We stand and contemplate. When you're
angry, bored, or frustrated, stand before the
Lord. Stand before him in your social place.
Watch Jesus. Don't babble prayers like the
pagans when they talk to God. Live a simple,
frugal lifestyle. God is greater than our dead
ends and our frustrations.
Never be surprised by your sins. Move through
your sins and put first things first. Love God
and serve Him is the heart of reform. Achieve it
and love. See God above all things.
Francis's
goal was to adore God, to offer to God a
sacrifice of praise, to always give thanks to
God. One friar made a vow that he would always
give thanks to God for the first hundred years
of his life. He said that, through all those
years, the devil and Satan never touched him.
"People all around me were complaining and I
decided that I would never do that and give
praise to God instead." We give satan permission
to enter our hearts when we sin. Satan is a
chained. Don't get close to the doghouse!
We never come to the Lord alone. We touch
everyone.
Religious life is living on the Mount of the
Transfiguration. Married life is living on
Calvary. Padre Pio said this to his spiritual
daughter. "That man needs you," he told her, "in
marriage or to help your spouse get to heaven."
Don't sow your desires in someone else's garden.
Few people like what is according to their duty.
You can't run away from yourself. You have to
let go and let God take the reins. We can't go
outside of God's permissive or active will.
Everything you do should be for the common good
in service and charity. Faith should deepen our
union with our spouse.
The difference between Mother Teresa and Jane
the social worker is that Mother Teresa sought
Christ in every suffering person. We see the
deed and believe that Christ still is in the
person who committed a mortal sin. You love
Christ as much as the person you love the least.
We need the support of others to keep us on the
right path. Spiritual friendship makes us
accountable to someone. Friends are to help us
to grow in virtue. Friends should offer
fraternal correction. We must be vulnerable to
one another. Vulnerability between friends
fosters a relationship. Spiritual friendship
teaches us how to be open to God and to love
God. The two souls lift each other up and
inspire each other.
The heart of reform is to enter into the heart
of Christ. The men and women of love are in
service to the world and the Church. Reform
always discovers something new. Man and woman
stand in Christ and are always free. To stand in
the truth makes you free. The Holy Spirit is not
frozen in time. He is above time. Contemplation
is a long look at the real. Truth is the
conformity of the mind to reality. We can never
exhaust the depth of who someone is. It is
always hard to embrace what really is. If we
experience love from the Lord, that brings
healing.
Adam failed in fortitude. Only when man
committed sin did it affect his progeny. Adam
failed to protect Eve from the serpent. Man fell
into silence. This is one of the great sins of
man.
The fruit of prayer is love. Be still and know
that I am God. Francis would go before the Lord
and not move until God spoke to him. He would
stand there and lie there before the Lord,
waiting for an answer.
If you want to see Jesus, you must become Jesus.
You must become bread that people can eat and
chew. You must become wine that people can sit
and swallow.
In all things, give thanks. Deo gratias. Thanks
be to God.
Thomas Merton said that we never see ourselves
as Jesus does. On judgment day we will see what
he did in our lives. Will rejoice in what he did
to our sins. Sanctity is knowing Jesus Christ,
being conformed to him, knowing him as the
God-man, as my spouse, friend, lover. The saints
who are lovers hide their secrets of the King.
The secrets of the King are kept in your heart.
People who receive authentic revelations do not
share them readily. You have to pull their
secrets out of them. We disguise our acts of
asceticism. We underscore the ordinariness of
our lives.
St. Theresa said, "To ecstasy I prefer the
monotony of daily sacrifice." Let your greatest
sacrifice be the embracing of your ordinary
life. Marriage is one dialogue that is always
too short. Jesus talks to us in all our ways and
dreams.
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To learn about a disciplined,
Catholic, joyful Rule of Life that can help you
draw closer to God while living in your own
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Thank you and God bless!