Fr. Robideau - Track 1

Fr. Robideau - Track 2

Fr. Robideau - Track 3

Fr. Robideau - Track 4

This is a Draft Version. Final Revision Will be posted soon!

Fr. Robideau: Good morning.

Audience: Good morning.

Fr. Robideau: As we begin this talk I would like to make a little announcement myself. You'll see me running around a lot doing stuff with the electronics equipment. That's my other job while I'm here. Mike, I'm getting a little bit of feed back. The one about sub...on the mixer. On the mixer, the speakers, the dial that says sub, at the bottom, right hand corner.

Mr. Kotarski: Is it down?

Fr. Robideau: Yup, just a little bit. Thank you. There we go. Got all this stuff down here. Okay. Great. Okay. Does that sound good?

Audience: Yes.

Fr. Robideau: Okay. Good. Okay, got that straightened out. So...

Mr. Kotarski: (? 015) inaudible.

Fr. Robideau: Should be going. You can check it if you don't trust me. I didn't check it so you might want to.

As we look at the picture, we are going to find that imbedded in this picture are other pictures. Pictures of the life of Christ. Oh, ah Mike, as long as your right there do you want to flip the bottom three switches on the lights. Right behind you. Bottom three. There we go. There, okay?

We see here, lets starting beginning with the life of Christ. Manger scene we'll go bold there. Okay? And then we have here the crucifixion, there's a little cross over here by the eye. We see some mountains on the top of His head here. Oh, easy, He went in the mountains to pray and the hills, okay. I'm not sure what this is yet, the picture is not clear enough for me to really determine what that is, but its ah Jesus kneeling, doing something.

Audience: Agony of the garden?

Fr. Robideau: Agony of the garden, I didn't think, there you go, that's what that is. Yes. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. And over here we see some angels with a trumpet. Trumpeting our Lord Jesus Christ in everything that he did. Okay.

What I want us to realize is that if we can see this, we can see natural law. We can see that like this picture, imbedded in the picture are other pictures. We'll be able to see that imbedded in natural law, or imbedded in creation is this thing called natural law. What natural law is, is God's way of revealing His mind of speaking to us, of revealing to us what He was thinking when He created the world. And written in that creation then is His law. And that's what I hope to be able to show us here today. And then we'll finish up by looking at how we use God's law then to become holy. So the topic today is natural law as a means to holiness. One means, or many means, but an important one. And ah, like do you want to raise your hand if you've ever heard about natural law before, have you ever heard a talk on it before? Okay, just ah about it looks like seven or maybe eight people have heard of this before. Ah, might have heard of it, but actually been to a talk. Okay.

As we ask, is natural law important to us? We of course have to bring to mind, what is our goal? What is our goal? You see there are some who deny natural law, say it doesn't exist. Um, I watched a little piece from um called The Holiness once, one of the first conferences they had in Detroit, when they were having them there. And this guy got up and he started talking and he said "Today I want to talk about natural law. I'm only going to say two things about it. That is that there is two problems with it. The first problem is the word 'natural' and the second problem is the word 'law'.

Audience: Laughter.

Okay. That's the way some people deal with God's mind. With His creation. With His law. That's not the way I deal with it. I see something very beautiful. Something very important to us. If we have the goal of becoming holy. If our goal is to unite our mind to the mind of God, we have to have some way to come to know, what is the mind of God? And natural law is one of those ways.

So, lets look at the difference between two words so we know exactly what we are talking about. There is natural law and then there is the laws of nature, and they are two very different things. The laws of nature are things like in the realm of physics. Things like gravity, and chemistry, you know, chemical reactions, certain things react with other things. And biology you know studying things like breathing, and eating, and reproduction, and medicine, and how all that works. And in math something like two plus two equals four. These are the laws of nature, they are, and we can know them. And we do know them. We know much of it. There are some things we are still trying to figure out, you know like um is light the particle or a wave. We don't know yet, okay. At least we didn't when I was in high school. That might have changed by now, I don't think it has.

But one thing we notice as, we know all this, in the realm of physics. We knew about gravity before the apple fell on Newton's head, didn't we? Nobody feared when getting out of bed in the morning and that they were going to fall to the ceiling. They knew that when they got out, they would put their feet on the floor, and that they would be okay for the rest of the day, okay. They weren't going to fall up. In chemistry, we knew before, we knew the chemical makeup of oil, that we could burn it and use it for light. We have done that for many, many years before we had chemists that knew how to find oil, to refine it, and to use it.

In biology, long before we understood all about air and food. Before we understood reproduction, or understood how the body works to the extent that we do today. We knew certain things. We knew we had to breathe to live. We knew we had to eat to live. We knew about reproduction and the basic mechanics of how that happened. We understood a little bit about how the body worked and they were doing medicine long before we had the scientists perfecting the medicines that we have today.

We can know these things about creation, and we do. And we still have much to discover yet. And what's beautiful, and I'm getting ahead of myself here. Is as we look at natural law. That we use these natural sciences as we come to understand the world and how it works, and how everything fits together. Okay, those are the natural sciences. We take and we use that information in natural law. When natural law goes far beyond the natural sciences of biology and chemistry and physics. Biology, natural law goes beyond that takes us to the next level. Natural law looks at why the world works the way that it does. And what that means to us. And so this question can be asked in one of two basic ways. We can look at it philosoph-ically or theologically, and the two really go hand in hand.

Some don't understand exactly theology is. To do theology you must first learn philosophy. And that's why you become a priest before you go off to graduate school as a priest. You first have to take twenty-four credits of philosophy first, and I think up to eighteen credits of theology and under grad then you can go off to grad school and do all your major studies in theology. But you have to have those twenty-four credits of philosophy first. To have the basics. Philosophy is the handmaid of theology. And what we are going to see is that philosophy, or theology is philosophy at its finest. See philosophy is a lover of truth. A philosopher means a lover of truth. Someone who seeks truth and wants to know truth, and who bring that science of philosophy into the realm of theology, when we elevate it to that high level what we have is not just seeking ordinary common truths of nature and that, but seeing that truth through the eyes of God. Seeing the world as God meant it to be seen. We can look at a piece of art work and see what we see in it, but have you ever stood next to the artist, and have the artist tell you what he saw as he painted it? Or as he carved it. Its very interesting to see it through their eyes, okay.

And so, as we elevate this philosophy to the realm of theology. As we look at natural law, we're going to ask a few basic questions. First, who made the world? Why did he make the world? Why do things work the way that they do? And does this have an impact on my use of the world? Pretty basic questions.

First one. And I want you to answer. Who made the world?

Audience: God.

God, made the world. Question one of Baltimore catechism and you all passed. God made the world. Okay. Everybody was able to answer that in unison so that was good. Okay. We understand that. Okay? There are philosophers who don't understand that and so they can't do theology. You can't do theology unless you believe in a God. Okay. So when they ask this question, who made the world? Then they talk about the big bang. We don't do that do we? Or if we do, we quickly limit it down God created the bang. Okay, if there was such a thing, and we don't believe there really was, or I don't at least. Okay? Its kind of silly, why would God create a big bang? He created. He didn't need an explosion. He spoke and it was. Okay?

Why did God make the world? God made the world because we would need it. His intention was to create us and we would need a place to live. And He knew that this world would be at our disposal. He provides it for us. Hence He said "It is good". And by good, He meant it was good for us. So those who have this platonic idea of the world bad, the body bad, and the soul good. No, no, no, no. We don't believe that, we believe the world is good. It's there for us, we misuse it and for bad reasons. Okay? That's a different story. The world itself is good. God created it. Okay. And He didn't create the world for Himself. He created it for us, to enjoy. He said, 'Go out, do the world, its yours".

But we also recognize another reason for creation, and I'd be heretic if I didn't mention it at this point. And that is of course, it glorifies God. God created it good. It glorifies Him. He created the world to work a certain way. And it worked as it should. Creation glorifies God. It shows the awesome power of God. It shows His great intellect, His intelligence, and it shows that He is a God of reason. We are going to come back to these in a little bit.

But it brings us to the third question. Why do things work the way they do? As we look at the world from the perspective of the natural sciences as I talked about before, the laws of nature, okay? We see a world of order, of hierarchy, of complexity, of harmony and we could think of a whole of other words to talk about the world. Okay? But we can see these things. And, this even becomes one of our proofs of God. We say something along the lines of, you know, it couldn't of just happened. It's not an accident. It had to be somebody greater who created it. We know we couldn't create it. Some higher power had to do it, and we call that power God.

Now seeing God to be reasonable, we come to understand why things work the way they do. God being reasonable would not create something to be contrary to its purpose. That would be unreasonable. Everything He created He said was good. So he created nothing to be bad, although some things became bad. Fallen angels and every time we sin. Okay. Every time we produce something for evil intentions or purposes. Okay, we bring it into the realm of evil. God didn't do that.

Therefore everything must cooperate with His purpose. And it will in the end. Remember God will have His justice in the end. I call Him the great equalizer because in the end there will be justice. It will work to His purpose. He will have His justice in the end. That is one of the things we want to keep in mind. And so we see in His purpose that we are called to cooperate with Him. Again, remember our goal from the beginning, we want to get to heaven. Its our goal. So we have to cooperate with His purpose, and that is the glory of and cooperate with the world then the way He created it to work.

He created the world and us for His glory, and for our own benefit. So why does creation work the way it does? Because God created it according to His intellect and His reason. His creation is as it is because God wanted it that way. And so we can say that as we look at creation we can see the mind of God. We can see what He was thinking when He created things. How do we do that? We think of ourselves first. We have pretty good experience of one another. When we do things, when we design things, when we create things, we put our self into it. It becomes an expression of ourself in so many ways. It can communicate what we were thinking at that time when we made it, or did it. We can express things like love and desire, hopes and dreams, through the things that we do.

Here's an example. If I make thirty models of sailboats, what would you conclude? I like sailboats. Okay? I didn't have to tell you that did I. You could see what was on my mind. Okay. If I put up a billboard of an aborted fetus, what would you conclude? I'm against abortion, right? Your not going to get a pro-abortion person to do that. Okay. They really don't know what the truth is. What a fetus is, for real, you know? Okay?

Okay, if you see me wearing my collar, what would you conclude?

Audience: Your a priest.

Fr. Robideau: I'm a priest. What else can you conclude?

Audience: You're proud of it.

Fr. Robideau: I'm proud of it. What else can you conclude?

Audience: You're obedient.

Fr. Robideau: I'm obedient. Anything else?

Audience: We like you.

Fr. Robideau: You like me. (Laughter)

Audience: Joined Father in laughter.

Fr. Robideau: You might conclude that maybe I'm on duty, I'm available, okay. Like a police officer, you know when he is in uniform he is on duty. Under my collar, I'm on duty. If you need me I'm here. Okay? See you can conclude, I didn't need to tell you any of that. You probably figured that about me already. Okay? Anybody that knows me knows I love my priesthood. Okay. It's great and I love sharing it, no reason to hold it to myself. It's a dead priesthood if I keep it to myself. You got to share it. Just like marriage, you got to share it, for it to be meaningful. Okay? So can we see by the things that we do and say, the way we dress and everything, says something. It communicates something without any word ever having to be spoken.

Now we can see, we can also see the mind of God and His creation. And ask the question, what is good for man? What's good for us? Know the natural science, seeing how God created things, elevating it now up through philosophy into theology. Asking that question. What impact does it have on me? So, there's the review, I just did it. Okay?

We are getting to God's purpose for why things work the way they do. Its to bring us to His plan. What's His major plan? Salvation for us, right? What we're all hoping on and depending on. Okay. Fourth question. Does the way God created the world, to cooperate with His purpose, have an impact on our use of the world? And this question brings us to the heart of natural law. Now, the laws of nature dealt with mechanics. How things worked. Natural law deals with morality based on how the world works.

Here's an example. And I use this example because it's an easy one to use for one. Easy to understand. Also because I am part of the NFP Board for the Diocese of Lansing, and I am very familiar with natural family planning and all of that. So I use this example because its very easy to understand.

God created women with a cycle of fertility and infertility. We know that from science. We know there are times when women are fertile and times when they are not. And God gave us the use of reason. Okay. To know, in cooperation with God, to determine when we should have children, and how many children we should have. Okay. And notice I say in cooperation with God there. We're supposed to take that in prayer. Husband and wife, working together, to ask this question "Is this the right time to have children?" "How many children should we have, we have three now, we have four now, should we have another one? Is it what God is calling us to?" Inviting God into that decision with them. Using their reason. Looking at their resources that they have available to them, to determine whether this is the time to have children or not. And in light of that decision, then they can determine their behavior each month with one another. Its very reasonable. God created man and woman to come together in this loving act. Its natural, its good. But with that act we also know their comes responsibilities, and God created it that way, but He gave us this natural rhythm, its very beautiful. We don't have to use the chemicals that endanger the woman's body. We don't have to use these immoral methods that non-believers have come up with. That we know are sinful. God gave us a natural cycle. What a gift. And so many just throw that gift back in God's face, and do other things. So we see natural law, based on knowing nature, we can see the mind of God, that He was able to determine in advance that there would be times that we would want to have sex, or not have sex based on this decision. This is just one example of many.

We know that, when we call somebody a name, it hurts their feelings, right? Okay. Emotions are natural, they are created by God. They respond to sensory input, you know, in this case a harsh word that is said to us. We respond to that. And we know that when feelings are hurt, relationships are also hurt. We know that so often when we do these harmful things that leads to other things. That person gets grumpy and they go call somebody else a harsh name or whatever, or get angry at them, and it just keeps propagating itself doesn't it? Okay. So, when we come to understand emotions the way God created them we can start to understand why it is we are to respect one another, and to be charitable to one another. Because we know how the human emotions work. God created them that way. They call us, they demand us, to be charitable to one another. As God said, Jesus said "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". I know how a harsh word affects me, why would I do that to somebody else? Its nature, its natural.

God created gravity. God also created us to exercise self-preservation. And as we respect our body and our life, and so we don't do things like step off of a cliff. Pretty natural, huh? There's morality to it though. I know about gravity so if I step off that cliff, I know what's going to happen and I know its not good for me, and I know its not what God would have for me.

Ah, natural law is also expressed in some of God's divine revelation, or else through scripture, ah ten commandments. You shall not murder. Well, we know that things like war and self-preservation at times we may kill. Killing is not murder. Two different things. We may never murder. Murder is the intentional taking of an innocent life. We understand that there is a difference between the two. And we know from experience that murder is never a good thing. Killing itself is not a great thing, its not good, but we come to understand some differences there. We know the effects. We know the harm it causes, and there is no way we can do the act without the harm. We know God's law. Knowing God didn't even have to come and say "You shall not murder". We knew it already. But He reinforced it in His Decalogue, the Ten Commandments.

We know right from wrong. When we've made mistakes we have felt the repercussions, that wonderful gift of God, called a conscience. Another part of nature, God wired us a certain way, that we know when we do harm. We violate the purpose of God's creation. We violate His natural laws, and how things are to work properly. Our conscience pricks us. And as a gift from God, never fear your conscience, the conscience is a beautiful gift from God, because when it pricks us hopefully we are prompted to get to confession to be united to Him. If we want to use this gift, along with the other gifts of creation in general the way God created it, coming to understand it more deeply as a way for us to become holy. That's our goal. We want to get holy. So, virtue is important. We come to know the vice and we come to know the virtues. We come to know the mind of God. His goodness, truth, beauty, His justice, His mercy, His charity, the Divine Law, the natural law, civil law, social law, we come to know these things and to cooperate with them. In particular I'm talking about today, natural law. As one of those means, one of those virtues that we can exercise. Being obedient to God's natural law.

Understanding natural law in this sense of living the virtues may seem easy. But it's only one aspect. Rather looking out at the world of creation let us look inside. Let us look to ourselves who are also part of creation, and so part of natural law. I've already mentioned one aspect of it, our emotions. Our conscience was another one I mentioned already, looking inward. Rather looking how the world looks in general and how we are to respond to it, we also have to look at ourselves and how we are wired and made to work, and respond to that also.

God revealed His plan in us. We are body and soul, we are mechanical and spiritual, we are chemical and rational, we are electrical and will, and they have electrical impulses going through us there, and we have a will. And its two things in particular. The fact that we are rational and that we have a will that separates us from the animals. The animals just do what they are wired to do. We are the only creature who can exercise will, and make a choice, and act contrary to nature. Which we know is evil, we know is sin. That is why this becomes important to us. We have something the rest of creation doesn't have. A will. We can choose to go against nature. We are created for a higher purpose. We are created for heaven. We are created to be the children of God. So more is required on our part. The animals don't have to choose to cooperate with nature. They do. We have to choose to do so. Not like an animal, but like the human beings that we are. Making rational choices. Choosing to love and to serve God, and to cooperate with His plan. That's what makes us human. To act less than that reduces ourselves to being an animal. We want to make human acts.

We are not simply called to respond to nature. We are not just called to respond to food, water, shelter, clothing and inclusion, and inclusions friendship. Inclusion like what we have here...community. Why are we called to respond to these things our animalistic instincts. We are called to use reason, and to will our behavior as we respond to the world, yes. But we are also called to will in union with the mind of God.

That's where we talk about surrendering our will to the will of God. Uniting our mind to the mind of God. Then I would ask the question that I hate so much. What would Jesus do? That gets so abused. Hmm, okay? People will say Jesus would do the nice thing, the kind thing, the generous thing. Yes, he would. But sometimes the nice thing, the kind thing, the generous thing, is to say "You brood of vipers, you hypocrites. Get thee behind me Satan", and referring to the woman as a dog. Okay. All of these things are in scripture. Sometimes it means going over the chord of whips. Okay, we think these things harsh, cruel, insensitive, uncaring, but guess who did them? Jesus. And Jesus is the one who came and said "I didn't come to bring peace in the world, is that what you thought? You thought I came to bring peace?" Oh, let me clarify this for you right now. I came to bring division. I want to set father against son, son against father, daughter against mother, mother against daughter. In a household of five, two will be set against three, and three against two. So let us, as I am saying here, as we ask "What would God do here?" don't be sappy. Don't be wishy-washy. Sometimes its the bold and powerful thing that needs to be done. Sometimes its the gentle, sensitive thing and to step back. Sometimes it means action. Sometimes it means patience. Okay? But that's when you have to ask the question "What would God do here?" How would He respond to this?

Further still, as we are looking at natural law, we don't just respond to the promptings of nature. We also respond to the promptings of the spiritual. God's promptings in our hearts. Remember, we are not just a physical being we are also a spiritual being. Its part of our nature, its natural to us, the way God wired us. So we are to respond to His promptings in life.

We have an inner longing. We talk about the spiritual here. We have a longing for God, for eternity, for goodness, justice, love, and many other things you can think of that we have a longing for. More than just for food and water, clothing and shelter.
Some of these slides aren't totally right yet, because I wasn't planning on having a talk today, I was supposed to be tomorrow. So, that was part of my job today was to finish these slides.

Lets look at what we already know. We know about the saints. And how they got to be saints. We know their life story. We have their autobiographies, or biographies that were written about them. And one of the first things we see is that it is not easy. It is not easy to become a saint. And so with this, if we think seeking holiness through sloth will work. Guess what. Its not going to work is it? Name me one saint who was slothful in his spiritual life, who was slothful in their prayers to God, who was slothful in their relationships with one another, who was slothful in their labors of the day, who was slothful in their education, who was slothful in their marriage, who was slothful in their priesthood. Name one of them who got to be holy? It doesn't work does it? It's contrary to the way God wired us. Holiness requires work.

We notice that what is in common with most of the saints as they talk about it, we can see that threefold progression that we know so well, by reading John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila. The purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive way, right? Okay. Now there are other ways, but they are supernatural. Okay. I'm not talking about the supernatural ways of getting to holiness, where God intervenes and zaps us. Okay? I'm talking about the ordinary means. The day in day out work that we have to do. That's the purgative, the illuminative and the unitive way. That's the way we're wired, and so we want to keep that in mind and cooperate with it. We can't just take it as like today, 'Okay, I feel like being in the illuminative way today, and tomorrow I'm going to go to unitive, because I'm on the fast track'.

Audience: Laughter.

Fr. Robideau: Okay. We're going to skip purgative altogether, because that's too much work, and going to take too much time to do it. I want to be married to God tomorrow. Okay? Now, without some divine intervention I don't think that's going to work is it? Okay. We're talking the natural and ordinary how did God wire us? This is the ordinary way that it's done. The natural way. The human nature growing and progressing. Responding, practicing, developing, nurturing, our disposition and our orientation towards God. Towards the mind of God, the love of God, and His justice and charity. It takes time. To try and violate that, goes against the plan that God's designed for us. It takes work. Some do try other ways. Some try these nasty things called new age, transcendentalism mediation, center and prayer, and these things. They are going to take us backwards. Okay? So let's not go there. Okay?

How many know natural law what we're going to come, particularly in the purgative way I want to focus on just for a second, because the purgative way is our activity, right? The limit of unitive ways is more God's intervention, we will start getting to those stages. But, for Him to do that we have to do this work of the purgative stage, we have to open ourselves up, make ourselves available to Him. To have certain dispositions of our nature already in our character, our personality, that allow God to work through us. We have to do that work first, and that work as we know is the elimination of vice, and the embracing of virtue.

I talked about sloth already. We can know this good from evil. We can know the vice from the virtue by looking at what works and what doesn't work in the world as God created it so often. There is other ways to find out truth also, some of it is divinely revealed to us. We're focusing on natural law in many ways here. And so, in noticing that we come to know what to eliminate from ourselves and what to embrace. And we have to keep in mind as we do that, that my nature is a little different from your nature, which is different from the person next to you. And that is something that you may have no problem with in your life, may be a problem for me. Okay? What leads you to holiness or doesn't interfere with your holiness, maybe something if I embrace it will interfere with my growing in holiness. Okay?

Maybe ummm, power. Let's use something authority. I don't know how to handle authority. I get authority and I go wild and I make everybody's life miserable. Okay? I get power hungry. Maybe my role in life is not to have authority. Maybe I am just to be a simple worker, take my orders, be obedient and do what I'm told to do. Another person can handle authority, no problem. Does that make sense? Okay? So what's good for one person isn't always good for the other person. But that is what we have to watch how we are acting and behaving. To find out not only what's natural in the world but, well, not necessarily what's natural to me but how I'm working. Okay? And respond to that. Because God's law is I am not to go out and make people's lives miserable. And if having authority in my life makes others miserable, I'm supposed to recognize that.

We must (? 498 inaudible) the mind of God. In Revelation natural law ah...here we go there's that creation I talked about this earlier. Creation is beautiful when seen through the eyes of God who designed it. Go back to standing next to the author or to the painter, or the wood carver, or whatever, and see it through their eyes. Have them explain it to you. Want to see the world that way, to see it through God's eyes, and to respond to it the way that He sees it, in His glory. And cooperate with it. Natural law is a good and beautiful thing and it could be a means towards our holiness. Hold the blessing off. I have five minutes left and so what I want to do there is, Mike had put out on the internet that I went to Fatima, and he promised you some pictures, so I had to go out and buy a camera, so I got the pictures. Its a good thing I read that E-Mail before I went over there.

Audience: Laughter

Fr. Robideau: So, I just have (? 508 inaudible) pictures here. Ah, I'm not really a shutter bug but I did take these for you. And I also mention why, what am I looking for here? Um, there it is. That's not good...we put out of this here. That there. There we go. Okay. Anyone seen that? Want to know what's so important to that to us today? That is the Chapel of the Monastery where Sister Lucia lives, okay? And Sister Lucia is a what?

Audience: Carmelite.

Fr. Robideau: Carmelite. Okay, good. We know that. So that is what she sees everyday when she prays. I said Mass there. I kept the Carmelites back here at home in mind as I did so. So I don't know if this is going to work, and its going to work. I'll take it out, its not going to work. I'm not sure about these, all we have on I don't use the software that much.

Audience: Is she still alive?

Fr. Robideau: Yes she is, yes. She's like ninety-three, ninety-four something like that? Okay. Ah, that's just a statue that she has there. One of the pictures of the statues in their ah chapel. Very beautiful. Directly across from it is this statue. Its beautiful. This is all in the chapel there.

This is back in the sacristy for the priest to look at.

This is the shrine at the site where Mary appeared the fifth time. There is one time she appeared, she appeared in one place where the main shrine is, but she on August 13th she appeared here. Ah, because the children weren't able to be with her. Supposed to be because they were in jail being questioned. So this is the site where she appeared her fifth time. And why is the operation of Mary so important to us, of Fatima? Anyone know? She appeared as our Lady of Mount Carmel didn't she? On the day the sun danced on October 13th. One of the ways that she appeared was as Our Lady of Mount Carmel. So we do have an attachment to Fatima. That is why Mike thought it might be nice for me to bring these pictures here today. Because of that connection that we have.

Ah, that's just a picture of the landscape of where she appeared there, okay. That's the group I was with (? 542 inaudible) there. Picture of the landscape, overview there. Beautiful area. (? 544 inaudible) This is where Mary chose to appear as the Lady of Mount Carmel. Of course all the buildings probably weren't there at the time.

Audience: Laughter.

Fr. Robideau: This is where the angel appeared ah twice to the children. The angel appeared three times, and also appeared at the family well. The angel gave them communion. He gave Jacinta and Lucia communion under the form of bread. And he gave Francisco, the boy, communion under the species of wine. And that there is the rock, underneath the angel there. That is the actual rock that the angel appeared on, standing on together. (? 550 inaudible). Do you know Catholics do that?

Audience: Laughter.

Fr. Robideau: (? 552 inaudible) This is the church where all three children were baptized. There is a baptismal fountain where they were baptized. Um, that's a picture of the site as it was, where Mary appeared to the other ah...(? 555 inaudible) hold down the press power button, why aren't we starting my computer? Oh, well. Sorry about that. Do you want to see the facility yet? (? 558 inaudible) Let's move back up.

Um, we had a good time over there. There was about ten of us that went over and we celebrated Mass there on October 13th so it was a big celebration. There were all kinds of people there the night before at the vigil. And um, I mean, you'll see it, it's just a sea of lights, its a candlelight vigil where they pray the rosary. It's just a wave of light. It's just beautiful. Ah, then the next day there is this huge crowd there again for the actual Mass for the celebration of the 13th. Ah, you know the date of the sun danced on October 13th, and ah, a beautiful experience I had there, all of us priests, about three or four hundred priests, all lined up, and Mary is behind us in procession, the guys got her up on their shoulder, and I was right towards the back. I was about twenty five from the back. The Bishop was just behind me. And I turned around to look and there she was, and all I could see was just like a mother hen with her wings out, you know, taking her priest sons you know, gathering up in the sanctuary. Gathering us together in the sanctuary. I don't know why that image came to me but that is what came to my mind. It was a pretty image though. Okay.

So we are on a break right now, right? So I'm not...so this is break time and at ten thirty is the next talk, so if somebody, if you don't want to see the pictures I mean, feel free to go, stretch your legs...(574 inaudible).

Lady: I'll just mention a couple of quick things, if you just got here. Bathrooms. There is a set of bathrooms to the right, there is another set of bathrooms straight ahead closer to where you came in at the main desk. There is also near the main desk (? 579 inaudible) Close to our area I don't know if its set up yet. But you can (? 580 inaudible).

(All of the inaudible words are due to someone not speaking directly into the microphone).

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Fr. Robideau's tape - Side 2 - (Not talking directly into microphone and I can't make this out so when ever ?? that is the problem).

Fr. Robideau: That's ah, where Mary appeared there. That's a picture of the church where the children were baptized, the sanctuary. That's a picture of the statute that Sister Lucia said would smile at her during Mass. That's the basilica. That's me and the basilica. People there love to (?? 027).

Now, the building off to the side there is the site where Mary actually appeared. That's where she appeared at. In the basilica. (?? 033) We'll go inside the basilica. (?? 034) There's the inside of the basilica. Now Francisco is buried off to the right, Jacinta to the left of the sanctuary in the side wings. That's a picture of their grave. That's a picture of their organ in the back. There's Jacinta's grave, ah Francisco I mean, excuse me. He is buried on the one side. On the other side you'll see Jacinta's grave there on the left. On the right, I believe it's probably where they are going to bury Sister Lucia. So, its not marked yet. Her name's not on it or anything yet. I didn't have anyone tell me that, but I just assume that's what is going to happen there.

They have a site outside where you can burn candles for any intentions you want, that site is just behind where she appeared. That little pavilion I showed you. They sell candles and everything right there. They're reasonable on their price, I guess. (?? 055) There is that sea of lights, that candlelight, the night before pray the rosary. You can have an idea how big this crowd is, when I took this picture, I am standing to the right of the crowd in the middle, so there's the back part of it. There's the middle part of it looking over at the pavilion where she appeared, and then ah, looking at the front part of it there. There was a huge crowd.

Audience: What day was that? The 13th?

Fr. Robideau: Ah, that would have...I think that was on Sunday night. I think Monday was the 13th this year and it was Tuesday. There's a session (?? 067) I'm telling you, I saw little Mother Hunt hen back there ushering us in, the little ones. Ushering all the priests into the sanctuary. There's the crowd from the sanctuary.

That is where they're doing the construction back there.

I think that picture there, is nurses there to take care of people who pass out and that.

That's a close up of her. That's what they carry her on there. In fact she is up in the air, see the tops of the hats of the men who were carrying her.

That's the actual site now where she appeared. Where that statute sits, that's where she appeared, right there in that pavilion.

That's where she appeared as our Lady of Mount Carmel and everything was right there in that spot.

Okay. That's the end of the pictures.

I didn't want to make Mike a liar, so I had to have pictures.

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