His Temporary Absence

Ascension Thursday Evening 2025
The Church is filled with joy on this day, because of Our Lord’s glorious entry into Heaven and because our human nature, hypostatically united to the Son of God, now sits at the right hand of the Father.  However, despite the great joy, the Apostles surely felt some sadness at the departure of their Lord and Redeemer.  We feel the same way during those moments in our spiritual journey when we no longer receive consolations and Our Lord seems far from us.  It is only by our passage through these purifications that our love of God may be tried, purified, and perfected.  Today God calls us to our heavenly Home.
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The Ever-Ascending Prayer

Ascension Thursday Morning 2025
During these forty days following the Resurrection, Our Lord appeared to all his disciples.  After He gave them His command to preach to the world, He ascended into Heaven.  Throughout the Gospels, the cloud is the symbol of the Holy Ghost, and when the cloud took Our Lord out of their sight it was as if the Holy Ghost was embracing Him, welcoming Him home.  Our Lord with His human nature and all His wounds is even now sitting at the right hand of the Father, perpetually praying for us.  We read in the Postcommunion about these “visible mysteries.”  In the liturgy, “mystery” is a synonym for “sacrament.”  The virtue that we need most in this age of crisis is hope, because the devil is forever trying to discourage us.  Today is the feast of hope.
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Pray In My Name

5th Sunday after Easter 2025

Although Memorial Day is a secular holiday, every Catholic should remember those who courageously gave their lives in service of our country and pray for them on that day.

This Mass commands us to pray in the name of Our Lord, and we fulfill this command through the liturgy.  We should pay special attention to the prayers of today’s Mass.  The maniple was not originally a vestment of the priest.  In ancient times, so many priests needed a handkerchief during the liturgy, because they were moved to tears, that the handkerchief became an official vestment.  St. James the Less reminds us to be a doer of the word, not a hearer only.  He was the cousin of Our Lord, and he is chosen to teach us the truths of the Faith during Paschaltide.  We remember this month that the Blessed Mother is Queen of Heaven and Earth, let us treat her as such.
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The Support of the Church

4th Sunday after Easter 2025

The Church would not be able to distribute its spiritual blessings to us without our support.  A Mass stipend is not a payment for the Mass, but merely a gesture of gratitude and a donation for the daily sustenance of the priest.

This week we recall the lives of Saints Bernadine of Siena and Rita of Cascia.  St. Bernadine fought tirelessly against the vice of gambling, as well as witchcraft and sins of impurity, while St. Rita lived a life of heroic virtue as a wife, mother, widow, and Augustinian nun.  She is the saint invoked for impossible causes.

In the Epistle for today’s Mass, St. James speaks of the source of our consolation and reminds us that we are the greatest creation of the Holy Trinity.  We must remain pure and meek as we cast out all evil from our lives.
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Necessary Obedience

3rd Sunday after Easter 2025

On Mother’s Day we must call to mind the Mother of all of us – the Blessed Mother.  From the instant of the Immaculate Conception, she loved the Blessed Trinity more than all the angels and saints, and that love and holiness increased every moment of her life.

Today, on their feast day, we must recall the details of the lives of the great Saints and Apostles Philip and James.

We cannot be saved without the virtue of obedience. We must first of all be obedient to the will of God and to true principles. This is a time of great joy for all Catholics, because we spend this time in the company of the risen Christ.
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He Has Loved Us to Folly

Good Friday 2025
This is the day on which we put our God to death, and when we sin, we attempt once more to destroy the God Who created us.  The prostration in this ceremony is an expression of our utter nothingness.  Friday was the day on which man was created, and so it is on this day he is redeemed.  God loved us from eternity – loved us to folly.  We are the perpetrators of the Passion, and yet Christ still gave us the grace to be sorry.  The Blessed Mother would have willingly died a million times for our sake, yet she was sustained through the unimaginable pain of soul she endured.  We hope that we might share in our Redeemer’s death today, so that, like the Good Thief, He might remember us also in His kingdom.  The Cross of Christ, along with all His sufferings, will be offered for all eternity to the Trinity for us.  Even if we were saints, we could not fathom how our God could love us in this way.
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The Infinite Worshiper

Holy Thursday 2025
Today we are celebrating the birthday of the Sacrifice of the Mass, the Holy Eucharist, and the priesthood.  We have been warned that we must learn from the sacred things we witness during this time, and it is incumbent upon us to call to mind the details of Our Lord’s life during these last days and moments before His death.  Christ explained to the Apostles at the Last Supper that the bread, wine, and lamb of the Passover meal are all one in Him.  For all priests all Thursdays are a day of retreat in commemoration of this great anniversary of the priesthood.  After the moment of the Incarnation all the prayers of the angels now pass through the Son of God made man.  First, He gave us Himself in the consecration of the bread, then in the consecration of the wine He gave us the Mass, and lastly, He instructed the Apostles to “do in like manner” and in these words He gave us the priesthood.  Today we continue the great feast of love practiced by the early Church and thank God for the birthday of the Eucharistic Christ.
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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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The Holy Family Provides

Feast of the Holy Family 2025
The Blessed Mother kept the mysteries of Our Lord’s life in her heart, and we should invoke her help whenever we meditate on those mysteries.  Holy Scripture shows St. Joseph to be the clear head of the Holy Family, not by his words but by his actions.  The event recorded in the Gospel took place when Christ was twelve years old, at the time when He became a “Son of the Law.”  By His words Christ makes it evident to the whole world that He knew He was God at every moment of His life.  St. Paul tells us in his Epistle the virtues of the Holy Family which we must imitate and use in examining our consciences.  The father is the head of the family and must be the example of the virtue of religion.  The mother is the heart of the family, who keeps all the spiritual and material needs of the children in her heart.  God has given us parents to assist us in attaining Heaven, and children are called to submit to their parents in holy obedience.  Nothing bad will ever happen to us but that which our loving Father allows.
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