Delight in Creation: Embracing Our Divine Worth

1) "And so you start to meditate on where is God in the existence of the world and the air, the water, the fire, the ground, the rock. So in the elements, where does God exist? And St. Ignatius invites us to meditate on God's existence and all of that and to be in awe that God holds it in existence as and is in his existence. And then the next meditation, you meditate on life. Things that grow and you look at trees and plants and flowers and you meditate on, God has the ability. Like the first four things, they don't have life, they just exist. The second set is life. So those things exist. They like, they grow and they green. And then now they're going to become orange and red and beautiful colors and there's death to them and there's a natural progression of life and you meditate." [22:11] (63 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "And then the fourth thing that we meditated on was rationale, intellect, humanity, right? The pinnacle of God's creation. And when I started doing that, it took me about three. Three sessions of meditation as I went through, because what God showed me was the moment, the moment of my conception in my mother's womb. God brought me into existence, and he became in awe of what he had created. He looked at me and was like, you are wonderful. So, first off, whether you think I'm wonderful or not, God does. All right? So there you go. He thinks I'm pretty delightful. But that was actually the meditation, because what it started to do was it started to butt up against all these old lies that say, you know, you're not smart enough, you're stupid." [24:32] (56 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "It was like the walls around my heart just broke down because I realized God intended me to be here. Oh, thank you. So if that's the case for me, then it's the case for you. Isn't that so fun? Can you say, God intended me to be here? Woo. Doesn't that feel good? Oh, just let all those old things just fall away. Right when people are like, ah, I don't like you. You know, whenever they say really, really mean things to you in high school or grade school or middle school, and God says, I intend for you to be here, but he goes a step further, because sometimes we can be like, oh, that's great." [25:53] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "God intended me to be here in a world that's terrible and torn down and in division, hardship, he. This is it. This is the kicker. He delighted to create you. Can you say, God delighted to create me? Yeah, he did. He loved creating you, man. When he created you, he's like, I'm going to make the most unique, beautiful thing that I can. I can make. And here's the other thing that the Lord starts to tear down. Though other people may not have intended for you to be here, meaning maybe people have said to you, you were an accident. You know, we were done, and then all of a sudden you came along and okay, you were a happy surprise. It was like the Lord intended, even though your parents may not have. The Lord said, I want you to exist." [26:58] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "If God is wonderful, it makes you. Only 30% believed that. Okay, let's try that again. If God is wonderful and he made you, it makes you. Yeah, it does. If he's beautiful, it makes you. If he's good, it makes you. Yeah. We get what our creator give to us. We get him. He put himself into us. Now we live in a fallen world, and there is chaos and there is darkness and all these things. But when I start to sit with my goddess, my creator, my savior, what happens? I realize that he is the one who holds me. And at every moment he says, you are delightful." [27:57] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "Because you have something that no one else in this world has. And I'm going to let your light begin to shine because it's my light inside of you. And it may not be when you intend, but it will be, because that is why I made you. So I had this revelation, and I was sitting for several times in prayer, like, meditating on this delight of God in my life, and that I can delight. And then it hit me that every other person that I encounter in life is created intentionally and delightfully by God. Psalm 139 says, we are wonderfully made. And you say, I am wonderfully made." [28:47] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "And so it's part of Father Browning's desire that we begin to revision what that looks like for St. Peter's. And so one of the things that you'll notice is we don't have the crosses outside in front of the church. And part of the reason is, although the original idea of the crosses is beautiful and good, that we honor the lives that were taken of the innocent children, the world doesn't see it that way. They see it as a shame. They say, well, they're condemning us for what we've done or what I've known other people to have done for good reason, and they need to do it. And so father Browning, in our respect life ministry, discerned we want to do something and put out something that says, well, we don't know what's going to be out there yet, but a way of encouraging those who are suffering with fear and anxiety and suffering in all of those ways to find a place of healing. Because that's what we want, because that's who Jesus is. And if we're anything other than who Jesus is, then we're not really christian. We're not little Christs." [33:19] (73 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "And sometimes we can hone in on the one, because Mother Teresa, we know what she says like, we can't have the rest if we don't have children. That's her words. But it's important that we, as a christian community, as a catholic community, come to see that Christ has given us life, and that is pure delight. And all we want other people to do is to see the delight that they are. But if I'm living in pain and sorrow and shame, then I'm unable to see the delight of life, of me and of other people. My pain and my sorrow, my brokenness will prevent me from seeing the delight that I am if I lived in the continued perpetuated lie that I'm not good enough." [34:42] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "And when God says to me, I created you with delight, what's it going to do? I'm going to put up a fight because I don't really believe that I'm a delight, because I believed this other thing for so long. But, you know, when Jesus says we have to be like children to enter the kingdom of heaven, what does it mean? It means, how do children see the world? Every day they're like, I'm ready to conquer the day. I was in one of my last parishes. The kindergartners were coming in for school one day, and I said to one of them, I said, have a great day. And he goes, I will. And I'm like, that is a great response. I shall forever say that now because it is. It's a confidence that I will. I am ready to conquer this day and that I will have a good day." [36:01] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)