[Music] At age 10, Father Andre escaped Christian massacres by living in caves and mountain Lebanon with his family. Today, Father Andre works tirelessly to encourage American leaders to keep God in the public square, defending religious freedom at home and abroad so that all might live in peace for the glory of God. Founder and President of the Mission of Hope and Mercy, Father Andre has learned the secret to safety, joy and peace. Love God and one another. Now, let us spend 33 minutes on the Lord’s day, retuning ourselves to the truth of love in the hands of God. Praise me the most holy name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ now and forever and ever. Amen. Good Holy Sunday morning, my dearly beloved brothers and sisters and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. On this Sunday, for those who are listening to the show for the first time, I want to renew my welcome to you. And I hope you can go and visit our website, missionofhopeandmursy.org. And please sign up to receive our frequent emails. I want to also ask a big favor from all of our listeners who have been listening to our show. First of all, I hope you are enjoying the show. It is good that you let me know. And I tell you how you let me know in a second. But also, most importantly, if you share the time of the show and content of the show with your friends, by simply inviting them that on Sunday morning to tune in to KNUS or to KLZ. And the shows are listed on their websites on the website of KLZ, radio station and Denver Colorado. And on KNUS in Denver, Colorado as well, both radio stations, websites, they list the show. Good Sunday morning with Father Andre. This is on KNUS and 33 minutes on the Lord’s Day. This is with KLZ. I want to ask you also for a big favor, which is good for our show. So if you are listening to our show, besides that, I want you to share the links and give a call to your friends, invite them to actually listen to the show and they will enjoy it. Please consider sending us an email, email us to info@missionofhopeandmursy.org. So we know what is your opinion about our show. And if there is any particular question or a topic of particular interest to you that you like us to discuss on our upcoming episode or show. So now is the time for my story for this week, basically. And it’s a fantastic story, a true story, something happened with me as a matter of fact. It was a Thursday evening and I walked little before 9 pm into a local restaurant in Medjugorje. Medjugorje or this little town between the mountains as its name indicates in the Bosnia language. It’s in Bosnia, here is the Govina. It’s about 20 minutes outside of the borders of Croatia and Bosnia. It’s about four hours away from Sarajevo or three and a half hours. And it’s about one hour and a half away from Spalato or split from Spalato or from split. And here there is this major beautiful shrine for our Lady Queen of Peas. And I’m coming to visit the shrine and to spend a week of spiritual religious priestly retreat. I walk little before 9 pm into a local restaurant and I wanted to grab a sandwich. Because you know usually after the Mass and the evening, other Asian and the prayers every night. Of course, people go on the main street near the parish of Saint James and as you walk in, they go to local restaurants and they gather in groups, actually a huge, beautiful groups that come from all over the world. There is people from about probably 50, 60 countries that come to Medjugorje. Per year, probably Medjugorje received little bit over one million, one million pilgrims, one million pilgrims. You can imagine since 1981 when the first time the apparitions of our Lady Queen of Peas happened in Medjugorje. It was the evening of June 24 of 1981 and our Lady appeared in one of the mountains. And she said the local language, “Mir, mir, mir” which means peace, peace, peace. And ever since pilgrims started coming from many areas and the old Yugoslavia. And of course after that this Yugoslavia was divided to seven different countries, one of which is Bosnia, Herzegovina. Another one is Croatia, another one is Montenegro and other countries as well in the region. This is the Balkan, basically. We are in the Balkan area when we come to visit our Lady in Medjugorje, our Lady Queen of Peas. So coming into this restaurant which was really packed and I’m coming to ask for a sandwich honestly and I’m sitting by myself because I’m spending a retreat by myself privately. And here’s a 90 year old man in Medjugorje, a little bit dark perplexity, look in perplexions, I’m sorry, look in a little bit darker color. I come to find out his Portuguese Indian, Canadian and Australian national and Lara background in a story of course about him. He looks to the counter where I was ordering a sandwich and I wanted to move to a small table to sit by myself and he’s sitting by himself and he reaches out to me and he lifts his finger and said, “Hey, come, you’re by yourself, I am by myself. Let’s make two of us.” I said, “Let’s make three of us.” He left, he understood. I meant Jesus Christ being the third, referring to every time two or more are gathered in my name. I will be there with them basically. The man spoke in a beautiful, clear, sharp English language, of course better than mine. And it’s almost as you’re sitting and you’re listening to this broadcaster through the radio. And I come to know that the man lived and worked in four different English-speaking countries and in four different continents. He was an English teacher, he graduated with Master’s degree in Educational Psychology, an Educational Psychology which he completed in 1970, in 1970. Imagine the man retired in 1996, I believe, he was already about 66 years old or something like that. And he graduated from Portland, Oregon at the time in the United States. He’s very kind, well-spoken, seeing me walking in and heading to sit at my table by myself, as I said, like many pilgrims when they come here, few of them sit by themselves, others come in major groups. He looked at me and waved and said, “Please join me at my table.” And of course I joined them. I happily accepted the invitation. And we started talking about God. He immediately opened up. And if you do not know me, when I see that there’s somebody interesting in front of me, I actually take courage and open my iPad or my phone and I start typing in the words that they are telling me because I know that these opportunities are not to be missed. I start taking notes. Of course I’m paying attention. I’m enjoying the moment in which they are telling me. But of course I’m also have to make sure I don’t forget why he’s telling me. And we spoke about his life and the Holy Spirit, his conversion. And I come to find out that he now lives in Medjugorje for 17 years. So this is basically the fifth country in which he lives and the fifth continent in which he lives in Europe. So I didn’t even ask him a question. I said the simple question basically. So I did ask question, meaning how are you doing? That’s all. And then how is Medjugorje tweeting with you? And then he says, “You know, Medjugorje is one step above ground and one step below heaven. When someone attempts to understand and practice the messages, the Holy Blessed Virgin Mary gives a Medjugorje, this is a situation they find themselves in. One step above ground and one step below heaven.” So I said, “Can you explain that to me?” I said, “You know, one senses after coming to Medjugorje, a miracle of an intimate and organic restoration of health, whether in a body, mind or in a spirit basically. And this powerful miracle of healing is a fact, he’s telling me. It takes a place with time and in a most organic way. Consequently, a pilgrim will be one step above ground instead of being a six feet underground. And he’s joking, referring to his age, because he is 91 years old, with a beautiful, wonderful shape and good health. And he definitely, definitely says that all of this good health he has in him is due to the consequence of our lady and his conversion here in Medjugorje and the atmosphere in which he lives in Medjugorje. He said, “In fact, when I was 66 and I was retiring, I was older. I looked older. I was very sick. The man experienced heart disease, he did heart surgery, the man was in coma. The man almost died, it seems, and he was hospitalized in most hospital nearby. And he said, “Father, after my conversion, which happened, it seems in 1999, in 1999. He was starting in London, where he was living. And it guided him to Medjugorje and ever since he decided to move into Medjugorje and he did.” So he’s young and healthy looking old man. So I told him, “So what’s the secret in this recipe of yours that you’re telling me? You’re as old because I am not even 50 years old. The third surgery is in my life. This is me, Father Andrei. And sometimes I sleep and I feel like I’m going into the tomb and I want to wake up, I say, “God, did I wake up or you rose me up?” Because I suffer, unfortunately, in my life, but I offer it up for the love of God and for the upbuilding of the church and repentance for the heartless sinners. And for my sins and the sins of many, “Who is Jesus?” And thanksgiving and for the triumph of the Immigrant Heart of the Virgin Mary. But I have my private sufferings, as we say, in pains of unfortunately, actual physical illnesses had nothing to do with me personally, things of sort, due to infections. And then I recovered, of course, and I’m trying to go to good maintenance programs with my health and enjoying life, enjoying the prayer, and enjoying the work we do in the mission of hope and mercy. So I asked him, “So tell me what’s the secret here?” He said, “You know, the secret is a secret about relationships. First of all, it’s the relationship between life and death.” I said, “Can you elaborate?” He said, “You know, father death starts in a mind.” And when the mind dies, the body follows. And this is a situation of many, many, many people. Imagine this tiny, one-year old man, how much life he has in him and how much life he values, basically. So he says, and I quote, “Most people experience death in their mind, or what I call the mental death. Therefore, they end up experiencing the physical death as well, which is the death of the body.” So my opinion, there is a great possibility when a pilgrim attends and follows the prayers and follows the physical activities of walking or climbing into the mountains of the cross, and the mountain of the apparitions in Medjugorje. That their mind and body will start being liberated, being freed from this vicious trap, from this oppression, he says. And can, in fact, restore their mind into life, which will in its turn, empower the healing and life in the body. So this is amazing. And in fact, I personally have experienced something similar to that, but I’ve never spoken about it. And this what do I think! I think that this man was trying to make me aware of that in Medjugorje our ladies operations have continuous consequences and are felt in the environment, in the food, in the prayers, in the programs, in nature, in the confession, even in the weather, at the physical pilgrimage and the prayer of the Holy Rolls-Browne, at the adoration and the theoretical and Bai’iki practices and exercises in the novenas, in the meditations, in the conferences, in the fastings, in the sacrifices, and even in the social interactions with pilgrims coming from 50, 60 different countries, hundreds of people on daily basis go to confession. On daily basis there is more than 400 confessions happening in this little beautiful wonderful parish of Saint James and the Shreine that is next to it. So, and somehow you feel that through all of this the pilgrims with the experience they have with one another, in fact they are fully experiencing the miracle and the effects of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what? In fact, we call our lady in our traditional way and in the east, the first fruit of redemption, because you know, in August she was assumed into having both embody and in soul and the reason why she was not corrupt and she was assumed both embody and in soul and to have him, because she is the mother of God, the mother of our Redeemer. She carried, she is a fair talker, she carried in her womb our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So therefore Jesus awarded her after his resurrection that she was picked up as she slept, she was picked up in her assumption to have him both embody and in soul and that’s why we call her the very first fruit of redemption. And I think here in Medi-Gol-Jee you actually experience the first fruit of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the total renewal. You feel in energy, you feel power, there is second to none in somehow. But when you come, you feel being in somehow also thrown off by certain things, right? There are the economical side, there are the local people who want to live their lives as well as you want to also show great example, but at the same time, sometimes they take advantage of pilgrims, they charge you on food, they charge you on, I don’t know if you have any needs for technological aid, I mean there is only probably one store and then they would have to do things their way. So we have to adapt, there are adaptation things to go through in Medi-Gol-Jee, but nonetheless it doesn’t interrupt the flow of what God wants to do with the pilgrim who come here for restoration of life. It’s amazing experience. So with them, I believe that this man was trying to tell me he who was not Catholic by the way, he converted to Catholicism, he was not practicing, he calls himself the prodigal son, especially when he lived in the US when he was living, I believe in Portland. He said, “There I was a perfect prodigal son, I said, I do not want to know why you did it in your life.” He said, “No, no, no, but I’ve just listened to you, I’m telling you, the effects of the grace that you experience in this place in Medi-Gol-Jee, they make you younger, at least 30 years younger.” So okay, that’s great, I can take that, anybody can take that actually, if it all it takes is come and spend time and this beautiful shrine where our lady has appeared and gives messages and gave messages to six visionaries since 1981, at least six of these messages or the first seven or six of them were declared by the Vatican to be truthful, to be valid, to have the valid content. And Pope Francis probably about five years ago or six years ago declared Medi-Gol-Jee a place for pilgrimage. But of course, they’re not comment on the full apparitions that they are taken place till today. I think he just commented on the original apparitions that happen at that time and then he allowed the people to come and with their apparishes, with their priest or as individuals to spend time here and pilgrimage to this beautiful site in Medi-Gol-Jee. So in fact, I believe that this man was trying to help me to express what I had felt myself personally since 2010 and this is a point of this entire story. Because when I first came to Medi-Gol-Jee, actually, I was still studying in Rome and I did not know I was developing a colon, unfortunately, major disease and I got very sick and I was bleeding when I was in Medi-Gol-Jee. I didn’t even enjoy it honestly when I came here. But then when I left back and I was taken to certain places for hospitalization and for surgeries, just on that issue alone, with multiple surgeries, and the doctor told me he’s not really sure how I survived it. But he said, “Father, you survived.” And coming to think about it, I think it was the effect of this spiritual visit and pilgrimage, which I did here. I mean, this is my personal story. This is nothing to share with you that you need to learn from. But this is something, if you have issue, if you have a major illness, you do not know about on any level of your life. If you have a difficulty, something that is blocking you, or if you have a nod, basically there is a tie in your life in certain aspects. And you have a friend or you have the capability to be able to spare and to come to Medi-Gol-Jee, come, don’t hesitate, don’t delay. Because I personally experienced almost a renewal of my life. In a priestly ministry and in my personal life as well. So it took me time to realize what has happened with me personally. It was part of this miracle of the first fruit of redemption. And that God gave to our Lady to unpart, to share as a full of grace with the entire world. Before we continue, I want us to pause because you know this month of September we celebrated many Fees days, starting with the Fees day of the birthday of our Lady on September 8th, then we all commemorated September 11th, 9/11. And then we celebrated the exaltation of the Feast of the Holy Cross, which is the finding of the Holy Cross, which is also the commemoration of the decree that was made by Constantine the Great in 313 known as the Edid de Milano or the decree of Milano, in which he declares safety and legal, the Christian religion and the Jewish religion in the Roman Empire. And with that stops the forms of persecution for the main part in the Roman Empire. So he rises the Christians from the tombs, from the catacombs literally because they were living in tombs and they were living underground in the catacombs and he tells them now you have a penis and you have my protection as the emperor of Rome. You can simply be now on the ground and you can be full citizens, he gave them the citizenship of the Roman Empire. Think about it, that the Christians and the Jews many many many of them, many of them, unless they have been born into the diaspora. It was a fact that the emperor or the Roman Empire found out that they were Christians, that they would sue them for cannibalism, they actually accused them of eating the human flesh unfortunately because you know the uterus Jesus said this is my body and this is my blood. So unfortunately the Christians were suffering a lot, that’s why Christians lived in tombs, lived in wilderness, while in Rome lived in hiding and lived underground in catacombs. Two of these major famous catacombs, San Calisto and San Sebastiano in Rome, you have up to nine stories underground and when you go visit them you of course as you go underground you feel honestly the world of death but there is no death. You feel darkness but you see the light while you are nine stories underground and then you see the separations of floors between one floor and the other and there is this hole that goes from up down nine floors underground and it reaches all the way up to the surface of the ground basically above ground on the earth, on the main earth and you ask about those holes that you see every so often and why through a specific room there is this hole that goes all the way down that is almost a basket size hole like a rabbit hole bigger but almost you can hang a basket and bring it down and take it up and it told me this is how the Christians used to hang down the flower, the water and the fish because those catacombs are not far from the tevere from the river of the tevere which takes to the Mediterranean Sea. Can you imagine that Christians lived and died for generations underground for at least about probably 230, 240 or 250 years. Do you know many hundreds of thousands of people probably were not accustomed to see the light. So the effect of the festivities or the feasts of the Holy Cross my friends is amazing. It’s to be felt in the entire world because when Constantine the Great had a problem with the Lucius the other Caesar of Rome and he didn’t have enough soldiers. Constantine had about 20,000 soldiers the other one had about 60,000 soldiers and Rome was occupied. Constantine was outside of Rome. He wanted to enter Rome. All of the sudden there is this amount of Christians that pop up from underground and they help Constantine the Great and they open the gate of the city of Rome and he breaks through the gates and he occupies Rome and you know he saw this dream which we celebrate on September 14, Xenus Vincet. In the sign you will conquer your enemies and that was the sign of the cross. And this is when Constantine after winning the war he made the decree in honor of his mother Queen Helen was Christian to honor the Christians and he declared the Christianity as a legal religion in the Roman Empire given it granted the protection of the emperor and religious a freedom. Praise be the most holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t forget to go to our website mission of hope and mercy.org and please continue your support so we can continue spreading the good news of the Holy Gospel and the good news of salvation and to free people oppressed in the whole world shame with them the light of Jesus Christ. I love to hear from you a big amen. Amen. And now my friends we shall continue with our radio show on these 33 minutes on a lost day but before we continue with the story about the exaltation and the finding of the wood of the cross and this experience in our Lady of Medi-Gol-J let us pray together with the salm to the Messiah King and conqueror, salm to. Oh God come to my assistance. All Lord may case to to help me. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and will be forever. Amen hallelujah. See the cross of the Lord. Let all his enemies flee in terror. The line of Judah David’s heed is victorious hallelujah. You know in Acts chapter 4 verse 27 in Acts of the Apastras chapter 4 verse 27 we lean the rulers of the earth joint forces to overthrow Jesus your unmoited son. And now let us pray with salm to the Messiah King and conqueror. Why destunal among nations? Among peoples this useless and murmuring? They arise the kings of the earth. Princess a plot against the Lord and his unmoited. Come let us break their fattars. Come let us cast off their yoke. He who sits in heaven’s laughs. The Lord is laughing them to scorn. Then he will speak in his anger. His rage will strike them with terror. It is I who have set up my king on Zion, my holy mountain. I will announce the decree of the Lord. The Lord said to me, you are my son. It is I who have begotten you this day. Ask and I shall bequeath you the nations. Put the ends of the earth in your possession. With a rod of iron you will break them, shatter them like a paltry jar. Now au kings understand take warnings rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with awe and trembling. Pay him your homage, bless he be angry and you perish. For suddenly his anger will blaze. Blessed are they who put their trust in God. See the cross of the Lord, let all his enemies flee in terror. The line of Judah David seeds his victorious hallelujah, glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without an amen. So my friends we continue on those 33 minutes on the lowest day and as I was telling you we are celebrating so many feast days and we got to the feast day of the exaltation of the Holy Cross. So after Constantin the great basically occupied Rome and took back his kingdom, his reign and they lived again in the Palatino or the palace of the emperor of Rome. In honor of his mother Queen Helen he sent many soldiers with her to the Middle East and before 325 his mother Queen Helen went to the Middle East and there she found the Holy Cross. She started excavation to find the wood of the Holy Cross and the story tells us that they found many pieces of wood where the buried crosses after they had killed thousands of people the Roman Empire killed thousands of Jewish people unfortunately for a long time occupation and they settled to three pieces of wood of the cross and it was a miracle the way they found them and the story tells us that they brought a dead person and a blinded person and a paralyzed person. They put them in front of the first wood and nothing happened and then they put them in front of the second wood and nothing happened and then when they got to the wood of the cross that day to identify that this is wood of the cross upon which the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified the dead rose actually and the blind opened his sight and the paralytic walked immediately and Queen Helen knew that this is wood of the cross and of course she left it in Jerusalem and took another piece with her to Rome and a piece went to Byzantium after history and the wood of the cross traveled then there was a major war in the year 600 by the way and so the commemoration of the finding of the cross goes back to that initial time after the war of Rome with Khan King Constantine and the Edid Umilal after he liberated Rome and declared Christianity and Judaism as recognized religions inside the Roman Empire they have no more to hide and then he sent his mother to find the wood of the cross and then that was September 14 and this is what we commemorate as the memory of our religious freedom. Today in a world my friends as we are living in the time of many apparitions of our Lady I do believe that these apparitions of our Lady have certain effects the force effects basically the force of them affect on the affects the individuals and the pilgrims and affects the whole world to make a peace in the whole world and this effect goes with us to places where we are living such as to our society to our homes to our families to our countries. Mediogurgie is an opera of our Lady the Queen of Peace through which our Lady not only crosses Satan our enemy but also removes but also removes it’s evil effects from the life and place of the faithful. Our Lady here seems to hold the big room of heaven like a broom you know like she has a broom you know clean and house basically to dust off to wipe out and to clean up the life of the suffering humanity and of a fallen world. It is happening here in Mediogurgie it happened in the past in a finding of the world of the cross in all of it we feel we sense and the the reality the great consequences of joy of healing restoration of peace which is by special grace one could live and take with them for the future generations and spread them in the entire world in healings in remedy in freedom in restoration of wealth and health you know and this is the beauty of Christianity it’s from death it brings back to life and from last it brings back people to be found again with that I ask you again and again let us experience the joy of this month and of this beautiful Sunday and let us praise the most holy name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ please don’t forget go on our website support the mission of hope and mercy that is mission of hope and mercy dot org and don’t forget to send us email at info at a mission of hope and mercy dot org mission and thus info at mission of hope and mercy dot org and make sure you send us your questions and tell us how you like our show and may by the power of the holy cross our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ bless and protect all of us from all evil and bring us to the forgiveness of sins to be victory and joy in his most holy name and to have the rest of life in thank you for listening to 33 minutes on the Lord’s Day to hear previous programs visit the show page at missionofhope and mercy dot org listen to Father Andre every Sunday morning at 730 on kLC as he speaks on the unity of Christians religious freedom and the biblical foundation of Judeo Christian values and traditions join him in bringing hope and freedom to people across the globe while also strengthening your own faith family and community right here in Colorado reawaken the spiritual strength of America go to mission of hope and mercy dot org