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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The Protector of His People

Feast of St. Joseph 2025
We have absolute confidence in our Father, St. Joseph, and we know that he will protect his people just as he protected the Holy Family.  The devotion to St. Joseph has been practiced from the early days of the Church, and later St. Pius V established the feast day more permanently.  He helped facilitate the Incarnation, and because of this he is tied closely to the Hypostatic Union.  We see in him an example of the semi-contemplative life of prayer and work.  His heart always remained in Heaven, even in the busyness of his profession.  St. Joseph is the greatest of all the saints, after the Virgin Mary.  He is the Protector of the Holy Church and patron of the dying.  The saints tell us that there is nothing that he cannot obtain for us if we ask.
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Our Day of Celebration

All Saints Day 2024 – Evening
This is the feast day on which our heavenly victory will be celebrated one day.  Many of us personally know saints in Heaven – the baptized infants who have died.  The sign which marks the saved on their forehead is that sign given to us in Baptism.  Every time we come to Mass the liturgy is training us how to get to Heaven.  We can see this in the word “labor,” which is sung over a long melisma during the Mass.  This is to encourage us to persevere with diligence in this life.  A priest, who lived near a religious community dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, once remarked how often he was called to give a dying religious Extreme Unction on Friday nights.  There is little doubt that this was because Our Lady desired to take them to Heaven on Saturday, the day dedicated to her.
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Your Steps To Sanctity

All Saints Day 2024
This feast has a twofold purpose: firstly, to give honor to all the saints, especially those unknown saints in Heaven; and secondly, to remind us of our ultimate goal.  We are given great encouragement to follow their example in the pursuit of holiness, knowing that if they could achieve sanctity in this life, so can we.  Our Lord began His public teaching with His instruction on the beatitudes – the summit of Christian perfection.  Like a fruit that has not yet ripened, the practice of virtue in its early stages is hard, bitter, and distasteful, but with continual practice virtue ripens into the Fruits of the Holy Ghost, which make the service of God sweet, easy, and enjoyable.  If we steadfastly follow the example of the saints, this will be our feast as well someday.
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St. Francis’ Knowledge and God’s ‘Little Ones’

1st Friday Conference, October 2024
St. Francis of Assisi is greatly misunderstood and mistakenly viewed as the saint of the ecologists.  He composed a poem, which he gave to the members of his order, and this “Song of the Sun” demonstrates St. Francis’ love of nature – not for its own sake but because of its Creator.  The gift of knowledge gives one a better appreciation of God’s attributes through the beauty of the natural world.  This makes us desire the happiness of Heaven and earnestly pray that we may possess it.

The hallmark of the life of St. Therese of Lisieux is the doctrine of spiritual childhood.  In the Gospels, Our Lord not only spoke of the necessity of spiritual childhood for salvation, but warned against giving scandal to the innocent “little ones.”  St. Therese made the appreciation of her helplessness and complete trust in God the foundation of her spiritual life.  She spent her life doing little things with great love, and if we do the same, we too will be safe.
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O Victorious Prince

Feast of Saint Michael 2024
We all need a greater faith in God and His angels.  Every Catholic believes that God created creatures both spiritual and corporal, and virtually every civilization has acknowledged the existence of angelic, spiritual beings.  With the help of St. Michael and the Blessed Mother, we too can crush the devil under our feet.  This Gospel refers to the guardian angels who act as our constant protectors.  A conversion of life is the best way in which we may show honor to God and the angels.  They intercede for us, protect our purity of body and soul, and help us love God and despise the evils of the world.
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God’s Promises Accomplished

Conference on 1st Friday July 2024
In St. Paul’s instruction to the young bishop, St. Timothy, he emphasized the importance of spiritual reading.  If this instruction is given to a bishop, it applies all the more so to the laity.  Prayer and spiritual reading are necessary for the growth of sanctity.

St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria became a physician in his early life but soon discovered that his calling was not to heal men’s bodies but their souls.  He dedicated his life to the assistance of the dying and the welfare of children, and his great love of the Holy Eucharist led to his institution of the 40 Hours Devotion.

In gratitude for the victory over the forces of Free Masonry, Pope Pius IX elevated the feast of the Visitation.  There were two annunciations in preparation for the coming of the Redeemer – the annunciation of the birth of St. John the Baptist and that of Our Lord.  St. John the Baptist was the herald of Our Lord not only in his words, but in his life.  In the Visitation we see the great love of the Blessed Mother, who cares for even our smallest needs.
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God, Help Your Spouse!

Feast of Saints Peter & Paul 2024
This feast is considered so great that, since the earliest days of the church, it was given a vigil for preparation.  Red vestments are used on this day to symbolize not only the blood of these two great martyrs, but more importantly the fire of their love.  They died for everything that true Catholics believe today.  This Epistle reminds us that God is protecting us, even in our darkest moments.  We must respond to the graces of God generously and promptly, following the example of St. Peter.  The conversion of St. Paul demonstrates God’s power to bring good out of evil.  We should be inspired to see how these two great sinners became two of the greatest saints.
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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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