Requiem Æternam

All Souls Day Evening 2025
Although this is not a Holy Day of Obligation, faithful Catholics flock to the churches today so they may help the holy souls in Purgatory, who cannot help themselves.  Purgatory is a creation of love.  One must be perfect to enter Heaven, so God in His mercy gives souls a way to burn out the roots of their vices so they may freely receive their eternal reward.  This may be our very last All Souls’ Day Mass before we die.  The words “Requiem æternam done eis Domine” were found on the tombs of Christians of the third century.  The Church has adopted those words for this Mass.  We must take up the standard of the Catholics of years past and fervently pray for the dead.
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Our Purgatory Now

All Souls Day 2025
The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed is not only for the benefit of the Church Suffering, but also for the benefit of all living Catholics.  Throughout the liturgy of this Mass, we are reminded of our own future judgment and how we too may be in need of the prayers of the living.  We must always remember that God is both infinitely merciful and infinitely just, and that He will demand an account, not only of our sins, but even of our time wasted.  Today is our reminder that we too must die one day, and that we must use the time God has allotted to us for the removal of sin, and the punishment due to it, from our souls.
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Help for Our Neighbor

18th Sunday after Pentecost 2025
During the reign of Pope St. Callistus I, the Church suffered her first schism led by the antipope Hippolytus.  However, years later, when Hippolytus was imprisoned with the true Pope St. Pontian, successor to St. Callistus I, he renounced his sin and was reconciled with the Church.  Hippolytus died a martyr beside the true pope and was canonized a saint.

There is a clear parallel to be drawn between the cure we see take place in today’s Gospel and that of the cripple at the pool of Bethsaida.  The friends of the paralytic would stop at nothing to help their companion while the man by the pool remained without assistance for 38 years.  This shows us how important we are to our neighbor and how we must rely on one another to reach our final reward.
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Members of His Body

12th Sunday after Pentecost 2025
This is one of the most beautiful Sundays of the liturgical year.  Despite the glory of the Old Law, it is nothing compared to what we have in the New Testament.  We have the Blessed Sacrament, the Incarnate God here with us at all times.  Every baptized Catholic has the Holy Trinity dwelling within him.  While attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we go back to Calvary.  In this Mass we pray that, through the grace of God, we may hurry towards the rewards God has promised us.  Let us pray often throughout the day that we may love God with our whole heart and soul, following the great examples of holiness like St. Raymond Nonnatus, St. Cuthbert, the Twelve Holy Brothers, and St. Stephen, Duke of Hungary.
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He Has Loved Us to Folly

Good Friday 2025
This is the day on which we put our God to death, and when we sin, we attempt once more to destroy the God Who created us.  The prostration in this ceremony is an expression of our utter nothingness.  Friday was the day on which man was created, and so it is on this day he is redeemed.  God loved us from eternity – loved us to folly.  We are the perpetrators of the Passion, and yet Christ still gave us the grace to be sorry.  The Blessed Mother would have willingly died a million times for our sake, yet she was sustained through the unimaginable pain of soul she endured.  We hope that we might share in our Redeemer’s death today, so that, like the Good Thief, He might remember us also in His kingdom.  The Cross of Christ, along with all His sufferings, will be offered for all eternity to the Trinity for us.  Even if we were saints, we could not fathom how our God could love us in this way.
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Fortified by Heavenly Bread

4th Sunday In Lent – Laetare Sunday 2025
At this Mass we are encouraged to continue onward in our journey through Lent with the help of the Holy Eucharist.  Our Lord gave His ambassadors the power to cast out devils, and in a certain sense, we all participate in this power when confessing our sins.  With this miracle of the multiplication of the loaves Our Lord prepared His followers for Holy Communion.  Baptism and the Holy Eucharist are the sacraments called to mind in this week’s liturgy through the manna in the desert and the water from the rock.  On this Sunday of the Golden Rose, let us remember the Mystic Rose, the Blessed Mother, who will guide us to our eternal reward.
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True Mercy and Forgiveness

25th Sunday after Pentecost 2024
We live in a time when the weeds spoken of in the Gospel are found among the members of the Church’s hierarchy – those called to be the wheat.  Catholics frequently ask for God’s mercy, but it is only when we practice this virtue ourselves that Our Lord will dispense His mercy.  Every act of forgiveness comes from the Heart of Jesus Christ, because we are incapable of forgiving without His help.  Those in the state of grace participate in the life of Heaven; and they begin to live and love like God.  The spiritual life is like swimming against a river, if we are not making constant progress, we are being carried down the river.  Let us never give up the fight, strengthened by God through prayer.
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Our Belief In Purgatory

All Souls Day 2024 – Evening
The Vestment for tonight’s Mass displays a cross intertwined with the branches of a weeping willow, reminding us to weep for those souls who have not reached their heavenly reward.  Because of its implicit denial of the general resurrection of the dead, the practice of cremation was so condemned by the Church that it incurred the penalty of excommunication.  We see how ancient the practice of praying for the dead is from the account of the Machabees.  To say that everyone goes to Heaven directly contradicts the words of Christ, the Scriptures, Tradition, and reason.  The souls in Purgatory are so close to their eternal end, and we must do what we can to speed their journey.
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Care For The Departed

All Souls Day 2024
We come to this Mass to help the Poor Souls.  Holy Mother Church does not neglect any of her children, even those detained in Purgatory, because God greatly desires that we care for the dead.  The origin of the maniple that the priest wears was originally a handkerchief to wipe the tears from his eyes, and in union with him we all weep for the Holy Souls today.  Everything is directed to the souls in Purgatory.  Even on this First Saturday, when the Blessed Mother is usually the focus, she defers to the suffering souls.  We pray for final perseverance, so that when we are attacked by the devil in our last moments, we will turn to God.  Heaven is only for the perfect, and in order to enter we must have no attachment to sin.  If we do not remove those attachments in this life, we must remove them in the next.
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No Lover But Christ

16th Sunday after Pentecost 2024
Carmelite Perpetual Profession – The perpetual vows are received by the prioress of the convent, but the veil comes from the hands of the priest or bishop.  In taking the black veil the novice shows herself to be a true bride of Christ, so it is fitting that it be given by him who is acting in Persona Christi.  In the early days the veil sheltered the face of a married woman from the gaze of the world, her beauty and innocence being reserved for her spouse alone.  So too with the perpetual vows of a nun.  She is the spouse of Christ and she will accept no other lover.  The nun is called to be generous and giving especially in the service of Christ’s representatives – the priests.  The Carmelites in particular share in a special way in the interior life of the priest.  This life is the means of sanctification and union with God.  It requires great love and confidence in the unfailing assistance of Our Lord.
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