"Understanding Divine Mercy" with Fr. Chris Alar, MIC

I'm talking to Father Chris A. L.R., the author of Understanding Divine Mercy, the first book in the Explaning the Faith series. Father, it's good that you've been able to have time for this conversation today. Well, thank you. I know. Sorry for somebody delays, but it's great and I think an important message to get out to the people. Well, let me, let me make the first question. Why this book about this topic now, or world's in a very strange place, how does Divine Mercy address that? Well, as we know that Jesus told St. Faustina that mankind's last hope of salvation is Divine Mercy. And as I always point out in my talks, Jesus said, "If you don't pass through the doors of my mercy, you must pass through the doors of my justice." And as I always say, I don't know about you all, but I don't think I want to be trying to get through the doors of justice. I'm going to need the doors of mercy. But I think when you look at the bigger picture, I think the most compelling argument is when Jesus told again, our Lord told St. Faustina, that now is the time of mercy. And after this will come the time of justice. And he's giving us this opportunity. And he said, basically, as he did in Scripture, "Woe to those who don't recognize this time." Now, that's not a threat, that's not a warning, it's just our Lord, as the Scriptures tell us to be aware, to be aware that this is a special time that is not going to last forever. But as we know, the mercy of God is infinite, but the time of mercy is not. So here we are. Did you grow up knowing about Divine Mercy? No. In fact, it wasn't until after a tragedy in the family with the death of my grandmother when she took her life. Back in 1993, that 10 years later, I learned that there was hope for her salvation. Can you imagine carrying a burden as a family for 10 years that you believed your own mom, the matriarch of the family, for me, my grandmother, for my father, his mother, was damned. It's a haunting reality. And what do you do in those cases in our human nature? We avoid them, so we never talked about it. And finally, as I came back to my faith and the pressure became even heavier that I could have helped her more when she was alive, now she's a law soul, was answered by God through a priest in North Carolina. To tell me exactly what Divine Mercy was, and that gives us hope. And that was my first book. After suicide, there's hope for them, meaning the one who died and you who are left behind. Okay. So, the real book for our listeners, I think we should we should mention what is the church teaching about those who have died that way. Well, the misconception is that the soul is automatically damned. And that has been the belief in Catholic circles for centuries. There's some understanding to that because the church fathers used to talk about that it is a grave sin, it is taking up a life, and there's no time to repent. But once we fully, fully understood, and God's revelations, through people like St. Faustino, where he says he actually gives a moment for the soul to repent. Like, for instance, Cadi Kism 2283 says, in ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for solitary repentance. What was he talking about? Souls took their own life. He says in the Cadi Kism, it says that we should not despair of the souls that have the eternal salvation of souls have taken their own life because ways known to God alone, he can provide an opportunity to repent. Okay. And then modern medicine is expanded or understanding to the causes of suicide, that sort of thing. Right. And that goes back to the Cadi Kism right before that. And 2282 that says because of things like mental illness, anxiety, depression, these can be mitigating circumstances. And the Cadi Kism literally says that could reduce or even eliminate the culpability. So again, not a ticket or a free pass, but an awareness of God's mercy. It remains a gravely wrong act. Yes, correct. And I think that's actually one thing. I don't know how we talk about more, but I think that needs to be done is sort of one thing you raise a lot about the criteria for mortal sin. Yes. That it's not simply is this a gravely wrong act. Yes. But also what are the other two criteria? Well, and we know objectively that suicide and other sins like it are grave, as you mentioned. That's the first condition for a sin to be a mortal sin is that it must be of grave nature. So objectively, you can say yes, that's a grave sin. Like abortion. Yes, objectively, that's grave. However, it ends there with objective that other two are subjective, meaning do they have knowledge and how much knowledge did they have? And do they have free will? So let's use that abortion example. Objectively, a woman who had an abortion has committed a grave sin. However, we don't know what behind the heart only God does. Maybe she has a boyfriend that threatened to kill her if she doesn't have the abortion. Maybe you have a husband that says I'm going to leave you and abandon you and she's going to be absolutely distraught if she doesn't have the abortion. Did she really have free will? That is obviously a question. Yeah, the family pressure or financial stress or all. Yeah, it's an interesting distinction. Or fear, you know, fear. Yeah, as you said, objective, objectively, this is wrong. Whereas the subject of culpability can be so different. Correct. And so one thing that I could talk about the justice of God is also his mercy. And Pope Francis has talked about two sides of the same thing. Talk about how that perfect justice is also a source of hope for us. You know, Father Syrah from used to tell us that his justice equals his mercy is because Jesus keeps his promises. And what is this promises? The greater the sinner, the greater right, the right he has to his mercy. In fact, we can even turn to scripture to see this or synabounds my grace abounds even more. And so it is just that the more sick deserves the doctor than the less sick. If I'm on the battlefield and I got my fingernail ripped off versus the guy next to me who's taken a severe wound in a gunshot. Who has the greater right to the medic? Well, he does. So it is God's justice that the mercy was given because that sinner is so mired in a near death addiction or bad choices that they are the sick. And so God comes in his justice is to see that those in most need, the biggest sinner receives the greatest of honor mercy. It seems counterintuitive. But yet that's exactly how God operates. The logic of the prodigal son versus the elder brother. Yes. That's a perfect example because you know, we can actually call that the prodigal father because Vinnie Flynn points out that the word prodigal means to lavish, to squander. And while the son we call it prodigal son because he spent the money and he blew the money, the prodigal father actually squandered and lavished mercy upon the son. So he could almost call it the prodigal father. Thank God. Yeah, very much so. Yeah, the great source of hope for us. So tell me, you say that you didn't grow up really knowing to my mercy. How would you describe the notion of God that you grew up with? I think it was kind of a carryover from my father's day of Catholic schooling in the 1950s, which was God was this ultimate record keeper upstairs. And this was something that you had to be aware of. You know, the songs came out. God is watching us and you know, all these things that, you know, kind of that is as crazy as it sounds. Almost that Islamic view that the punishment and justice and retribution. God is master. Yeah, he's it's not an Abba father. It is a servitude, a survival fear of God, not a holy fear of God. It's a survival fear in the sense that I am going to be punished. And in a sense, we can bring punishment upon ourselves. Yeah. If we will fully choose with free will and refuse to repent. Yes, we do bring condemnation upon ourselves. God doesn't condemn us. We make the choices as Christ says in Scripture. We condemn ourselves. But anyway, the whole essence, I think, that is so important of what I see God now versus maybe growing up is the fact that no sin is greater than the mercy of God. I never knew that. Yeah. There's only one unforgivable sin they call it the sin against the Holy Spirit. The Dominicans taught me that means final impenetence. What does final impenetence mean? Basically not asking for the mercy of God. And so when we walk into that confessional, I always tell people this, unless you're literally being forced in by your spouse or a friend or family member, unless you are physically being forced into that confessional, if you are going in under your own volition, you cannot be guilty of the only unforgivable sin. Because every other sin, lying, stealing, cheating, abortion, murder, they're all forgivable. The only unforgivable sin is refusing to ask or accept the mercy of God. And when we go to that confessional, we're already clear of that one. Because we're there to ask for the mercy of God. Okay. That's a great source of hope. So in light of all that, why devote your whole life? Like a lot of people end up as many as helpers, a lot of people are spreading the vine mercy in lay life. Why devote your whole life as a consecrated religious to spreading this message and devotion? When I was back to that priest that I mentioned in North Carolina that was educating me on, you know, I had I had said to this priest in a prior general confession that, yeah, I wish I could just wipe my slate clean. I just wish I could start over because I had baggage from the past as many people do. And he said, well, there is a way. And I said, what? He goes, yeah, it's called coming up in a few weeks. It's called divine mercy Sunday. Like, what's that? He goes, well, Jesus told this nun named Faustina that we can receive complete forgiveness of all sin and punishment. I'm like, who's saying Faustina? I had no idea. This was 2003. And what really changed it for me was when I told the story of my grandmother that I wanted to confess and just bear the consequences that, you know, I could have helped her and I didn't. He changed my world when he said, not only is God's mercy greater than that sin, but you can actually help her now. And I was like, father, he didn't hear me. She died 10 years ago. She's already been judged. There's no way I can help her maybe shave a few years off a purgatory, but that's about it. And he said, no, no, and he explained the concept that God is outside of time. There's no past for God. There's no future for God. Everything's one big eternal moment. So he told me to pray this thing called the divine mercy, chaplet. And I'm like what just like asking what to say Faustina is what the five mercy somebody is, I asked what's the chapel of the five mercy and he handed me a prayer card. And on the front of the prayer card was an image of Jesus, the divinercy and on the back was how to pray this thing called the chaplet. And the first thing is it says it's prayed on regular rosary means. I'm like, wow, and he's like, it's shorter than a rosary. I'm like, oh, wow. So he told me to pray for my grandmother. And I was so blown away by the concept that we could still help them. Now, I'm not talking about getting somebody out of hell once a soul's in hell is permanent. We're talking about the grace actually can be given from our prayers in the future to the moment of judgment. And Padre Pio was a great example of this. This is documented by the Franciscans. It's in my book that a doctor was evaluating Padre Pio and noticed he was praying and asked Padre Pio what he's praying for. And he said the conversion and happy death of my grandfather. And the doctor said, well, I knew your grandfather, he died 20 years ago or whatever it was, asus, I know, but God knew 20 years ago that I'd be here tonight praying this this prayer for my grandfather and he will apply those graces at the moment he needs them, which is the moment of death. I was so blown away. And when he showed me this chapel, you told me this is the prayer to pray on the bottom of that card, it said the association of Mary and helpers, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. So I always laugh, I said to that priest at that moment, I said, Father, I don't know, but I got to spend the I don't know how, but I got to spend the rest of my life spreading this message of divine mercy and this message. Well, the interesting thing was little, the first of all, I had no idea it was going to make me a priest. But secondly, that prayer card came from the association of Mary and helpers. Yeah, guess who is now the director of the association of Mary and helpers I am. So God has a sense of humor. Absolutely. Absolutely. So talk to me about then about you've been spending years now spreading divine mercy. Talk to me about some of the fruits you've seen as you've been spreading it. I'll start with the most recent when the pandemic hit a year ago, we were wondering for a brief moment if our divine mercy ministry would even survive because there was all this fear and announcing of the church is being closed. And it was just not looking good. So we scrambled with the help mainly of brother Mark was able to quickly and beautifully get online into live streaming our masses our rosaries our chaplets and I began a series called explaining the faith. And what's nice about this is we used to travel doing missions, but I always hear that old moniker or of catchphrase of father, you're preaching to the choir because everybody there in the crowd believed in Jesus believed in divine mercy or they wouldn't be there. Well, it's different now because when we post these these videos on YouTube or on the internet, it doesn't go just to believers, it goes to everybody. So people might be surfing the web and they see, you know, Father Chris says and they write back, call no man your father, Jesus, you know, so I'm now evangelizing to more people than I've ever evangelized to in the past. I believe this is an example of God bringing a greater good, but even the worst evil like a pandemic, because there are people that are now communicating with us that absolutely never would have yeah, and we never would have had a way to reach these people had it not been for the pandemic. So the fruits of the labor, I'm reading comments, I spend three hours a day just answering YouTube comments, three hours every day, just to keep up. I've missed a couple days before it took me all day to catch up from missing like two, three days when my mom was sick. And so it's incredible. And these people everywhere, you can see these comments on our videos, Father, I'm coming back to the church after 30 years, Father, I haven't been to confession in 25 years. After watching this video, I'm going back to confession. After watching this video, I'm getting my husband, he's agreed to go back to confession. The one that always makes me smile are the ladies who write to me saying that their husbands had no interest in the faith had no, you know, no really active faith life. And Father, you caught their attention because you're talking about football sometimes you're talking about sports or you're talking about your past life. That's never my focus. But sometimes I'll anecdotally bring it into to supplement a story. And there are so many responses saying that the husbands are coming back. And that's through the help of Saint Joseph, that I think is key right now is getting those fathers back into the role of head of the family and practicing the faith. And you've talked to us about kind of that key turning point for you 2003 with divine mercy. But since that time, as you've lived the message as you've studied, Faustina studied the diary, all that, what is divine mercy meant for you in an ongoing way? It was a great turning point, but also like day to day, what is it? What does it do to you? As it was a continuation of the words I said to the priest that day that said, Father, I can't believe we have a God so merciful, so loving that he will allow me who was in knucklehead 10 years earlier at my own grandma's funeral who didn't even pray for her. I was so wrapped up a concern with the image that our family, because my grandma committed suicide. You know, I was at the funeral, I was lobbying my uncle who was writing the obituary, not to mention that my grandma took her life, because it would bring embarrassment on the family. So instead of praying for my grandma at that time, I'm worried about you know, missing time at work, my exams. But some of those are probably just grief. Yeah, it was, it was a throne into left field situation. But that realization of God being that merciful that he's going to allow even a knucklehead like me to make up for the lost and the mistakes that I missed just was incredible. And I live that day to day, because now I look back, okay, you know, last week I did this dumb thing, or you know, a month ago, I said this stupid thing. And yet I can go to confession. I can receive forgiveness. And because of God's mercy, I can keep wiping that slate clean and literally wiped clean every divine mercy Sunday. So the divineries really spirituality for all of us. It's continuation of what I learned in 1993 or 2003. And it is for everyone. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to be perfectly pure in order to get to heaven. You just have to keep trying. Yeah. Yeah. Was it was a sanctuary for us or somebody said saints are simply sinners who keep trying. I love that. Yeah. So give us give us really, you know, in a really short, clean, like, two minute thing, if this is the only exposure to the divine mercy message and devotion our listeners have, what do they need to know? The of all the virtues, you know, the only the way that we get to have an is to strive for virtue. And you know, we know the virtues prudence and justice and fortitude and and whatnot. Those are those are the cardinal virtues we can acquire them through practice. But there's three virtues that are above that we don't get through our own efforts are given to us as a gift of baptism. Faith, hope and the greatest of these is love. Okay. So that means of all the virtues, the greatest is love. Now is all love the same as I always say in my talks, I love Michigan football. But do I love Michigan football as much as my mom and I always joke my mom probably would say yes, but of course not, you you have different forms of love. The Greeks told us Eros was romantic love. You know, there was a brother of, you know, father, son, feel you'll kind of love. But the highest love is a gapay love that's completely giving yourself to another. And when that love reaches out and starts to take action, when that love is put into action, when that agape love is given and received, it becomes mercy. So mercy is the greatest form of the greatest virtue. The greatest virtue is love. Within love, the greatest form of it is mercy. And what is it? Mercy is a particular mode of love that when love encounters suffering, it takes action to do something about it. It's not just sitting back on its laurels and saying, you know what, I'll pray for you. And then somebody's in dire need and you just walk away. Divine Mercy, as Pope John Paul said, mercy is love's second name. It's putting love into action. And Father Mike Galeoie says, mercy is, you know, is when love encounters suffering. I always tell him, I actually added that is when love encounters suffering and takes action to do something about it. I can encounter your suffering, but I don't do anything about it. I've not fully lived mercy. Mercy is encountering suffering and then taking action to do something about it. That's the power of it. Okay. So we all take turns then in being merciful, receiving mercy. This is just as thing is only doing one, right? Yes. With another analogy, Father Mike Galeoie uses is breathing it in. Inhale and exhaling. And so we have to live, our body has to bring it in. It processes it. The cells of the body, our oxygen is brought to the cells of the body. And then it's exhaled with the carbon dioxide and all the, you know, the rest of it. So it's exhaled. So we have to live mercy that same way. We bring it into ourselves, into our hearts and our bodies from God. And then we exhale it and we live it with others. We live it by example. So what do you think of that old style that people thought it was virtuous to say, I don't accept charity or we don't accept charity? Well, you know, it's funny because there could be things that's called a false humility. I always laugh. Michael Jordan, we have a good young man who's doing our videos with us named Owen and he's a big basketball fan and he knows all the NBA players. So we have, we have a couple of good sports fans. But anyway, you know, Michael Jordan, that would be, you know, humility versus a false humility. Okay. Here's a false humility. Michael Jordan saying, you know, I really wasn't that good of a basketball player. That's not the truth. Humility is the truth. So for Michael Jordan to say, I really wasn't that good of a basketball player. That's a false humility. It's not the truth. So what is humility is knowing the truth. It's not thinking less of yourself. Humility is thinking of yourself less. Yeah. So if you're a football player, you're not going to be a football player. You're not going to be a football player. The problem is, is if you start to play that presumptuous game, Yeah. That you know what, I'll just, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's just, I don't have to resist the temptation. I'll just run a confession. No, there has to be a purpose of amendment. Okay. Yeah. Huh. Yeah, it's, it's amazing how, how it's so forgotten and how, how it is misunderstood. Like you said, it seems like it's the heart of, it is the heart of the faith. And yet so often, Benedict said, message of my mercy is a nucleus of the gospel. Yeah. And yet ignored or forgotten or just like you said, you didn't grow up with it. You didn't know about it really, you know, when you're growing up years. And I think a lot of people shared that experience. Yeah. A lot of people sort of talk about a more, a more stern or disciplinarian sort of Catholicism and not really an experience of mercy. We were from one extreme to the, yeah. Janssonism way back in the 1700s kind of was the root for it. And it continued all the way through really to the 1950s. Yeah. You know, the Catholic schools and there was the sphere of God. My dad's, I thought it was a fire breathing monster, you know, because that's what the nuns basically portrayed God as. But then there was a culture shift in the 60s. And I think it corresponded directly with 1963. People always say that innocence of our nation was lost with the death of Kennedy. I actually said, you know what also happened in 1963? Supreme Court took prayer out of schools. And since then we've seen a huge increase in onward pregnancies. Abortiones, divorces. These are all symptomatic of a bigger problem and that is removing God. And so we now enter the culture shift completely 180, which is now, hey, you're a good person. Yeah. As long as you're not Hitler, you're, you're going to heaven. But given what you were saying about the older notion of God, was it so much a removal of God or was it a removal of what we believed God to be? Was it an attempt to get away from the God, the disciplinary and God, the fire breathing monster? And now people are lost without either the God of mercy or the God of justice. I guess if you, if you evict what God is, you also evict God himself because God was too many people. An ogre that was the South of Terry, a theretarian that just was out to spoil their good time. Yeah. No, that's not a right, really proper way to look at God, but many people did. So I think, yeah, I think we've had a complete culture shift from one extreme to the other. About the only middle ground that I think you could find was it started to, you know, after the sexual revolution, which was detrimental telling women, you know, that they should abandon, you know, the patriarchy and whatnot. The devastating effect of that has now been through and seeing in things like contraception, abortions, unwed pregnancies. Yeah. You know, these things are again symptomatic, but we then have switched over to the complete opposite now that nobody goes to hell. Everybody goes to heaven. Do what you want. So what I'm hearing from you is that in some ways the divine mercy is indispensable for the new evangelization. That people had rejected a bad idea of God, but in order for them to come back to God at all, they've got to be given. But not a false mercy as we said earlier, if you really understand God for what mercy is, meaning that he's there to aid us through these times of suffering. And that he's there to forgive our sins. If we simply do as we've been instructed through scriptures, utilize the graces of the church, go to confession, receive an holy communion. These are scriptural. The scriptures tell us repent and if you don't ask for forgiveness and repent, you can enter the kingdom of God. John 6, the bread of life, you know, this is the bread of everlasting life. So we do need confession in the Eucharist. Of course, baptism. You can't enter the kingdom of God if you're not born of the water by water in the spirit. So we have to realize that these things were given to us that we just have to cooperate. That's it. That's the key. The divine mercy message and devotion presumes divine justice as well. It's not as though you have one or the other. They're all false mercy. Right. And his mercy is his justice. Okay. So what's your favorite divine mercy miracle or graces received story? There's been several, but I think in when you look at the souls right now in this craziness in this world, we deserve to be crushed out of existence. After what we've done in the last hundred years, you think about legalized abortion on demand pornography, birth control. being forced upon the youngest of students, indoctrination in our schools, advancement of atheistic communism and socialism, the giant welfare state, nobody's held accountable mentality. There is no how. These smack and smell of everything that would deserve God's justice and wrath, and yet it's not. It's been a time of mercy. That that in itself, and I'm talking on the macro view here, is incredible. So God's forbearance in some ways. God's endurance of us, I suppose. God never tires it for forgiving Pope Francis that we will tire of asking for forgiveness, before God will tire of giving forgiveness. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. What are some of the most interesting questions you've gotten from people about divine mercy? Oh my, we've gotten just a plethora of questions. Everything explaining the grace of divine mercy Sunday to the acronym Fench, which are the five channels of grace. Okay, go ahead and explain that. Yeah, the beauty of a divine mercy was it's not new. The message of divine mercy goes all the way back to the garden of Adam and Eve. You know, with the fall of mankind. And people say, well, Father, how did the angels fall? They were in heaven. No, they did not fully behold the beat of envision yet. So they had to be put to a test just like we were. The difference is the only reason they got one shot is because they saw the consequences of their actions. Mankind did not. So God has given us the opportunity for the out to chance to go back and receive multiple graces of forgiveness to, well, many times we need to go to confession. But after the fall, God left us with the gift of a mother and the promise of a savior. And that's what we, Mary and fathers are all about. The gift of the mother was Mary, the promise of a savior was Jesus. And so with the Mary and fathers being focused 100% on Jesus and Mary, it makes sense that we are the ones entrusted with divine mercy. People say, well, what about the mercy fuss? Oh, they're great guys. I know several of them, Father Wade and Father Bill Casey. They're good friends of mine. But it's very interesting because if you look at, you know, over the years, we as Mary and fathers have been commissioned really in a way by John Paul to go and be apostles of divine mercy. Well, you're the millions of the macro conception. What is, what is that? Well, the macro conception was the greatest act of mercy ever bestowed upon a creature. So it makes sense and Father Syrophim said it awesome. He said he believed that this message of mercy was given to the Mary and fathers because God wanted it under the mantle of Mary. And who better under the mantle of Mary than the marines of the immaculate conception? We were the first community in the world to bear the title immaculate conception. So it all ties together. Okay. All right. Now give me Finch real quick just for if people are sorry about that. So the message of divine mercy is not new, as I just explained, it goes back to the Garden of Adam and Eve. But throughout these centuries, our Lord has been trying to raise up great saints and prophets to live this message of mercy, to show us how to live it. Well, as usual, we don't listen, we're stubborn, we're stiff-nacked. So God in His infinite wisdom knew that we were going to need help and we were we were basically helpless without Him. And so what does He do? He finally gets to the 20th century and He says, that's it. You know, I'm done here. Now he didn't use those words. Those are not what Jesus said literally. But I believe it's what He meant because He said, you, St. Faustina, will help prepare the world for my final coming. What was that help? Mercy. And He gave St. Faustina several challenges. And he asked her to paint an image. She wasn't a painter. Ask her to get a universal church on the calendar. She had no influence. Ask her to spread this devotion on the world. She had no money. So, all these things that God asked her to do is she really couldn't. So basically God had been trying to give this message of mercy to the world from the beginning and we're stubborn. We don't listen. So finally, he raised up this little saint and he says, you St. Faustina will help prepare the world for my final coming. And that's what caught my eye because that was 90 years ago. And so how merciful is our Lord? Because it's common. But how merciful is He to allow us to get so many chances back to His mercy? And so the Finch, our once He chose St. Faustina to be as a possible secretary of divine mercy, what was the purpose to reenact or reinvigorate this message of mercy that people would live it from the heart? What is the ABC's? A is asked for God's mercy. B is be merciful to each other and C is completely trusted. And you go into great detail on all the books. This is all the books. This is the book for more. And basically that's the way to heaven. You know, if we don't ask and repent, we can't make it a kingdom of God. If we don't be merciful to each other, Matthew 25 tells us the sheep and the goats. We're going to be burned in the internal fire. And then finally, C is completely trust. So A is asked for mercy. B is be merciful to each other. And C is completely trust in God's mercy. Now why is that so important? Because we want to get to heaven, right? But how do you get to heaven? You get to heaven by grace. And so how does God give us this grace? And how do we receive it? Jesus said trust is the vessel by which all grace is received. So you want to get to heaven? You need grace. You want grace? Okay. You got to get the vessel to catch it. How's that vessel to catch it? Trust. And so Jesus wanted this message of mercy. We invigorated to the world. And Faustina is like, how am I going to do this Lord? He gave her five new channels of grace that we now call the devotion of divine mercy. Yeah. Technically devotion of divine mercy or devotions are optional. But Jesus made it clear that this is not just about our devotion to God. It's about his devotion to us. That's why we see the left foot stepping forward. But the most important thing is Jesus told her I'm giving you five new channels of grace by which to live mercy, change the world, bring the world of my mercy. And we remember them but the simple acronym Fitch F I N C H like the little bird F is the feast of divine mercy. I is the image of divine mercy and is the Navina of divine mercy C as the chaplet of divine mercy. And H is the hour of mercy. And so we can use these five new channels of grace to start to live a better message of divine mercy. Because that's how we'll be judged. And how to use those as all definitely in Father's book which everybody up to check out. Let me just kind of wrap us up with talk to me about the woman behind it all. Talk to me a bit about St. Festeena and how do you how do you have her help in your ministry? How do you what sort of devotion to her do you have? Well it's interesting because St. Festeena fascinated me from the day that priest told me to pray this chaplet because it made no sense to me that we could have a God that loving, that merciful. And she does an incredible job articulating it. Now the book is understanding divine mercy. In my reprint of the first after the first print run, I made the edition where basically it seems like a pretty presumptuous statement. Like I can explain to you, but divine mercy is like I understand it. Because Jesus said no man can even the angels cannot comprehend me in my essence. I cannot be comprehended in my essence. So how in the world then Father are you saying understanding divine mercy? Because Jesus is next sentence to St. Festeena. He told her, while nobody can understand me in my essence, you can come to know God through his attributes and the greatest attribute is mercy. So if you want to know God, you got to know him through his attributes. And what is the best of greatest attribute? Mercy. In fact, that was quite as said, you can't love what you don't know. So the more you know God, the more you can love him. So I'm sorry, you can't love what you don't know. It is that I reversed. But tell us a point of said, you can't love what you don't know. So if I want to love God more, I need to know him a little bit. And how do I come to know him through prayer, of course, and adoration, of course, but a lot is through a book like this to be able to come to know what is divine mercy. Okay. And people will meet St. Festeena, especially through this as they read. Thanks so much for sitting down with me today. Thank you. This has been a good conversation. I hope that it helps people. Yes, I am sure it will. And blessings to all those who are listening in and may God's mercy be upon you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you for listening to Sparks of Mercy. We hope this helps you spread divine mercy to the world. Pray for me. I'll pray for you. 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