The Standard of Our King

Palm Sunday 2025
Through the liturgy we relive the events of the past, we reap the benefits in the present, and we receive a foretaste and promise of the future. Our Lord allowed Himself to be honored as King on Palm Sunday so that the prophecy of Zacharias might be fulfilled, yet He still entered the Holy City in all humility. In union with the priest, we unite with Christ today in His triumphal march. We hold the blessed palms as a sign of Christ’s coming victory during the procession and, as the countless martyrs throughout history, we are united in His suffering during the reading of the Passion. We are called to carry the blessed palms into the world as the standard of our King, while we conduct our lives as living images of Our Lord.
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The Beginning of Our Sanctification

Ash Wednesday Evening 2025
The sacramental of ashes is meant to be for us a memento mori – a reminder of our mortality.  We have the testimonies of St. Justin Martyr and St. Irenaeus, from the earliest centuries after Our Lord, which speak of the ancient practices of Lent and the use of blessed ashes, as well as the numerous examples of ashes being used by penitents in the Old Testament.  On this day, we stand at the border of our sanctification, and if we take advantage of the days ahead, we could be true saints by the end of this season.  There is no more difficult conflict than the battle to overcome oneself, so we must use the tools available to us in order to win our victory.  The practice of mental prayer, spiritual reading, and almsgiving are the great tools which Holy Mother Church instructs us to use during the season.
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We Are The Enemy

Ash Wednesday 2025
We are beginning the most sacred and ancient season of the liturgical year.  This season is particularly for the catechumens who are learning the Faith, and the public penitents who desired to be reunited with Our Lord.  The public penitents were sprinkled with ashes to remind them that they are dust and unto dust they shall return.  It was by the popular demand of the rest of the faithful that the sacramental of ashes was shared with all of us.  We are all sinners, and we unite with those public penitents in making up for our sins.  We have been shown the consequences of sin, we know our predominant fault, and we are ready for battle against self.  Everything we do during these days must be from the heart and caused by charity.  Today many “recall” Lent but do not live it.  The reminder of death we receive in the ashes gives us an increase of life.  We should remain joyful in our penance because through it we are becoming saints.
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Her First Great Sorrow

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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His Priestly Reign

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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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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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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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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Trinity In Unity

Trinity Sunday 2024
Today we honor the dogma at the heart of our Catholic Faith.  God, through His Divine Son, chose to reveal the truth of the Holy Trinity to mankind.  Although we could never reason to the existence of this great doctrine on our own, nor can we completely understand it in our finite minds, we firmly believe it through the gift of faith.  We should recite the Athanasian Creed to reaffirm our faith in opposition to those who deny it.  We must believe everything that Christ has revealed to us and be prepared at every moment to defend it.
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