Would you like to hear God speak to you? Is there something happening in your life right now? Do you wish that God would speak into your life and give you some direction or some encouragement? Today, John Paul II and Faustina are going to teach us the fundamental quality absolutely necessary to learn to listen to the voice of God in our lives, who wants to speak to us, who is always speaking to us, who has always spoken to humanity, but who we often struggle to hear because of the busyness, the noisiness, the distraction of our lives. Welcome back to our holy week retreat. Today is holy Saturday. Here's our quote from Faustina. Remember, we're listening for a word or phrase or an idea that the Holy Spirit uses to draw us in. In order to hear the voice of God, one has to have silence in one's soul and to keep silence, not a gloomy silence but an interior silence. That is to say recollection in God. In order to hear the voice of God, one has to have silence. What is she saying? It's impossible to hear the voice of God without silence-- it's impossible to hear the voice of God without silence. Now, yes, do we hear the voice of God when there isn't silence? Do we hear the voice of God in the moments of our day? Do we hear the voice of God through other people and through situations and through circumstances and outcomes? Yes, absolutely. But in order to develop that connection, we need a deep silence. We need a strong bond friendship, deep friendship with silence because it's in that silence, it's in the classroom of silence that we develop the strong connection with God so that when we go out into the crazy, noisy, busy world, we can continue to hear the voice of God because we're tuned in. We start our day by getting tuned in to God so that when we go out in the world, all sorts of crazy stuff can be going on within us and around us, but we're still able to stay connected and hear the voice of God because we got tuned in at the beginning of the day. And we develop over days and weeks and months and years and decades this deep, deep interior silence so that we can go there at any moment connect with our God. That's the invitation of the saints today. In order to hear the voice of God, one has to have silence. John Paul II writes, "Meditating on these supernatural realities," okay? He's talking about holy Saturday. Meditating on these supernatural realities, we will enter the silence of holy Saturday in expectation of Christ's glorious triumph in the resurrection. At the tomb, we will be able to reflect on the tragedy of a humanity that deprived of its Lord is inevitably dominated by loneliness and discouragement. It's brilliant. There's so much here. The first thing I point out is just this phrase, supernatural realities. The supernatural is real, okay? Many people in the world and much of our culture would like to have us believe that there's no such thing as supernatural realities. That supernatural is a myth, is something invented by human beings to comfort themselves. But no, there are supernatural realities.

God is a supernatural reality. The saints, the angels, supernatural realities. So many supernatural realities. The sacraments are supernatural realities. The Bible is a supernatural reality. It's important that we remind ourselves of these supernatural realities. John Paul II writes, "Meditating on these supernatural realities." We've been meditating on supernatural realities all week. We're going to reflect on them some more today, and tomorrow, we're going to experience one of the most epic supernatural realities of all time: the resurrection. He says, "In expectation of Christ's glorious triumph in resurrection." What are your expectations? Expectations play a powerful role in our lives. Expectations play a powerful role in our relationships.

In our marriage prep program, Better Together, we talk about the expectations gap. The gap that emerges when we expect something to happen and something else happens. A gap develops between what we expected to happen and what actually happened. And that gap, I call the expectation gap. And something has to fill the expectation gap. Something always fills the expectation gap. And it's always one of five things or a combination of five things, or all of the five things: disappointment, resentment, anger, frustration, and loss of trust. These are the things that fill the expectations gap. And it's everywhere. You realize you have expectations of everyone and everything.

You go out, and you buy a new laundry detergent, and it says it's going to make your clothes bright and white, and it's going to be easy to use, and all these sorts of miraculous things. And then you come home, and it doesn't do what it says it's going to do. What happens? A gap emerges between what you expected to happen and what actually happened, and something has to fill the gap, and what fills the gap? Disappointment, resentment, anger, frustration, and loss of trust. They're the things that always fill the expectations gap. And we have expectations about everything and everyone. If Maggie says to me, as I'm walking out the door today, "What time are you going to be home tonight?" And I say, "I'm going to be home at 6 o'clock." And I'm not home at 6 o'clock. What happens? Expectations gap begins to emerge. If I promise one of the kids that I'll play ball with them on Saturday or go to their game on Friday afternoon, or whatever it is. And then I don't do that. Then, a gap experience emerges for those children. What's the gap experience? It's the gap between what they expected to happen and what actually happens.

And what fills the gap? Disappointment, resentment, anger, frustration, loss of trust. And so we have expectations of everything and everyone. But John Paul II today talks about expectations in a beautiful way. He says, "We will enter the silence of Holy Saturday in expectation of Christ's glorious triumph in the resurrection. Sometimes we can become cynical, right? We can become skeptical or cynical. We can have negative expectations. We can think, "Oh yeah, that person said they're going to do that, but they never do what they say they're going to do. So I'm not even going to rely on that or even hope for that." That's a negative expectation, right? But our expectations of God are positive and He meets them. He meets them. And our expectation today is of Jesus' resurrection tomorrow and all that comes with that. And in a world where our expectations are disappointed so often-- sometimes because our expectations are just completely unreasonable and sometimes because people are-- they're like us, human. And their humanity is messy and broken and wounded. And so they do disappoint our expectations. But God doesn't. God delivers on His promises. God delivers on the things He tells us we can expect from Him.

And then again, these words from these saints are not just pretty words. There's medicine here for the soul. There's antidotes for our problems and illnesses. Let's listen for it here. At the tomb, so imagine yourself. You're outside the tomb of Jesus. The door is closed. It's Saturday. So it's the Jewish Sabbath, okay? There's no one around, but you're sitting, you're outside the tomb of Jesus. What's John Paul II say? He says, "At the tomb, we'll be able to reflect on the tragedy of a humanity that deprived of its Lord is inevitably dominated by loneliness and discouragement." When we're deprived of God, when we're deprived of Jesus, our humanity is inevitably dominated by loneliness and discouragement. What does that tell us? Well, if we reverse engineer that, it tells us that when we are dominated by loneliness and discouragement, we are deprived of the Lord. And we are dominated, not just experiencing a little bit of loneliness, not just, oh, a little bit of discouragement because things didn't go our way. But when we're dominated, when our loneliness is overwhelming, when our discouragement is overwhelming. Why? Because we're deprived of the Lord. Deprived of the Lord, we become inevitably dominated by loneliness and discouragement. Is that true? Easy to prove, hard to prove. I don't think it's that hard to prove. I think you get a bunch of people who have turned their back on God. I think you get a bunch of people who've rejected God. I think you get a bunch of people not only rejected Christianity, but are sort of proactively angry at Jesus or opposed to Jesus and to Christians. And I think you find a group of people who are dominated by loneliness and discouragement. If you go beyond the surface-- go beyond the surface, you see, okay, what's really happening in these people? I think we will find that and a lot of other things as well.

And so these words, these saints, they're giving us medicine for life, spiritual medicine and also blueprints and maps on how to navigate some of the very, very difficult situations of life because life is messy. Life is ugly sometimes. Human beings are messy. We're broken and we're wounded and we hurt each other. And these saints are trying to help us navigate all of that. So today is a day of silence. And more than any, I encourage you to find some time today, spend in the classroom of silence. Find a quiet place. If you can go to church, great. If you can't go to church, find a quiet place, being alone, sit with your God. Just listen to what God might be saying to you on this Holy Saturday.  Have a great day. And remember, we are pilgrims of mercy.

There is a multi-generational problem in the church that deserves our urgent attention. It seems the growing consensus among Catholics is that mass is boring and that it isn't relevant to modern life. Nothing could be further from the truth. And this year, we want to change that mistaken perception forever. Dynamic Catholic is developing a world-class program that will teach Catholics, young and old, about the genius of the mass and show them exactly how it applies to their daily lives. I hope this stirs your soul. I hope you want to be a part of it. So click the button below. Choose your welcome gift. Become a Dynamic Catholic Ambassador today. We had so much fun creating these new welcome gifts for you. I hope you enjoy them. Have a great day. And remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

Eternal God.

In whom mercy is endless.

And the treasury of compassion inexhaustible.

Look kindly upon us.

And increase your mercy in us that in difficult moments–

We might not despair,–

Nor become despondent.

But with great confidence,–

Submit ourselves to your holy will–

Which is love and mercy itself.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

See you tomorrow.

Thank you, Ambassadors.

You are changing the world.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.