Our Spiritual Resolutions

December 1, 2024By

1st Sunday of Advent 2024
Today is New Year’s Day in the Church, and we are reminded by the violet color at the beginning of the liturgical year to do penance for our sins.  We have a lot of work to do this Advent to prepare for the coming of Our Lord into our souls.  This is the time to make spiritual New Year’s resolutions.  If we wish to obtain our heavenly reward, we must perform the spiritual and corporal works of mercy and maintain purity of body and soul through prayer and mortification.  The Son of God honored our flesh when He took to Himself a human nature.  In following the purpose of this Advent season, let us “put aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light!”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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How We Save the World

October 6, 2024By

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 Lady Of Compassion

September 21, 2024By

17th Sunday after Pentecost 2024
The idea that there are many paths or many religions which all lead to the true God is a lie, no matter who says it.  The commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves demands that every true Catholic not only forgive his enemies but actually love them.

The devotion to the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Mother goes back to the earliest years of the Church.  The swords in the Immaculate Heart represent the great pains Our Lady suffered during the life of her Son.  To make up for these sorrows we must do penance and amend our lives.
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Our Reminder To Love

September 14, 2024By

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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For Those Who Have Lost Their Way

September 6, 2024By

1st Friday Conference September 2024
St. Tarcisius lived during the days of great persecution.  He was ordained an acolyte or deacon as a young man, and was commissioned to care for the Christian prisoners.  While bringing Viaticum to these captives, St. Tarcisius was accosted by a group of pagans.  He gave his life rather than expose the Holy Eucharist to desecration.

Devotion to the Holy Infant of Prague is loved and honored by Our Lord Himself.  Our Lord is not a child now, but this is the humble state in which He first appeared in the world.  The statue depicts the Holy Infant as both God and Man, as well as King of all creation.  His welcoming gentleness seems to radiate out from the Infant Jesus of Prague.  He makes Himself a guide to all those who have lost their way.

Much is said about the accomplishments of St. Pius X, but not enough about his interior life.  His prayer had reached the heights of contemplation and was directed by the Holy Ghost.  He radiated goodness and wanted to comfort everybody, yet fought unwaveringly against the enemies of his spiritual children.
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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.
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