The Birthday of the Church

Pentecost Sunday 2025
The Holy Ghost is often referred to as the “forgotten Person of the Trinity.”  However, without Him we would have no Church.  When Our Lord died on the Cross all the merits He won remained within Him, and it was only when He opened the gates of Heaven that all those merits could be shared with us.  All that He won is dispensed to us during the visible reign of the Holy Spirit.  Today the Church made its first physical appearance in the world.  The Apostles gathered with the Virgin Mary in the Upper Room, where the first Mass had been offered, and prayed for nine days in preparation for the coming of the Holy Ghost.  A miraculous wind drew crowds of thousands to the very first church.  The appearance of the tongues of fire expressed the consuming fire of God’s love.  The ultimate gift of the Holy Ghost is for each of us to be filled with the very love God has for Himself.
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The Removal of All Doubt

Low Sunday 2025
We must put out of our minds all distractions while we attend the Holy Mass, so that we may focus solely on the Son of God Who is sacrificing Himself before our very eyes.  When God was creating the cosmos, He had the future sacrifice of His Son in mind.  Everything the Son of God did was for love of His Father.  God permitted the sinful doubt of St. Thomas the Apostle to assist in the fulfillment of His plan.  We thank St. Thomas for his doubt because due to it, Our Lord proved His bodily resurrection and removed any doubt from our own hearts.  If any man sincerely looks for the truth and prays to God to help him find it, God will surely give it to Him.  Let us imitate the great saints and martyrs of the past in their desire for salvation and remove everything from our lives which stands between us and Heaven.
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God’s Chastisements and the Three Days of Darkness

Last Sunday after Pentecost 2024

This Sunday is not only a reminder of the end of time, but a reminder of the end of each individual life and our particular judgment.  Christ foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, typifying the chastisements the world will face in the last days.  We should be encouraged in seeing how God spared the Christian community of Jerusalem who heeded His warnings.  We too should watch for the signs in our own times and prepare our souls for Christ’s coming.  Whether or not we witness the Three Days of Darkness and the coming punishments of the world, we know that we are all destined to face God and must prepare to do so with the time we have left.
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We Must Answer to God

26th Sunday after Pentecost 2024
In this Epistle St. Paul encourages the Thessalonians, who were enduring persecution for the Faith, instructing them to persevere in their struggle.  The parables in the Gospel similarly encourage Christ’s followers by explaining the external growth of the Church as well as our internal growth in sanctity.  God’s ways are not ours; His way is irresistible.  We should be encouraged by the words of this Gospel and never forget the favors God has sent us.  Our battle is with principalities and powers, and it is easy to be fooled by the sophistries of a pagan society – a society which constantly makes excuses for the murder of the unborn.  Each of us, even the great and powerful, will have to make an answer to God for the choices of his life.
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God’s Mercy For The Merciful

21st Sunday after Pentecost 2024
The Gospel for this Mass gives us hope in God’s mercy and fear of His justice.  The debt we owe God for a single sin we have committed we could never hope to repay, so when we approach Our Lord at every Mass we beg for His mercy in the Kyrie.  God is quick to offer forgiveness, and even showers us with additional gifts.  Those who squander these gifts and fall back into their evil habits, assuming God will always show mercy, are like the man in the Gospel who warranted the wrath of his king.  Those Catholics who refuse to forgive the offenses they receive from their neighbor will be condemned as wicked servants, exemplifying the words of St. James, “Judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy.”
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How We Save the World

20th Sunday after Pentecost 2024
Rosary Conference – There are many sacramentals used by the Church, but none seem to be as favored by Our Lady as the Dominican Rosary.  It is a prayer to Our Lord with the Virgin Mary, and after the Holy Mass and Divine Office, it is the most powerful prayer a Catholic can make.  There is no request that is beyond its power.  In this world of secularism, religious indifference, and apostasy, we have one thing left – the Holy Rosary.  It originated as a replacement for the psalms for certain illiterate monks in the monasteries and was later used to assist the preaching of St. Dominic.  This spiritual weapon has led to many military victories throughout Church history.  It supplies in some way for what the faithful of today are being deprived of in the liturgy.  The Rosary offers lessons in the practice of virtue, helps us forget our fears and troubles as we are plunged into the Divine Heart of Christ, and disposes us to receive the gift of passive, infused contemplation.
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St. Francis’ Knowledge and God’s ‘Little Ones’

1st Friday Conference, October 2024
St. Francis of Assisi is greatly misunderstood and mistakenly viewed as the saint of the ecologists.  He composed a poem, which he gave to the members of his order, and this “Song of the Sun” demonstrates St. Francis’ love of nature – not for its own sake but because of its Creator.  The gift of knowledge gives one a better appreciation of God’s attributes through the beauty of the natural world.  This makes us desire the happiness of Heaven and earnestly pray that we may possess it.

The hallmark of the life of St. Therese of Lisieux is the doctrine of spiritual childhood.  In the Gospels, Our Lord not only spoke of the necessity of spiritual childhood for salvation, but warned against giving scandal to the innocent “little ones.”  St. Therese made the appreciation of her helplessness and complete trust in God the foundation of her spiritual life.  She spent her life doing little things with great love, and if we do the same, we too will be safe.
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The Power of an Act of Mercy

18th Sunday after Pentecost 2024
At this time of the year, the Church, by means of her liturgy, begins to bring our attention to the last judgment and our end.  We must prepare at all times for our death.  How much time do we set aside for prayer every day?  If we are not prayerful in life, we will not be prayerful at our death.  All Catholics have the obligation to bring others to the true Church.  This great act of mercy could win someone the gift of faith.  We cannot do anything pleasing to God without His help, so let us beg Him at this Mass to bestow that help upon us.
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Our Reminder To Love

Exaltation of the Holy Cross 2024
Emperor Constantine saw a vision of the Holy Cross in the sky which led to his victory.  Years later, St. Helena led an expedition to the Holy Land and miraculously found the true Cross of Our Lord.  Hundreds of years after that, Emperor Heraclius defeated the Persians and rescued the Cross which had been stolen.  This feast was prepared by Our Lord through the many miracles He has performed.  The Cross is the sign of victory over our enemies and gives us the knowledge of God’s love for us, which is, in the end, the only knowledge necessary.  When God’s love is revealed to us, we must respond by offering all our love in return.  The love we are given through the Cross raises us to such heights that we are able to love God with a share in His own sacrificial love.
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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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