Remember Where You Come From

Ash Wednesday 2016
We hear the words of Genesis today that we are dust and unto dust we shall return.  The Church tells us these words to help us remain humble.  Following the example of Job, even in the midst of troubles and sufferings we must remain docile to God’s will.  Practicing penance will avert the punishments of God, but we must have sincere sorrow from the depths of our heart for having offended Him.  Fasting, almsgiving, prayer, and spiritual reading, are powerful means of sanctification.  However, we should never allow these good works to become a show or hypocritical.  God gave us a free will so that we may choose to love Him.  This is not a time of sorrow, but one of inner peace and happiness.
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Uncompromising Faith

2nd Sunday after Epiphany 2016
St. Vincent was ordained a deacon and was arrested with his bishop under Roman persecution. While imprisoned St. Vincent began preaching to those around him, and even the tortures he endured did nothing to silence him. St. Vincent resisted the slightest compromise. It was only by his continuous prayers that he remained faithful to Our Lord. May we all be as faithful as this great saint.

The theme of the feast of the Epiphany is continued in the text for today’s Mass. St. Paul instructs the converted pagans in Rome to be patient with their neighbors. At the wedding feast of Cana, Our Lord made it clear to His holy Mother that the will of His Father came before every other consideration. The first miracle He performed sanctified marriage in a special way and increased the faith of the Apostles.
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Obligations to God and Family

Feast of the Holy Family 2016
In this Gospel, the Holy Family went to Jerusalem for the Bar Mitzvah of Jesus Christ because He had reached the age required to become a “Son of the Law.”  This was the moment when a Jewish boy would take on the responsibility of an adult.  For Our Lord it meant that He officially and juridically became the public and formal representative of God, His Heavenly Father.  The reason Christ stayed in the Temple was because from that moment the Temple was His true home.  Our Lord’s “Father’s business” was liturgical worship.  The actions of Christ are a clear lesson to us that our obligations to Almighty God exceed all other obligations, even those towards our family.  When the Gospel says that “He advanced in wisdom and age and grace before God,” it means that as His humanity developed, He manifested more perfectly His wisdom and perfections.
This feast was instituted as a defense against the attacks on the family, and to combat the errors taught about the family’s purpose in society. It teaches us the sublimity of the passive virtues of family life: silence, humility, and fidelity to duty.  These virtues, so often scorned by the world, are the very foundation of a holy human existence.
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Rededicate Yourselves!

1st Sunday of Advent 2015

At the beginning of the new liturgical year, we are reminded of many great truths.  Advent is a time of preparation.  God had His Chosen People wait in anticipation of His first coming in mercy, and He has His chosen people once again waiting for His return in glory.  Our Lord, as the great Pontiff, bridges the gap between the Creator and the creature, between the infinite and the finite, in His Incarnation.  With the beginning of the liturgical year, our journey to become more Christlike is renewed once more.  This progressive incorporation into Christ can only be accomplished through participation in the Mass, devout reception of the sacraments, and unceasing prayer.
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The Remains of Sin

All Souls Day 2015

Very few in our day remember the souls of the departed because of the false belief in the universal salvation of all men.  In assisting the suffering souls in Purgatory, we gain friends who will intercede for us.  We must never waste the time we have been given, because the way we choose to spend our moments on earth will make the difference between an eternity in Heaven or Hell.  Many souls can be released on this day, especially through the intercession of the Virgin Mary.  All our sins have a debt of punishment attached to them.  If we pray our penance well, we could remit our entire debt of temporal punishment, but if we die with these dispositions of soul, we would rather throw ourselves into the punishments of Purgatory than remain in the presence of the infinitely perfect God.
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Pray for a Merciful Heart

21st Sunday after Pentecost 2015
Most of us can think of a time during our life when we were slow to forgive one who asked for forgiveness.  The terrible crime of refusing forgiveness to those who sincerely ask for it is in direct contradiction to the Our Father, in which we ask that God forgive our trespasses as we forgive others.  Spiritual reading and the Holy Rosary are powerful weapons against the devil, as well as some of the greatest aids to living a true Christian life.  Every Catholic should be familiar with the 15 promises that the Blessed Mother made to those who devoutly pray the Rosary.
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Faith: The Beginning of Heaven

18th Sunday after Pentecost 2024
Our Lord worked the miracle recounted in the Gospel because of the strong faith of the men who brought the paralytic to Him.  We are only capable of doing evil by our own power, but all the good we do is because of the help of God’s grace.  The Church has taught for 2,000 years without error.  Through this we see the truth of St. Paul’s rhetorical question, “what grace are you lacking?”  Christ came to bring us to Heaven.  And our faith, when it is enlivened by charity, allows us to begin to experience Heaven while we are still on earth.
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The Kingdom of the Cross

Exaltation of the Holy Cross 2015
We are in a battle between those who fight for the Holy Cross and those who oppose it. This day commemorates historical events which are tied to the Cross of Christ, including the conquest of Emperor Constantine, the discovery of the Cross by St. Helena, and its rescue by Emperor Heraclius from the infidel Persians. In the ancient world, the cross was a sign of shame and torture, but at the end of time it will appear in the sky as the sign of salvation to the faithful and conquest of the powers of evil.
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Deliver Us from Pride

16th Sunday after Pentecost 2015
When we see the moral attacks on society, and especially on the sacrament of Matrimony, it should be a wake-up call for all of us. We should strive to pray better and attend Mass more frequently when we witness how dire is our situation.

This Mass is given to us to counteract pride. Our Lord is drawn to the humble and repulsed by the proud, just as all of us are. God must give us grace to move us to perform a good action, He must give us grace to sustain us in doing what is right, and a grace to bring the good work to completion. This is how utterly dependent we are on His continuous help.
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Our Heavenly Father’s Care

14th Sunday after Pentecost 2015
St. Raymond Nonnatus is celebrated this week by the Church, and presented to us as an example of generosity and love of neighbor that we are all called to imitate.  If God created you, how much easier is it for Him to provide your material needs.  Our Father in Heaven is truly our Father, more than even our biological father, because He has given us a share in his life.  Our sanctification should be the number one priority in our lives.  We are aided in avoiding sin and striving for virtue when we recall the remorse of the damned.  The lost souls have great remorse for three reasons: for the shortness of their sin, how easily they could have changed their lives, and their knowledge of the happiness of the saints.  We must spend our life preparing for our death.
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