Simple New Year’s Resolutions

January 5, 2025By

Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus 2025
Not only this day, but this entire month is dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus.  The first miracle the Apostles worked was the cure recorded in today’s Gospel account.  The Second Commandment of the Decalogue is: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.  We live in a time that deliberately violates this commandment.  God’s name is “I am Who am”, and the Jews were forbidden to say this name except once a year in the Holy of Holies.  In the Old Testament, we see David ask for God to have mercy on him because of the love he has for His Holy Name.  We have been instructed to do all in the name of Our Lord.  Let us fall on our knees with the Magi in adoration of Jesus Christ and in reparation for the blasphemies against Him.
#20250105M

Listen Now

Hope In The Darkness

December 25, 2024By

Christmas Midnight Mass 2024
This is the day for which we have been preparing for so long.  This Mass is one of the three Masses of Christmas, because one Mass is not enough for this great feast.  The first Mass is particularly special, because it has been believed from the earliest days of the Church that Our Lord was born at Midnight.  The first Mass remembers the eternal generation of the Son from the Father – His birth in eternity.  The Mass at Dawn commemorates the birth of Christ in time.  The Third Mass celebrates the birth of Christ in the hearts of mankind.  This Mass dispels the darkness of the world, of the devil, and of sin.  Our Lord is the Light of the World, and He is the sole path to salvation.
#20241225K

Listen Now

Every Valley Filled and Mountain Brought Low

December 22, 2024By

4th Sunday of Advent 2024
This Epistle is an instruction for the “Ministers of the Mysteries of God” – the newly ordained priests.  It emphasizes that natural talent is not what makes a man a good and holy minister of Our Lord.  In this Gospel, the mountains and hills which must be brought low are our vices which stand as an obstacle to Our Lord’s coming, and the valleys which must be filled refer to the love of God we are lacking and must strive to increase.  Through mortification to attack our vices, and meditation to increase our love, we may prepare a fitting place in our souls for the birth of the Divine Child.
#20241222B

Listen Now

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.
#20241206

Listen Now

God’s Chastisements and the Three Days of Darkness

November 24, 2024By

Last Sunday after Pentecost 2024

This Sunday is not only a reminder of the end of time, but a reminder of the end of each individual life and our particular judgment.  Christ foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, typifying the chastisements the world will face in the last days.  We should be encouraged in seeing how God spared the Christian community of Jerusalem who heeded His warnings.  We too should watch for the signs in our own times and prepare our souls for Christ’s coming.  Whether or not we witness the Three Days of Darkness and the coming punishments of the world, we know that we are all destined to face God and must prepare to do so with the time we have left.
#20241124B

Listen Now

We Must Answer to God

November 17, 2024By

26th Sunday after Pentecost 2024
In this Epistle St. Paul encourages the Thessalonians, who were enduring persecution for the Faith, instructing them to persevere in their struggle.  The parables in the Gospel similarly encourage Christ’s followers by explaining the external growth of the Church as well as our internal growth in sanctity.  God’s ways are not ours; His way is irresistible.  We should be encouraged by the words of this Gospel and never forget the favors God has sent us.  Our battle is with principalities and powers, and it is easy to be fooled by the sophistries of a pagan society – a society which constantly makes excuses for the murder of the unborn.  Each of us, even the great and powerful, will have to make an answer to God for the choices of his life.
#20241117M

Listen Now

Our Belief In Purgatory

November 2, 2024By

All Souls Day 2024 – Evening
The Vestment for tonight’s Mass displays a cross intertwined with the branches of a weeping willow, reminding us to weep for those souls who have not reached their heavenly reward.  Because of its implicit denial of the general resurrection of the dead, the practice of cremation was so condemned by the Church that it incurred the penalty of excommunication.  We see how ancient the practice of praying for the dead is from the account of the Machabees.  To say that everyone goes to Heaven directly contradicts the words of Christ, the Scriptures, Tradition, and reason.  The souls in Purgatory are so close to their eternal end, and we must do what we can to speed their journey.
#20241102S

Listen Now

Care For The Departed

November 2, 2024By

All Souls Day 2024
We come to this Mass to help the Poor Souls.  Holy Mother Church does not neglect any of her children, even those detained in Purgatory, because God greatly desires that we care for the dead.  The origin of the maniple that the priest wears was originally a handkerchief to wipe the tears from his eyes, and in union with him we all weep for the Holy Souls today.  Everything is directed to the souls in Purgatory.  Even on this First Saturday, when the Blessed Mother is usually the focus, she defers to the suffering souls.  We pray for final perseverance, so that when we are attacked by the devil in our last moments, we will turn to God.  Heaven is only for the perfect, and in order to enter we must have no attachment to sin.  If we do not remove those attachments in this life, we must remove them in the next.
#20241102M

Listen Now

God’s Mercy For The Merciful

October 13, 2024By

21st Sunday after Pentecost 2024
The Gospel for this Mass gives us hope in God’s mercy and fear of His justice.  The debt we owe God for a single sin we have committed we could never hope to repay, so when we approach Our Lord at every Mass we beg for His mercy in the Kyrie.  God is quick to offer forgiveness, and even showers us with additional gifts.  Those who squander these gifts and fall back into their evil habits, assuming God will always show mercy, are like the man in the Gospel who warranted the wrath of his king.  Those Catholics who refuse to forgive the offenses they receive from their neighbor will be condemned as wicked servants, exemplifying the words of St. James, “Judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy.”
#20241013B

Listen Now

Can You Pass This Test?

September 1, 2024By

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.
#20240901M

Listen Now

Jan
15
St. Paul the First Hermit

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop
    To find out your shipping cost , Please proceed to checkout.
    Continue Shopping
    •‎  ‎ Sunday Mass: 9 AM  ‎ • ‎  719.985.4129 ‎  •