Favored By God

March 25, 2021By

Feast Of The Annunciation 2021
This feast celebrates the moment when salvation began with the acceptance by the Blessed Virgin Mary of her role as Mother of God and Co-Redemptrix of the human race.  God became Man today and the Incarnation is the chief teaching of the Catholic Church about Jesus Christ.  This also marks the anniversary of Our Lord’s ordination as a priest.  All this elevates the Immaculate Virgin to the threshold of divinity by her proximity to the hypostatic union which took place in her womb.  This can be considered her greatest feast.  It was a privilege for some of us to have visited the Holy House of Loretto because this is the place where it started.  We should not be rude in prayer by letting ourselves be distracted from speaking with God.
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O Happy Fault

March 21, 2021By

Passion Sunday 2021
Today is also the feast of St. Benedict whose influence has had such an impact on western civilization.  Later this week we have St. John Damascene who defended our use of images of the saints.  The liturgical year is our response to Our Lord’s command at the Last Supper to “Do this in memory of Me”.  Passion Sunday continues this on the road to Calvary by having us veil the statues of the saints as a penance and suffering.  This unites us with the sufferings of Christ and sanctifies our own sufferings which are our means of sanctification.  With this appreciation for our living in this vale of tears we can look upon Adam’s sin as something from which we can and should benefit.
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Prayer and Fasting

February 21, 2021By

1st Sunday In Lent 2021
Jesus Christ leads us by example as we begin Lent.  He sanctified the forty days we have begun by first spending that number of days in prayer and fasting in the desert before He started His public life.  Upon its completion He overcame Satan and his temptations.  We will do the same during this Lent as we walk in Christ’s footsteps by doing penance that will regain control of ourselves.  We make up for the sin of eating that Adam and Eve committed.  We follow our ancestors who made Lent holy and would not mar these forty days with war, court proceedings and other distracting activities.
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Our 40 Day Lenten Retreat

February 17, 2021By

Ash Wednesday Evening 2021
Ashes are a sacramental so we should stir up our hearts and receive them devoutly.  By popular demand the reception of ashes was extended to all the faithful not just the public penitents.  We should imitate the penitents and catechumens during this spiritual retreat and practice acts of penance like prayer, fasting, almsgiving and studying.  Our Lord taught us about these in the Sermon on the Mount from which today’s Gospel comes.  We enter Lent with Christ as our Leader so we imitate Him in His sufferings and eventually in His Resurrection.
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Ultimately Penance Is Love

February 14, 2021By

Ash Wednesday 2021
Neglect of practicing penance during Lent is a cause of the problems we experience in the world today.  The virtue of penance is a power from God which makes us hate sin, be sorry for it, make reparation for it and convert because sin offends God Who loves us.  Penance spurs us on to mortify our evil tendencies and remove the obstacles during Lent so to make room for Our Lord.  The Liturgy teaches us these things and the acts of penance are traditionally known as prayer, fasting and almsgiving.  Many ask for penances during Lent and several recommendations are given to help us make a good and holy Lent.
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Purity of Intention

February 14, 2021By

Quinquagesima Sunday 2021
In preparation for Ash Wednesday and Lent there is a review of the laws concerning fast and abstinence.  Today is also the feast of St. Valentine and his impact in our own day.  The Epistle for this Mass is taken from St. Paul and teaches us the importance of doing all our works, especially the upcoming penances, with purity of intention which is produced by charity.  The Gospel tells of the cure of the blind man by Our Lord.  We are that blind man who need God’s help to see our sinfulness and do something about it.
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Purification, Presentation and Candles

February 2, 2021By

Feast Of The Purification 2021
This feast was already old in the fourth century.  It celebrates Our Lady’s fulfilling the Law by going to the temple forty days after giving birth so she could be admitted once more ceremonially to worship.  Her humility was extraordinary because she was not bound by the Law but she freely submitted as her Divine Son did also.  In addition, on this same day, Christ was presented in the temple as the first born Son to receive His rightful place and to be ransomed for a time until His hour has come and He will return to complete the sacrifice.  The candle which is blessed and used in today’s procession reminds us of the Holy Infant being carried in the first procession centuries ago which revealed the Light of Revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Israel.
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Warning Signs Of The End

December 4, 2020By

First Friday Conference December 2020
Advent is the time of preparation for Christmas and the second coming of Christ.  The sacred liturgy has the ability because of God’s power to relive a past event like the Nativity, bring its graces to us in the present and prepare us for its fulfillment in the future with Our Lord’s return.  St. Matthew’s Gospel about the signs at the end of time is meant to warn us for the trials of those days.  St. Luke also gives these signs and encourages us to lift up our heads knowing that our redemption is near.  This conference then contains a listing and description of the signs of the times so we can be ready.
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Language of Love

September 27, 2020By

17th Sunday after Pentecost 2020
The Epistle for today points us to the Catholic Church which we are blessed to have.  It has the one true Faith and a unity of belief, worship, sacraments and hierarchy.  Christ gave us this as a means of fulfilling the two great commandments of love which He repeats in the Gospel for this Sunday.  In this kingdom we learn to speak the language of love so that we will be fluent when we reach heaven.  We must prepare now for our death which will usher us into heaven.  Pride is the obstacle and we have time now to remove this from our spiritual life.
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Friend, Come Up Higher

September 20, 2020By

16th Sunday After Pentecost 2020
This week we have the Ember Days and the feasts of St. Matthew and the North American Martyrs.  St. Paul in the Epistle for today’s Mass writes about God the Father as the source of all fatherhood in the world.  Our Lord in the Gospel teaches the importance of humility in the parable of the wedding feast.  Pride is the vice that is the worst obstacle we face in our spiritual life.  The Collect for today is about grace and how it inspires us in good works and helps us complete them.  Always follow the motions of grace that God sends.
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