Trade Nothing and Gain All

Quinquagesima Sunday 2025
In today’s Epistle, St. Paul teaches us about the greatest of the theological virtues.  In Heaven there is no need for faith nor hope, but charity will last for all eternity.  We are told by the Church Fathers that the blindness of the man in this Gospel represents our own blindness, and we too should cry out today for Christ’s help.  The work we put into any effort in life, apart from that which aids in the salvation of our souls, will eventually be taken away from us.  The saints realized that they could trade those things that have no value here on Earth to gain everything for all eternity.  Not only the one who desires riches, but also those who work tirelessly just to survive, must not lose perspective.  We should never care for sustaining our temporal lives so much that we risk losing our eternal life.  Today we come to the end of this season of examination of conscience.  We ask that God open our eyes and give us true sight, so that in seeing God we may love Him, and in seeing ourselves we may cease to love ourselves.
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We Must Be The Fertile Ground

Sexagesima Sunday 2025
The season of Septuagesima is a very ancient season of the liturgical year.  The color violet reminds us to examine our consciences and reflect on our lives.  In this season, the Divine Office calls to mind the history of man’s creation and fall, and the Gospel last week instructed us that it is never too late to labor for Christ and gain Heaven.

In today’s Epistle, St. Paul gives his credentials to the gentiles to convince them of his authority as a true minister of Christ, yet all he accomplished was made possible only by the grace of God.  In the Gospel of St. Luke, Our Lord tells us to possess a good heart so that the word of God might bear fruit in our souls.
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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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Cry Out to God!

Quinquagesima Sunday 2024
Abraham is our patron today.  His willingness to sacrifice his only begotten son was a type of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  In today’s Gospel, the Apostles did not understand Our Lord’s words.  To remove any doubts, Jesus performed the miracle of curing the blind man, demonstrating His divine power.  We also must cry out as this blind man did.  We need God to cure our blindness of heart and mind.  Our good works become void if they are not for the love of God.  Our intentions must be pure.  Today’s Epistle is a great aid to meditation and will help us obtain divine charity.
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The Call To Sanctity

Sexagesima Sunday 2024
St. Gregory tells us that this Gospel needs no explanation, because Our Lord explained it Himself.  We must ask ourselves, are we the “good ground” or are we the “bad ground”?  It is a dogma of our Faith that everyone, without discrimination, is given the chance to be saved.  If we are saved, God saves us; if we are lost, we have lost ourselves.  St. Paul teaches us in his Epistle to follow his example.  He encourages us to abandon our sins, and become great saints, willing to suffer for Christ.  It is essential that we practice mental prayer and spiritual reading and think of God frequently throughout the day.  Without these helps it is difficult to be saved.
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Saint Blaise

Feast of Saint Blaise 2024
St. Blaise was a physician who became a bishop. He was greatly loved by the faithful and they flocked to him because of his great knowledge and spiritual direction.  St. Blaise was arrested during the last of the great Roman persecutions of the Church.  On his journey he was met by a mother who pleaded with the saint to save her son who was choking on a fish bone.  St. Blaise miraculously saved the boy from death.  While he was in prison, he was brought candles and food by his loving devotees.  After his martyrdom the miracles and devotion to this saint spread far and wide throughout the Church.

The blessing of throats is a sacramental to help cure any problems of the throat, along with any other afflictions.  By the invocative blessing of throats, it does not place us in the realm of the divine, but it calls down God’s aid on the individual.
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Where Joy and Sorrow Meet

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!

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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Join The Sacrifice

Quinquagesima Sunday 2023
This is a time of examination of conscience.  Once our predominant fault is identified, we can battle against it.  At the end of this Septuagesima season, the Church reminds us that we must have Charity.  We should not only go to confession when we are in mortal sin, but often.  This is a great aid in cutting down our vices.  The priest at the “Orate Fratres” asks you to join with him in his sacrifice.  Let us truly join the priest at his Sacrifice at the Altar.
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Conversion Sunday

Sexagesima Sunday 2023
St. Paul, one of the greatest converts in the history of the Church, instructs us on our need for conversion.  This conversion of St. Paul could not have happened without the prayers of St. Stephen.  We must pray for our friends and our enemies.  We must not think that we are the good seed of the Gospel.  The word of God has not brought forth fruit a hundredfold in our hearts yet.  We wish to be better, we wish to learn, and this is the time for vigilance and growth in the love of God.
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