The Dogmas of Christmas

December 20, 2024By

Christmas Conference 2024
In a moment in time the Word assumed a human nature and from then on, He was completely God and completely man and will be so for all eternity.  This feast of Christmas also includes the doctrine of the Virgin Birth.  The Blessed Mother was virgin before, during, and after the birth of Christ.  This miracle foreshadowed the Resurrection, in which Christ passed through His tomb while leaving it shut.

The reason why the Son became man was first to honor His Father, and only secondarily for the salvation of mankind.  All things were made as an expression of His goodness, and all mankind was made for God first.  God became a Father in a new way on Christmas, because it was only then that He became Father in the flesh.  Our Lord came to dwell forever in our hearts as the King of Peace.  This is a feast of hope which offers a foretaste of the final victory at the end of time.  The three Masses of Christmas focus, first on the eternal birth of the Son from the Father, then the birth of the Word in the Flesh, and finally the birth of the Word in men’s hearts.  Christ appeared as a helpless child, and all are drawn to the innocence and purity of an infant.  It teaches each one of us to become like little children so we might enter the kingdom of Heaven.
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The Best Gift for His Mother, Part 2

December 10, 2024By

The Advent Conferences 2024
Bishop’s 2nd Immaculate Conception Conference – Learn how the account of the fall of man found in the book of Genesis predicts the great privilege of the Immaculate Conception that would be given to the Mother of God.
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The Best Gift for His Mother

December 6, 2024By

First Friday, December 2024
Conference on Grace and The Immaculate Conception – When we speak of perfect passive conception, we refer to the moment in which the product of active conception is infused with a soul and becomes a human person.  From this moment of perfect passive conception, the Virgin Mary was redeemed in a preservative, not a liberative, manner.  The Blessed Mother from this point possessed a greater union with God than all the angels and saints.  Our Lady was not only free from the guilt of Original Sin, but also the concupiscence of the flesh, of the eyes, and the pride of life.  By a divine ligature, she was unable to consent to even the slightest imperfections.

Sanctifying Grace is a created share in the supernatural life of God.  When God breathed human life into Adam, He breathed a share of divine life into him as well.  Grace must be valued above all things.  We must be willing to live and die to preserve it.  The Blessed Mother was given the plenitude of grace in preparation for her role as the Mother of God, as well as Mother to each one of us.
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Separated From Our Father

June 16, 2024By

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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Our Joyous Victory

March 31, 2024By

Easter Sunday Morning 2024
To prove His divinity, Our Lord truly rose from the dead – physically, materially, corporeally.  The signs of His divinity are so abundant that it would be foolish to deny its truth, but we must still be given the gift of Faith to affirm it.  Christ rose by His own power just as much as He was raised from the dead by His Father.  The risen Savior filled the terrified Apostles with peace.  Christ tells us that although we are sorrowful now, one day we will be filled with joy and vindicated in the eyes of the world.  Our Faith is the victory which overcomes the world.
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The Great Evil of Venial Sin

February 25, 2024By

2nd Sunday in Lent 2024
St. Paul calls us to make “even greater progress,” but in order to do so, we must begin attacking our habits of venial sin.  Mortal sins kill the soul,  but venial sins are the great obstacle to sanctification.  These lesser sins can easily be overlooked if we are not on guard against them.  They lessen God’s grace in our soul and they kill fervor, making spiritual practices difficult.  Our habits of venial sin will inevitably lead us to serious sin.  This disease of the soul must be combatted with custody of the mind, sincere desire of amendment, and with hatred and horror of any offense against God, no matter how slight it may appear.
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The Real Battle

February 14, 2024By

Ash Wednesday Evening 2024
Our heart should remain forever in the chapel with Our Lord.  Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are the great practices of Lent.  The words that were spoken by God to Adam and Eve after the Fall are repeated for us today with the distribution of blessed ashes.  We are reminded of our mortality and the passing glory of this world.  If we always remember our mortality, we will certainly avoid sin.  When we fast it not only makes us weak, but it also brings us closer to God.  Christ came to Earth to suffer and die for our sins, and without His suffering we would not be saved.  How much do we owe Him in penance; how much do we owe Him in love?
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From Dust to Dust

February 14, 2024By

Ash Wednesday 2024
The Church reminds us of the fate that awaits all men.  We are mortal and destined to return to dust.  The sacramental of blessed ashes reminds us of our mortality and also the transient nature of worldly glory.  From the triumphant Roman generals to the Byzantine emperors,  a Memento Mori has been a common practice to remind men that if their hearts are set on perishable things, their souls will perish with them.  For good Catholics this is not a season of sorrow but of liberation from the attachments of the world.  We should see every day we are given as a merciful call from God for a conversion of life.
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Where Joy and Sorrow Meet

February 2, 2024By

Feast of the Purification 2024
The candle is one of the great sacramentals of the Church.  It is like a sacrament in the sense that it is an outward sign, but unlike a sacrament, it does not give grace automatically.  This day links Our Lord and the Blessed Mother so closely.  Today we remember both the joyful mystery of the Rosary and the first of the Virgin Mary’s great sorrows.  Because the Mother of God was not affected by original sin, and because of the Virginal Birth, she was not subject to the law requiring purification.  However, she submitted to it in all humility.  God used the New Eve to carry the New Adam into the Garden, when the Blessed Mother carried Our Lord into the temple.
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Jesus, Deliver Us!

January 28, 2024By

Septuagesima Sunday 2024
These next three Sundays are for an examination of conscience, in which we search out those things in our soul which make us enemies of God.  Today we begin with a view of creation and the fall of man.  Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden because they did not want to be with God.  To choose sin identifies us with the devil, because we refuse to serve God just as he did.  We must follow Saint Paul as our retreat master during these next three weeks, so at the end of our journey we may be among the privileged few to enter the Promised Land.
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Jan
15
St. Paul the First Hermit

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