In this captivating episode, Father Andre takes us on an inspiring journey from the caves of Mount Lebanon to the forefront of defending religious freedom in America. He passionately shares the story of his miraculous escape from persecution and how it has fueled his life’s work. As the Founder and President of the Mission of Hope and Mercy, Father Andre reveals the profound truth that love for God and one another is the key to joy and peace in our lives.
At age 10, Father Andre escaped Christian massacres by living in caves in Mount 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.
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Praise be the most holy name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Again, Merry Christmas season and Happy New Year to all of our friends, to all of those who in the United States, in Denver area, in Colorado Springs, in all over our state and the United States, in Lebanon and else in the world have celebrated the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. have celebrated the feast day of peace on January 1st, which is a new year for all of us in the world. And also on that day, we celebrated the title of the Virgin Mary as Mother of God, the Theotokos. For many Christians in the world, the importance of heaven and earth coming together, where God communicated to humanity salvation, and the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Immaculate Birth in the virgin womb of the Virgin Mary, who herself as well, being prepared to bear the Son of God, was conceived without original sin, is a very important factor of our faith in Christianity. The Lord has made His salvation known to the whole world. the Lord as Savior in time of persecution. We call him and we tell him, rise up, Lord, and come to our aid. In the book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 60, from verse 1 to verse 22, we pray about the revelation of God’s glory over Jerusalem. Rise up in splendor, O Jerusalem, your light has come. The glory of the Lord shines upon you. It is very obvious that in the Old Testament, there have been so many precedences where God communicated to human beings, connected to holy places, connected namely to a holy city. God also connected to a very special race of humanity, offsprings, Abraham and Sarah. And then from that line of offsprings, the Lord formed for himself a people that he himself shepherds, Israel, the people who walk with God or the people of God. It is very obvious that the Lord made his dwelling amongst his people. Oh, how lovely are you dwelling place, O Lord God of hosts. Of course, my soul and my spirit are yearning to the house of the Lord, our Savior. In the book of the prophet Isaiah, we see that God basically revealed his entire glory over the holy city, Yerushalayim, the city of peace. And Isaiah says, see, darkness covers the earth. and thick clouds cover the peoples. But upon you the Lord shines, and over you appears his glory. Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance. The prophet Isaiah is speaking about the city of Jerusalem being the city which was chosen by God Almighty. where he makes his dwelling amongst the people of the earth, where also the Lord reveals the fullness of his glory. It is very obvious the contrast that we see, according to the prophet Isaiah, when the entire earth is covered with darkness and when the peoples are surrounded and covered with thick clouds. You know, even till today, we speak of a human being having fog over their brains, due sometimes to pain, due sometimes to problems, physical problems or emotional problems or reactions to medication or allergies. You know, we see people, you know, are experiencing cloud almost on their brains. But it’s so amazing to see. that in a physical place, over 3,000 years ago, when the Bible was written, the Bible spoke about some sort of revelation that God decides to make from time to time in relationship to a place, in relationship to a mountain like Mount Sinai, in relationship to people like the people of Israel, in relationship to a city like the city of Jerusalem, in relationship to kings that he himself favored. from whom he said his own son will be born, the Messiah will come. And he related to the Virgin Mary, from whom the Messiah came. And then Isaiah the prophet continues and says, raise your eyes and look about. They all gather and come to you. Your sons come from afar. and your daughters in the arms of their nurses. Then you shall be radiant at what you see. Your heart shall throb and overflow, for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you. The wealth of nations shall be brought to you. It’s amazing to see that when God relates to a place and He shines with His glory, there are consequences, there are effects, there are signs and rewards for God’s divine glory. One of which is the eyes to look and see. One of which is that the people will gather, there will be peace. one of which is that people will return home. Sons and daughters who are far away, they will return. So the family will be saved. Some of which as well, nations themselves will come back and the human race will enjoy time of peace. And people won’t no longer have to stock their riches. They actually do the opposite thing. They instead of gathering more, assuming more, they start emptying out before the city of God their wealth and their richnesses. And everybody will bring them to the house of the Lord. So the prophet Isaiah continues and says, caravans of camels shall fill you. Drawn the reeds from Midian and the Epah, all from Sheba shall come, bearing gold and frankincense and proclaiming the praises of the Lord. In such a way, the prophet Isaiah is not only telling us that the people will come with riches that are made by human hands, but the goods of the earth will also be brought over to the city of God. And more than this, there will be a worship that will come from all over the world. A presentation, people bearing gold, people bearing frankincense to proclaim the praises of the Lord. So God will be adored, proclaimed and worshiped. And there will be a hymn of praise and there will be a sacrifice of incense being offered to the Lord. Tithing will take place. And then the prophet Isaiah continues, All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered for you. The rams of Nebaioth shall be your sacrifices. They will be acceptable offerings on my altar, and I will enhance the splendor of my house. So amazing, so beautiful to see that one day the entire humanity is worshiping and adoring God. And remember, we’re talking about a prophecy from the prophet Isaiah, which was written probably 600 years before the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is chapter 16 from verse 1 to verse 22. But the beauty of these revelations of God’s glory over Jerusalem, as predicted by the prophet Isaiah, Regardless of the symbols that they are being used at that time, the prophet is insisting that everyone in the world is invited to be part of being, enjoying God’s glory over Jerusalem. So what is really God’s glory over Jerusalem is the recognition, the admission that God is its savior, it’s its Lord, it’s its king. All goodnesses, you know, from material things to social things, to the family unit, to the people of God, to the praise and worship, to the sacrifice, even the animals, even the first fruits of the labor of the man, even whatever blossoms in nature, everything comes to be offered in Jerusalem before the Lord and the Lord will accept it. All the flocks will be gathered to offer sacrifice. It’s, of course, we’re talking about the sacrifice of animals in this case. But the Lord also says, I will enhance the splendor of my house. So what does it mean really? Can you imagine how the Lord can better enhance the splendor of his house? rather than keep sacrificing animals, for instance, or bringing the human sacrifices like the old days, which was a horrible thing to do. And unfortunately, humanity offered, did offer human sacrifices. The Lord saved everyone. The Holy One of Israel, who has glorified Jerusalem. not only allowed his people to bring gold, silver, frankincense, and rams, and to offer sacrifices, but in fact he saw that all the kings of the earth will rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Foreigners, settlers, dwellers, the people of the land, everybody, that in my good will I have shown you mercy, the Lord says, though I struck you in my wrath, right? So even though sometimes we as a people of God, sometimes Jerusalem, a city that was destroyed because every time that the people of God stepped away, slipped away from their love and their fidelity and faithfulness to Almighty God, The Lord allowed chastisement, but the Lord was always their savior. And the Lord, though he struck that city with wrath or in his wrath, yet in his good will have shown mercy to Israel. And what better mercy could be more than the birth of a savior? The man of God, the son of God, Jesus Christ, the Savior, who comes to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, who comes to be the King who offers himself in sacrifice to redeem all creation, all alike. He comes to tell that in his kingdom, which is a kingdom not of this earth, is a kingdom of peace, is a kingdom of healing, is a kingdom of eternal life. My friends, we are entering into a year that is known to be the Jubilee year. The Jubilee year is a year in which we count 25 years now into the 100 of the 2100. Now we are 2025. 25 years have passed already to be subtracted from the 100. Another 75 years, if you come to think about it, humanity will celebrate the 2,100 year to the birth of the Lord. In 2033, some eight years from now, humanity will celebrate the two thousand and thirty three years or two thousand year anniversary the two thousand year anniversary to the crucifixion the death and the resurrection of our lord and savior jesus christ the lord our god has truly saved us and he stopped all forms of other sacrifices assuming all the sacrifices in himself, offering himself as a priest and victim, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Yes, this is the key of the 2025 radio shows that I would love to spend with you every Sunday, and I look forward to spending with us together over the radio shows. The Lord has made his salvation known to the whole world. And we have to tell these stories to our children, to our neighbors in America. The Lord as Savior in time of persecution is our Lord and Savior. We do tell him, rise up, Lord, and come to my aid. There is a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, Pope, who lived in the fourth century between the year 400, 450, he was a Pope. He says, the Lord has made his salvation known to the whole world. He speaks about the providence of God, qualifying that the providence of God is actually a loving providence. The providence of God is a caring providence. The providence of God is a main factor that through which we discover how God determines to make decisions. A few weeks back, I received a phone call from a friend of mine, and we were talking early morning time, his time in Colorado, and it was kind of like evening time, my time. And he said, let us pray. And we prayed, him and me. And then he said, Father, I have to drive for about three hours, and then I want to get to a cabin. And then when I come back, I will give you a call. Or when I reach my cabin, I will try to call you if there is basically connection. I said, well, God bless you, and God be with you. We wished each other a Merry Christmas. And then he sat on his way to get to the cabin. And for some reason, halfway, I thought to call him back again. I said, I’ll try to talk to him and to chat with him a little bit. And of course, he responded and he said, sorry, I don’t have good connection. And really the connection was bad. So, and somehow we succeeded exchanging another greeting. And I said, but be safe and arrive safe and let me know when you arrive. About an hour and a half later, he calls me and he says, Father Andre, I thank God. I thank God. I am safe. I am alive. I am alive. I said, what happened to you? He said, as soon as I walked into my cabin, there was a thief hiding behind the door. And the thief actually got to it and he tried to kill this man. But this man successfully defended himself without hurting anybody and successfully was able to dial the 911 and to contact the police. And the police came and the man was actually saved. My friend was saved. A crime was going to happen the day almost before Christmas. Something horrible, unthinkable. So divine providence, I said, intervened directly. I said, listen, this is the event of the divine providence. God intervened in his loving kindness, and God determined that you need to be with your family. You need to have a good Merry Christmas. Your wife, your company, your children, your extended family, everybody needs you. We, in a mission of hope and mercy, I said, we needed you, and we needed you to stay around. And God listened to the prayers of the faithful. So my friend, the Lord has made his salvation known to us personally. I wonder how many of us can think about the personal stories where in his divine providence, his loving divine providence, you know in your heart, in your mind, in your conscience, that if it wasn’t for God intervening at some point, things would have been bad actually. Probably you could have been died by now. So God’s divine providence is always a loving providence, it seems. And it seems that St. Leo the Great, the Pope, states, the loving providence of God determined that in the last days, he would aid the people, the world, set on its course to destruction. It’s the year 2025. It’s a jubilee year. It should be a year where humanity connects back with God, It should be a year where humanity connects back with its conscience, connects back with its values, connects back by making an examination of conscience and refuting what is evil and stop lying and stop the culture of death. Stop civilizations which are being raised based on lies, based on relativism. based on negative energies as a matter of fact. We have work to do. It does seem right every time we think about it that throughout the course of history, a humanity without the interference of God, without the loving providence of God, sets its course to destruction, sets itself on its course to destruction. So God, hopefully the great said, decreed that all nations should be saved in Christ. Coming to think about it, this is the real meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today, as we celebrate Epiphany, the visits of the Magi, the kings from the east who came following the star of Bethlehem to see where is the king and to pay him homage, to bring him frankincense, myrrh, and gold, anointment, possessions, glory to the new king. Today is also in the east the feast day of the baptism of our Lord. where the Lord at the River Jordan was baptized at the hand of John the Baptist. And John says, This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So we do see God in his divine providence intervening, being present in our midst. And as I said earlier in the beginning of today’s show, the Lord also was present when he came sending his angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary in Nazareth, telling her, Hail, favorite one. The Lord, with his divine grace, fill you. You are filled with the grace of God. And you are to bear a son of God, the Holy One of Israel. So God intervenes, my friends. He does knock at our door and says, if you open to me, I will come and I will make my dwelling amongst you. In the feast of the baptism of our Lord, we see how God the Father in heaven appeared and sounded with his voice. And we see how the son was being baptized in the River Jordan. And we see how John, as he was baptizing the Lord, that in the form of a dove, the Holy Spirit hovered over the sun. And God said, this is my beloved son. This is the revelation. This is the place where the Lord has made his salvation known to the whole world. And the promise that he gave to the prophets and the establishment of the kingdom of Israel and the line of Judah from David, he said, will bring the King, the Savior, the High Prophet, the Priest, the Messiah, the Lord and Savior, the Prince of Peace. And he did it in a fulfillment of time, in a fullness of time, in a fullness of time. He actually brought his only son to be born of the Virgin Mary. So hopefully the great in the fourth century knew that if we study the history of the world, any time we find out that any time humanity decided to slip away from the love, from the divine providence, from the faith in God who is good, in God who gives life, protects life, and God who is merciful, And a God who’s gloriously just. A righteous God. A God who is and gives life. A God who fights in a battle against all forms of darkness and against evil. He knew that humanity, once it removes itself away from that God, it means that humanity set on its course to destruction. So God intervenes. And he decides by decreeing that all nations should be saved in Christ. Today, the United States has elected a president and there is a transfer of power and there are incidents happening on the streets and in many states in the United States of America. Let us pray that God in his loving divine providence will protect our people, will protect the validity of the choice of the people who elected in the United States president, who promised to keep God the focus, the culmination, the center, and the heart of our nation. Let us pray for peace in the United States, for peace in the world. My friends, with the remaining time that I still have with you on this Sunday morning, the very first Sunday in the month of January in the year 2025, it’s a beautiful date. It’s 1-5-2025. 1-5-2025. January 5th, 2025. A beautiful to recognize our five senses, for instance, right? We have five senses. A beautiful to recognize in our life as well that the five days during the week that God gives us to work and the sixth day in which we rest because he rested. And, of course, the seventh day when he rested, if we’re looking at it backwardly from Monday through Friday, we work, and then Saturday, the Sabbath day, and then Sunday, the first of the week, it’s the day in which we give God, we render him homage, we give him and show him glory. A promise had been made to the holy patriarch Abraham in regard to these nations. God visited Abraham in the Old Testament in the book of Genesis. And he told him he was to have a countless progeny born not from his body, but from the seed of Abraham’s faith. His descendants are therefore compared with array of the stars. The father of all nations, Avraham, was to hope not in an earthly progeny, but in a progeny from above. Remember what Jesus tells Nicodemus. What is born from above is the spirit. What is born from above is above. And what is born from the flesh is the flesh. And amen, amen, I say to you, unless a man is born again from the water and the Holy Spirit cannot enter the kingdom of God. In the baptism, the Lord has made his salvation known to the whole world. The Lord is our savior in time of persecution. The Lord rises up and he comes to our aid. He did it in the past. He did it in the Bible. He did it with the Virgin Mary. He did it in Bethlehem. He did it with Zechariah, John the Baptist, to Moses, to Father Abraham, to Noah. He did it to Job in the Old Testament, to David the king, to Solomon the king. He did it to many prophets, to many judges. He did it in the New Testament to the apostles. He did it in the history of the church to many holy saints, people we know and people who we do not know. The Lord is shepherding his people. So let the full number of the nations now take their place in the family of the patriarchs. These words are for St. Leo the Great. And how can we as Americans, how can we as a people of faith assist that the nations will take their seat in the family of the patriarchs? It is time for us in the United States to rise up and to embrace our spiritual destiny. There has not been in the history of the United States like any time before, such as these times, where people, when we voted, we did not only vote because of problems and issues such as migration or such as the issues of the visas, H-1B, or the issue of homeland security or the issue of trade or the issue of the taxes or the issue of our health. We actually voted because in the fullness of conscience, we knew that the faith in our society, family in our society, the unit in our society that made us a children of God, children of light, what connected us together in love to each other and in love to God, our faith was under attack. And therefore, I believe this was a main factor for the people in the United States to have faith proclaimed, decreed, and announced the way we voted in the United States, and for what? Because somebody tried to take God out. Somebody tried to confuse us and tell us that God may not count, or to confuse the identity of God by turning vices into virtues, by convincing us that where there is darkness, it’s actually light, by lying. By telling us if we kill more children, we are actually practicing freedom. No. The Lord has made his salvation known to the whole world. When he redeemed everybody. And he never allowed any longer that any human sacrifice will happen. No more children being killed. No more animals being offered on any altar. No more bulls. No more even fruits. Even anything. But he himself. took upon himself to redeem our fallen nature, because otherwise we had set on our course to destruction. So God comes always to the aid of his people. It is so beautiful to see every time we want to start prayer, we say, oh God, come to my assistance. Oh Lord, make haste to help me. This is our prayer today, my friends. I urge you and I want to thank you for continually supporting the Mission of Hope and Mercy. Please don’t forget to go on our website, missionofhopeandmercy.org, and continue to assist us in our work, in our endeavor, as we too in our way. And with your support and your trust, we extend to other people on earth the salvation known to the whole world. When the Lord has made it known to us, we also make it known to others in times of persecution. And may Almighty God bless us all, protect us from all evil, forgive us our sins, give us the beauty and the prosperity we need and the blessings we need and the protection we need for this new year. And may God bring us all to peace, victory, and joy in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And may the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, triumph against all evil and the fruit of her womb, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And may God bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
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Thank you for listening to 33 Minutes on the Lord’s Day. To hear previous programs, visit the show page at missionofhopeandmercy.org. Listen to Father Andre every Sunday morning at 7.30 on KLZ 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 missionofhopeandmercy.org.
