No Longer Servants But Friends

Feast of Saints Peter & Paul 2025

Priestly Ordinations

During the ordination ceremony, it is as if Heaven is opening as our Divine Savior unites with the ordinands and fuses them to His priestly Nature.  From that moment, the new priests are able to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to renew all the divine mysteries of the Faith through the liturgy, to forgive sin, to govern, to teach, to baptize, to bring souls to Heaven.  The priest is called Father because he provides life to the people and spiritually nourishes them.  The Laity should look at the priest and see the likeness of Christ.  By the physical transformation of the soul through Holy Orders, for all eternity, the priest is now a relative – a brother – of Our Lord.
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A Necessary Feast

Feast of Corpus Christi 2025
Our Lord Himself expressed the need for the institution of this feast.  It was necessary from both a liturgical point of view and for the spiritual life of all the faithful.  We are unable to celebrate properly this greatest of all sacraments on Holy Thursday, because it is overshadowed by the sorrow of Christ’s Passion.  At the beginning of our spiritual journey following the feast of Pentecost, this day points us to the greatest aid we are given to achieve our last end – the Blessed Sacrament.  We are brought into the Faith because of the Holy Eucharist, we grow in the Faith because of It, and receiving Holy Communion is the promise of our future glory.  This sacrament, like the manna from Heaven, strengthens us throughout that arduous sojourn in the desert of our lives.
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The Dogmas of Christmas

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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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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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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Can You Pass This Test?

15th Sunday after Pentecost 2024
This Mass teaches us about Everlasting Life, while the Divine Office offers us the example of Job, who praised God in both prosperity and adversity.  In the Psalms we ask that we are protected, but that we do not forget our enemy.  In the Gospel we see a representation of the Church weeping over her children, dead through mortal sin, in the widow of Naim.  All temptations are tests, and it is what we do with those tests which makes the difference.  We should test ourselves by comparing how closely we follow the commandments of God versus the dictates of the world.  This test will tell us if we are on the path towards the gates of Hell, or if we have been stopped by Our Lord on our road to death to be restored in His life.
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Nothing Without God

3rd Sunday after Pentecost 2024
Green vestments are worn during this season to express the virtue of Hope.  We are instructed to hope in nothing but God Who tells us, “Without Me you can do nothing.”  We must know the truth about ourselves, always remembering what we used to be and remaining prepared for the time of our visitation.  Evil people are rewarded in this life for those good things they do because they cannot receive any recompense in Hell.  God’s friends are persecuted and suffer in this life, but will be rewarded for all eternity in the next.  We must pray without ceasing that we will be saved.
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A Vocation Worth the Fight

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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The Great Evil of Venial Sin

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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No Hope Without Tribulation

Second Sunday of Advent 2023
With great hope we are reminded of eternity during this season.  All virtue builds on nature, and the same is true of the virtue of hope.  Hope cannot exist without difficulty and tribulation.  We hope in God, not despite our sufferings, but in light of our sufferings.  The saints took great joy in their tribulations because they knew God wished for them to live the life of His Son.  Adversity opens the eyes which prosperity holds shut.  We must fight the good fight in this life if we wish to be glorified in the next.
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