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Her First Great Sorrow

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Feast of the Purification 2025
This feast marks the end of the Nativity and Epiphany seasons. Today we remember both the purification of the Blessed Virgin and the presentation of Our Lord in the temple. The Mother of God was exempt from the legal requirement of purification, however she still submitted to the law due to her humility and desire to be united to sinners. In the Old Law, parents were required to present their first-born son in the temple and to offer five shekels in order to “buy back” the child who was being loaned to them for a time by God. This should remind all parents that your children are not yours but belong to God first. St. Simeon prophesied that Our Lady’s life would be filled with sorrow. This is how she merited the title of Queen of Martyrs and Mater Dolorosa.

Blessed candles, one of the great sacramentals of the Church, are blessed today in the ceremony which has existed from the earliest days of the Church.
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The Holy Family Provides

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Feast of the Holy Family 2025
The Blessed Mother kept the mysteries of Our Lord’s life in her heart, and we should invoke her help whenever we meditate on those mysteries.  Holy Scripture shows St. Joseph to be the clear head of the Holy Family, not by his words but by his actions.  The event recorded in the Gospel took place when Christ was twelve years old, at the time when He became a “Son of the Law.”  By His words Christ makes it evident to the whole world that He knew He was God at every moment of His life.  St. Paul tells us in his Epistle the virtues of the Holy Family which we must imitate and use in examining our consciences.  The father is the head of the family and must be the example of the virtue of religion.  The mother is the heart of the family, who keeps all the spiritual and material needs of the children in her heart.  God has given us parents to assist us in attaining Heaven, and children are called to submit to their parents in holy obedience.  Nothing bad will ever happen to us but that which our loving Father allows.
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Inebriated by His Blood

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Octave of Christmas 2025
This is the day on which Our Lord began to redeem us by shedding His Blood in the circumcision.  How many sins are committed at every moment?  Yet, the Precious Blood makes up for them infinitely.  How beautiful that our God still desires our love.  Today is also a feast for our Blessed Mother.  We can never do enough to show our love for her.  At the beginning of the new year, we rededicate ourselves to our God and His Mother and renew our promises to them.  The phrase Anno Domini was created so that every year would be measured from the most important day in history.  We must never forget that God created us to show forth His goodness and share with us his everlasting happiness in Heaven.
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Many Hearts Shall Be Revealed

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Sunday within the Octave of Christmas 2024
St. Thomas Becket began as a worldly man in England. He was raised to the position of Lord Chancellor by his good friend King Henry II.  St. Thomas renounced his worldly way when he was made bishop, prioritizing the love of God over the approval of the king.  He maintained his loyalty to God even to the shedding of his own blood.

This day is bittersweet because the prophet Simeon foretold the response of both good and evil souls to the coming of the Messiah. We must remember that Christmas is not over yet. We are meant to spend special time this season with the Divine Infant.
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His Priestly Reign

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Feast of Christ the King 2024
This feast was instituted in our times to combat secularism.  Those who claim that we need not proselytize, or that all religions are paths to God, are in direct contradiction of the words of our Redeemer.  The doctrine of the kingship of Christ comes from both His divinity and His humanity.  God owns us because He is our Creator and, by the union of His human and divine natures,  He became Head of the human race.  Christ is both priest and king and will continue His priestly reign until the end of time.  The Catholic youth should have one anthem echo in their hearts: “We have no King but Christ.”
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Plead For The Children!

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22nd Sunday after Pentecost 2024

This Sunday is a fitting prequel to the feast of Christ the King, reminding us of all we owe Our Lord.  As we approach the end of the year we continually ask for mercy from God.  With the approach of the feast of Christ the King, we should reinvigorate ourselves in fulfilling our duties.  Parents and teachers should especially strive by both word and example to raise the youth to be virtuous members of the Church.  Good parents would save their child from physical danger, yet there are Catholic parents who do not think twice about the moral dangers to which their children are exposed.  We must plead to God that he will save our children – those under our care as well as the unborn.
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No Lover But Christ

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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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God, Help Your Spouse!

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Feast of Saints Peter & Paul 2024
This feast is considered so great that, since the earliest days of the church, it was given a vigil for preparation.  Red vestments are used on this day to symbolize not only the blood of these two great martyrs, but more importantly the fire of their love.  They died for everything that true Catholics believe today.  This Epistle reminds us that God is protecting us, even in our darkest moments.  We must respond to the graces of God generously and promptly, following the example of St. Peter.  The conversion of St. Paul demonstrates God’s power to bring good out of evil.  We should be inspired to see how these two great sinners became two of the greatest saints.
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Separated From Our Father

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4th Sunday after Pentecost 2024
St. Jerome explains the meaning of Our Lord’s quote, “Call no man Father,” telling the faithful that it refers to giving man the honor due to God alone.  The theme for this Sunday is hope.  We have much to endure in this battle we wage against the devil.  After Adam fell the world was thrown into chaos and we struggle interiorly with concupiscence and the pride of life.  We remain hopeful because Our Lord told us that if we ask the Father anything in His name, it shall be given to us.  True Catholics believe what we are instructed to believe and obediently conform our intellect to the teaching of the Church.
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A Vocation Worth the Fight

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2nd Sunday after Pentecost 2024
Tonsure Ceremony
With first tonsure one becomes a cleric.  This ceremony has been part of the Church since the 5th century.  Just as slaves were shorn to show their complete ownership by their master, so the cleric shows that he now belongs to Christ.  The surplice is imposed to represent putting on the new man, because holiness is no longer an aspiration but a direct call.  Our Lord promised to those who give up the world a hundredfold in this life.  The candle carried in procession represents the soul of those to be tonsured, and when the bishop receives and extinguishes the candle, it demonstrates that the very will of the cleric is offered to God.  God will grant the necessary graces to do everything he asks, if the cleric remains confident in Him as he forges on towards the goal.
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