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00:00Good afternoon. We will now begin with the gift of fortitude. In the Old Testament, the
00:21The faithful spiritually perceive God as an immense and invincible force, like a rock
00:29and at the same time as one who is able to communicate to his faithful an impregnable strength.
00:37I love you, Lord, you are my strength, Lord my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, God
00:45My rock, my refuge, my shield, my saving strength, my bulwark. This I
00:53We see in Psalm 17, verses 2 and 3. Believers find their strength in God
01:02who saves them. The Letter to the Hebrews, in its chapter 11, in verses 32 to 38,
01:11It describes the hardships and efforts of men and women of faith who, with the gift
01:18Those who have strength did not succumb to trials and adversities. Those who have faith in God...
01:25Throughout their lives they will go through many serious trials, but they will always be strengthened.
01:32Through the infinite power of the Spirit, believers, thanks to their faith, conquered kingdoms,
01:40Brothers, they administered justice, they fulfilled the promises, they kept their mouths shut
01:47They escaped the lions' defiance, extinguished the violence of the fire, and fled by the edge of the sword.
01:54They recovered from the illness, they grew strong in the war. Some allowed themselves to be tortured,
02:02some refused to be released, while others suffered insults and beatings, chains and prisons.
02:10They were stoned, torn to pieces, killed by the sword. They wandered about, covered in animal skins.
02:19sheep and goats, deprived of everything, oppressed, mistreated. The world was not worthy of them and
02:29They had to wander through deserts and mountains. The believers in the New Testament. That's how it was in
02:39the Old Testament, and it will do so even more in the New. Indeed, the disciples of Christ
02:47They need to be greatly strengthened by the Divine Spirit, for not being of the world they will suffer
02:55The world's persecution is inevitable. It's unavoidable. Furthermore, all who wish to live...
03:02Those who are godly in Christ will suffer persecution. We see this in the second letter to Timothy, chapter 1.
03:103, in verse 12. In the midst of worldly people, Christians cannot be faithful to Christ
03:18unless they are especially strengthened by His Spirit. Blessed are you when
03:25They will insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
03:34We see it in Matthew, chapter 5, verse 11. In reality, those who overcome are those who keep
03:42They follow God's precepts and uphold the testimony of Jesus. But His victory over the world has
03:49necessarily, like that of Christ, the form of martyrdom, cross and death.
03:58Resisting the devil. The Christian must possess great spiritual strength to overcome.
04:05The weakness of his own flesh and the persecutions of the world, he must be even more so in order to overcome
04:12the direct temptations of the devil. Let us not forget in this, as Saint Paul says in the letter
04:19to the Ephesians, in chapter 6, verse 12, because our struggle is not against the flesh
04:28and bloodshed, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of this world
04:36dark world, against the evil spirits that are in the heights.
04:45Therefore be alert and vigilant, because your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion.
04:52He prowls around looking for someone to devour. Resist him, strong in faith, considering that the same
05:00Your brothers and sisters scattered throughout the world endure suffering. We see this second part in the first.
05:06of Peter, in chapter 5, verses 8 to 9.
05:13For the Christian, strength is found in weakness.
05:18If the Christian's strength is not in himself, but in the Lord, his strength will be greater.
05:26spiritual. The weaker he finds himself in himself, the more he relies purely on the
05:33God's strength. That is why Jesus tells the apostle Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you," which in
05:41that weakness may reach its peak, power. And the apostle confesses, therefore, so that I may not
05:49He revels in the sublimity of those revelations; a thorn was given to my flesh, an angel
05:56Satan buffets me to keep me from becoming conceited. For this reason, I pleaded three times with the Lord.
06:03Lord, I wanted Him to leave me. But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is revealed."
06:11perfect in weakness. Therefore, with great pleasure, I will continue to glory above all in
06:20I delight in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. Therefore, I take pleasure in my weaknesses,
06:29in injuries, in needs, in persecutions, in the anguish suffered by
06:37Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. We see this in second
06:45From Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 7 through 10. Or as the apostle himself puts it
06:52In his letter to the Philippians, chapter 4, verse 13. I can do all things through him who gives me life.
06:59It comforts. For all these reasons, Christians, for themselves and for their brothers and sisters, must ask
07:07continually relying on the strength of the Holy Spirit, as the apostles did. In the letter of St.
07:14Paul to the Ephesians, chapter 6, speaks to us about spiritual warfare and invites us to strengthen ourselves in
07:21The Lord. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, putting on the whole armor of God.
07:29of God. Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 10-18. The gift of fortitude is a supernatural habit
07:40that strengthens the Christian so that, through the work of the Holy Spirit, he may exercise his virtues
07:47heroically and thus overcome with invincible confidence all the adversities of this time
07:56His life on earth is a trial and a struggle. When the Holy Spirit activates in the faithful...
08:06gift, the spirit of strength, these are seen assisted by the very strength of the Almighty
08:12and they easily and safely pass all kinds of tests, whether internal or external. It is then
08:22when Christians naturally perform services that demand heroic self-sacrifice and
08:31when they endure without complaint loneliness, contempt, marginalization, and all kinds of
08:39ordinary adversities. They endure everything with serenity and patience, without hesitation, with good
08:48Courageously, without boasting, with complete confidence and simplicity, that is to say, with superhuman ease. And I say
08:58superhuman because it is no longer just the virtue of strength that acts in them, but the gift of the Spirit
09:05Saint. The moral virtue of fortitude supports the Christian with the help of divine grace.
09:14which is certainly omnipotent in itself, but being a virtue, it is exercised in a human way,
09:21That is, according to the discourse of reason, sometimes slow, complex, laborious, in such a way that this
09:29Virtue does not completely remove from the soul all hesitation, fear, or anguish.
09:38On the contrary, the spiritual gift of strength through the immediate work of the Holy Spirit in the divine manner, of
09:46In a superhuman way, it banishes all fear from the soul, instilling in it divine courage and inviolable serenity.
09:54so that he can think, say, or do anything. Everything God wants to work in him.
10:02He, without any trembling and without falling, of course, into imprudent attitudes, for necessarily united
10:10Along with the gift of fortitude comes the gift of counsel. Let's see this in the attitude of Yahasiel, son of
10:19Zechariah. Go down against them tomorrow; look, they are going up the ascent of Kish, the
10:28You will find them in the Valley of Zof, near the Desert of Jeruel. You will not have to fight this time.
10:37Stand firm and be still, and you will see the salvation of the Lord that will come upon you, O Judah and
10:45Jerusalem. Do not be afraid or discouraged; go out tomorrow to meet them, for the Lord will be with you.
10:53You. We are in the second book of Chronicles, chapter 20, verses 16-17. The gift of
11:03Fortitude thus brings to perfection the exercise of the virtue of fortitude, but it also assists
11:11evidently to all the other virtues: patience, humility, poverty, chastity,
11:20obedience, and so on. So that, thanks to him, all of them can be practiced promptly.
11:29safety and perfection, whatever the circumstances.
11:34All of man's life on earth is a struggle. We see this in Job, chapter 7, verse 1.
11:46Fight against yourself, against your own malice and the weakness of carnal man. Fight against the world, fight against the
11:54demon. It is a continuous, incessant, exhausting battle, in which certain untimely lapses in
12:05Certain crucial moments can cause enormous damage to the person experiencing them and to others.
12:14Well then, the Christian cannot emerge victorious from such a continuous and terrible battle,
12:20If Christ the Savior, without whom we can do nothing, does not communicate his strength to him, first in a human way,
12:29through the virtue of strength, and later in the divine way, through the gift of strength.
12:37That is why our Lord Jesus tells us so clearly, "I am the vine, you are the branches."
12:44He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.