Christmas 2015
Oh Holy night…the night on which our Savior was born. On this Holy night the Virgin gave birth to the One who is called Emmanuel, which means God is with us forever. The little babe born on Christmas night was and is, as the beautiful song, Adeste Fiddles (O come all ye faithful) says, “God from God, Light from Light, He comes forth from the Virgin’s womb, Our True God, begotten not made….”
Jesus, The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity come to earth, sent by the Father, has become one of us. It has been said that in the birth of Jesus, God condescended Himself in order to reach down to man who could not and cannot lift Himself up to God. As St. Augustine put it, “The Son of God became a Son of Man so that the sons of men could become sons of God.” If Jesus would have been came into to this world has a rich powerful King, that would have been condescension enough; but if more than that, Jesus has come into this world as a poor defenseless little babe, born in a stable because their was no room for Him, not even in a Inn.
The first place God in the flesh became present in this world was in a barn filled with food for animals, along with the animals themselves and all the smells that go along with them. He was laid in a manager from which the animals ate their food, a sign that this Child would become the Bread to be eaten by men. In fact, the town of Bethlehem itself means “House of Bread.” Not only did God become one of us, but He is wrapped in swaddling clothes, signifying that He would die in order to be able to give Himself as our food in the Holy Eucharist,-the “Bread of Life,” food for our eternal life. In the Holy Eucharist we can say God is truly Emmanuel-God with us, because the Holy Eucharist is literally Jesus Himself, still on earth, still in the flesh, with us always.
On this night Jesus does not wish to remain laying in a manger. No, at this Holy Christ Mass and every Holy Mass, Jesus wishes to become our food in order to give Himself, and all that He is and all that He has in the totality of His love, to Us. He wishes to enter into the stable of our hearts through Holy Communion in order to be united with us in love. He then wishes to use us to take His light, love and mercy out into our world which is so desperately in need of Jesus and His saving and healing power. But first we must make room for Him in the inn of our souls.
To receive such a gift, in fact the Christmas gifts of all gifts, we must on this altar give Him the gifts of ourself, all that we are and all that we have in the totality of our love. He comes to us this night as a little child so that we won’t be afraid of Him who is the awesome, majestic and almighty God, who made the heavens and the earth and all things in them and who continues to keep all things, including you and me in existence.
Let us not be afraid to offer our all to this little Child who is our Everything, this Child who has given us everything and everyone we have. When we give ourselves completely to Jesus we lose nothing of ourselves but gain everything besides, for we gain God, we possess Him and are possessed by Him. O come let us Adore Him. Let us adore the Child Jesus truly, physically present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist. Let us through faith, see His adorable face in the Holy Eucharist and come before Him in silence so we can hear Him speak. He alone is the answer to all of our hopes and fears through out the years. Jesus I trust in You!!!
Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is the reason for the season, but so to is Mary. Without her Jesus could not have become man; and so, without her we would not have Jesus in the Holy Eucharist-God with us. May we turn to the Virgin and entrust ourself to Her, so that she may present our hearts to Her Son. From Her hands He will truly accept us; and from her, we will receive the grace to live our lives united to Her Divine Child—Jesus, and make Him and His love present to all we meet. Amen.
I wish you all a very Blessed and Merry Christmas! May the Christ Child bless you and your families abundantly, may His Holy Mother wrap you in her mantle of mercy.
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Holy Mary, Mother of the Christ Child and so Mother of Mercy, pray for us, help us to offer our hearts totally to Jesus, may our heart and His become as one, for us and for the whole world. Amen
“Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste.” These words begin our Gospel today. And speaking of “haste,” and as it is so close to Christmas, I would wager most children wish they could have Christmas come with great “haste,” like, right now!!!
This week will certainly be the most hectic week of the year; finishing the shopping, preparing the meals, finishing the decorating, and the cards and gifts, the list is endless. We can certainly feel the pressure and the “haste” with which we will have to accomplish all that we have to get done before Christmas. And so it may also be the case, that we have not reflected much on, and so have not finished, our more important spiritual preparation for Christmas....maybe we are thinking, “I’ve got to get to confession this week!” Hopefully, this is what we are thinking if we have not yet made it.
We have to admit that many of the things we do this week will have to be done in haste if they are going to get done at all. But before we panic, let us again remind ourselves of what the season of Advent is all about and what; or should I say, Who we are really preparing for. Our Advent season is a time of expecting Christ to come, not only liturgically at Christmas, not only spiritually more deeply into the crib of our hearts, and not only at the end of the world or the end of our life which ever comes first, but also expecting and preparing for His second coming right here at this holy Mass and at every Holy Mass. For it is here, at Holy Mass, that Jesus comes again no less in the flesh than He did on that first Christmas night some two thousand years ago.
To help us prepare, in what little time we have left, today in our Gospel, we discover that our Lord often comes to us through a big surprise. In today's Gospel, we hear the account of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Elizabeth—the encounter of the two expectant mothers. For the two of them, their encounter was something that was not planned or even expected; it was a big surprise.
The surprise actually began when Zachariah the priest was offering the sacrifice in the Holy of Holies and St. Gabriel appeared to him, announcing that Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth would have a son in their old age (Not to mention that Zachariah even being chosen as the High Priest to enter into the Holies of Holy was a big surprise. Out of the tens of thousand of High Priests, it was improbable that one would be chosen in one’s lifetime). What a big surprise that must have been to see an angel, must less, St. Gabriel. In fact, poor Zachariah was so surprised he couldn't even believe what the archangel was telling him. After all, Elizabeth, his wife, had prayed for so long for a child, but remained barren and now was way past her child bearing years.
Yes, it was a big surprise from God, but Elizabeth had indeed conceived a child. So surprised was she, that she actually went into seclusion; you'd could almost image how embarrassed she must have been conceiving at such an old age. But there in seclusion, she was in for another big surprise from the Lord, when her cousin Mary came to visit. Mary too was with Child. And because of Mary's Child, surprisingly, the child within Elizabeth's own womb leaped for joy, as John the Baptist was sanctified, made holy, by the Christ Child while the two where still in their mother’s wombs. How big a surprise all of this was.
God had exceeded their wildest dreams and had fulfilled His Holy Will in these surprising events. In them, we discover that the heart of Elizabeth was open to the great surprise of God. After experiencing the surprise of the first Eucharistic procession, as Jesus was carried in to the presence of Elizabeth by a living monstrance—the Blessed Virgin Mary herself, Elizabeth exclaimed, “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” In light of the surprises of God in today's Gospel, we can only imagine about all sorts of surprises that God is capable of doing in our own lives if we are open like Elizabeth.
As Christmas nears, we can all think about the big surprises we have had in Christmas' gone by And we all look forward, especially us who are kids at heart, for big surprise to come this Christmas. And even more we hope to surprise those we love with a special gift in order to show them how much they mean to us and how much we love them.
We, in our last days before Christmas, have the opportunity to be surprised, not only by our families, but by our Blessed Lord. Because He loves you so much, Our God this Christmas wants to give you as well, a big surprise. His surprises however, come in ways we are not expecting. In fact, they come in the ordinary and even in the mundane events of everyday life.
God’s surprises come in the darkness and the quietness of a womb; and in the darkness and quietness of a stable cave. His big surprises comes to us in a tiny little ordinary poor babe, who is at the same time the Almighty God truly among us as one of us. And finally, His biggest surprise of all comes to us at Holy Mass as apparently ordinary words are spoken over ordinary bread and wine and that same little babe of Bethlehem is born anew on this sacred altar--the bread and wine transformed, through the miracle of transubstantiation, into Emmanuel--God still with us—Jesus truly present in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
Perhaps because it was so ordinary, most people missed the birth of Jesus some two thousand years ago and so missed the biggest surprise of our God. So many sadly continue to miss His coming again at every Holy Mass. And so, the question is, are we prepared for the big surprise God wants to give you this Christmas and at every Holy Christ’ Mass. Is our heart open to receive it…Him?
It not's too late, there is still time, but let us make haste!!! Oh the surprises that Our Good God has in store for those who believe, adore, hope and love Him in the Holy Eucharist!!! It is the greatest surprise of all, the greatest gift of all, because it is the gift of Himself. May we accept more fully this gift by offering more fully the gift of our own heart in return—for this is the true meaning of the Holy Mass and of Christmas—it is meant to be the ultimate exchange of gifts, God’s heart gifted to us and ours gifted to His…in fact to be open, as was Elizabeth, to the Heart of Christ really means to offer our heart in return to Him—in other words, our hearts are only open to the gift of the Heart of Jesus to the extent that we trustingly and lovingly offer our hearts in return.
Let us turn to the Virgin Mother to help us. Holy Mary, Mother of the Christ Child and so Mother of Mercy, pray for us, help us to offer our hearts totally to Jesus, may our heart and His become as one, for us and for the whole world. Jesus I trust in Thee. Amen
This week will certainly be the most hectic week of the year; finishing the shopping, preparing the meals, finishing the decorating, and the cards and gifts, the list is endless. We can certainly feel the pressure and the “haste” with which we will have to accomplish all that we have to get done before Christmas. And so it may also be the case, that we have not reflected much on, and so have not finished, our more important spiritual preparation for Christmas....maybe we are thinking, “I’ve got to get to confession this week!” Hopefully, this is what we are thinking if we have not yet made it.
We have to admit that many of the things we do this week will have to be done in haste if they are going to get done at all. But before we panic, let us again remind ourselves of what the season of Advent is all about and what; or should I say, Who we are really preparing for. Our Advent season is a time of expecting Christ to come, not only liturgically at Christmas, not only spiritually more deeply into the crib of our hearts, and not only at the end of the world or the end of our life which ever comes first, but also expecting and preparing for His second coming right here at this holy Mass and at every Holy Mass. For it is here, at Holy Mass, that Jesus comes again no less in the flesh than He did on that first Christmas night some two thousand years ago.
To help us prepare, in what little time we have left, today in our Gospel, we discover that our Lord often comes to us through a big surprise. In today's Gospel, we hear the account of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Elizabeth—the encounter of the two expectant mothers. For the two of them, their encounter was something that was not planned or even expected; it was a big surprise.
The surprise actually began when Zachariah the priest was offering the sacrifice in the Holy of Holies and St. Gabriel appeared to him, announcing that Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth would have a son in their old age (Not to mention that Zachariah even being chosen as the High Priest to enter into the Holies of Holy was a big surprise. Out of the tens of thousand of High Priests, it was improbable that one would be chosen in one’s lifetime). What a big surprise that must have been to see an angel, must less, St. Gabriel. In fact, poor Zachariah was so surprised he couldn't even believe what the archangel was telling him. After all, Elizabeth, his wife, had prayed for so long for a child, but remained barren and now was way past her child bearing years.
Yes, it was a big surprise from God, but Elizabeth had indeed conceived a child. So surprised was she, that she actually went into seclusion; you'd could almost image how embarrassed she must have been conceiving at such an old age. But there in seclusion, she was in for another big surprise from the Lord, when her cousin Mary came to visit. Mary too was with Child. And because of Mary's Child, surprisingly, the child within Elizabeth's own womb leaped for joy, as John the Baptist was sanctified, made holy, by the Christ Child while the two where still in their mother’s wombs. How big a surprise all of this was.
God had exceeded their wildest dreams and had fulfilled His Holy Will in these surprising events. In them, we discover that the heart of Elizabeth was open to the great surprise of God. After experiencing the surprise of the first Eucharistic procession, as Jesus was carried in to the presence of Elizabeth by a living monstrance—the Blessed Virgin Mary herself, Elizabeth exclaimed, “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” In light of the surprises of God in today's Gospel, we can only imagine about all sorts of surprises that God is capable of doing in our own lives if we are open like Elizabeth.
As Christmas nears, we can all think about the big surprises we have had in Christmas' gone by And we all look forward, especially us who are kids at heart, for big surprise to come this Christmas. And even more we hope to surprise those we love with a special gift in order to show them how much they mean to us and how much we love them.
We, in our last days before Christmas, have the opportunity to be surprised, not only by our families, but by our Blessed Lord. Because He loves you so much, Our God this Christmas wants to give you as well, a big surprise. His surprises however, come in ways we are not expecting. In fact, they come in the ordinary and even in the mundane events of everyday life.
God’s surprises come in the darkness and the quietness of a womb; and in the darkness and quietness of a stable cave. His big surprises comes to us in a tiny little ordinary poor babe, who is at the same time the Almighty God truly among us as one of us. And finally, His biggest surprise of all comes to us at Holy Mass as apparently ordinary words are spoken over ordinary bread and wine and that same little babe of Bethlehem is born anew on this sacred altar--the bread and wine transformed, through the miracle of transubstantiation, into Emmanuel--God still with us—Jesus truly present in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
Perhaps because it was so ordinary, most people missed the birth of Jesus some two thousand years ago and so missed the biggest surprise of our God. So many sadly continue to miss His coming again at every Holy Mass. And so, the question is, are we prepared for the big surprise God wants to give you this Christmas and at every Holy Christ’ Mass. Is our heart open to receive it…Him?
It not's too late, there is still time, but let us make haste!!! Oh the surprises that Our Good God has in store for those who believe, adore, hope and love Him in the Holy Eucharist!!! It is the greatest surprise of all, the greatest gift of all, because it is the gift of Himself. May we accept more fully this gift by offering more fully the gift of our own heart in return—for this is the true meaning of the Holy Mass and of Christmas—it is meant to be the ultimate exchange of gifts, God’s heart gifted to us and ours gifted to His…in fact to be open, as was Elizabeth, to the Heart of Christ really means to offer our heart in return to Him—in other words, our hearts are only open to the gift of the Heart of Jesus to the extent that we trustingly and lovingly offer our hearts in return.
Let us turn to the Virgin Mother to help us. Holy Mary, Mother of the Christ Child and so Mother of Mercy, pray for us, help us to offer our hearts totally to Jesus, may our heart and His become as one, for us and for the whole world. Jesus I trust in Thee. Amen
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Dear blog followers: I wrote this homily a few years ago after the killing of the small children in the Connecticut shooting. I think its message is very important in light of current events. I thought I would share it with you again.
We continue this third weekend in Advent our theme of hope. It is after all Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is taken from our first reading, which is from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Gaudete in Domino semper, iterum dico gaudete…Rejoice in the Lord always again, I say, rejoice.
In light of the tragic events this week it seems very hard to rejoice this weekend. We are indeed a country in morning. We pray for the families of those who lost their little children in the Elementary shootings in Connecticut as well as for the families of the adults that were killed as well.
For many, their hope has been shaken by the unspeakable horrors of small children being massacred by a deranged individual. After all, it is children who give us hope in this world…they are the hope of the future and we just lost 20 precious little ones. But this advent we are reminded of another little child, a child who is our hope personified. He is Emmanuel God with us…God with us even in the darkest darkness of this world, even in the midst of unspeakable horror and unspeakable sorrow.
Yesterday, I was speaking to a very nice lady. We began to speak about the tragic events that unfolded in Connecticut. I said unabashedly, that the cause of this evil was not the lack of gun control; stricter gun laws will not help us even though we will hear this as never before in the coming weeks and months. In fact more gun control will only take away our rights as law abiding Americans to protect and defend ourselves and our families; especially father’s right to protect and defend his family from evil men or even from evil governments. I told this very nice lady that the source of this evil is from the lack of peace in this world coming from the grave injustice of abortion and other crimes against life such as artificial contraception and homosexual acts and so-call Homosexual marriage.
When a country allows the killing of millions upon millions of little children in the womb, it is only a step before the killing of children outside the womb begins to increase. We see this happening more and more from little children being kidnapped and sold into prostitution in other countries, to children being abducted, then molested and killed and their lifeless bodies dumped into the woods, such as just happened to two beautiful girls in Iowa. Evil begets more evil. If we kill little children in the womb and ripped them limb-by-limb out of their mother, what’s to stop other evil from being done to children outside of the womb?
In my conversation I also pointed out how many times I hear married couples say that they are afraid and so don’t even want to bring children into this world. They say the world is such in such a terrible state that they question whether it would even be right to bring children into such a dark time. But this is the very problem; the problem is, is that we don’t have enough children. We have aborted millions and prevent millions of others from even coming into existence through artificial contraception and overall un-openness to new human life, to new human persons. And we are as a country, accepting more and more homosexual acts and “marriage” which are nothing by life-less acts which in no way can bring new life, new children, new persons, new hope into the world.
Children again are our hope; we need more children a lot more children, not less. And we need holy marriages, which rear these children and teach them the truth about God so that they can love him and adore him in this life and be happy with Him forever in the next. Thank God we have 15 mothers pregnant right now here at the parish—15 new lights of hope about to come into our world. Praise God there is hope!!! Indecently, there is a even greater crisis right now than a crisis of vocations to the priesthood; it’s a crisis of holy marriages which beget children some of who later become our priests and religious and our holy husband and wives who produce more children to adore God with their lives.
In this advent time and during Christmas we hear over and over the words of the angels to the little shepherds out in the field…Peace on earth good will to men. However the problem is, is this is not what the angel said…no, he said instead, “Peace on earth to men of good will.” That is peace on earth only comes to men of good will who promote true justice. And true justice begins with accepting the truth especially the truth about the Human Person made in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by the precious blood of the Christ Child.
And so true Justice comes about by always accepting, defending and protecting the littlest and most venerable among us…and who is the most vulnerable if not little children in the womb who can’t escape from the butchers tools of unspeakable evil. Not a gun mind you, but a suction machine, chemicals, a force grip and a scalpel. Guns don’t kill people, any more than suction machines and scalpels kill people—only people kill people.
If we want an end to the violence we are currently experiencing in our country and our world, if we want peace, then we must in justice defend life, born and unborn, young or old, sick or healthy, mentally or physically disabled or not disabled, embryonic or completely developed human persons. We must do everything we can to protect the life of all human persons from natural conception to natural death, or we will never have peace…never! We will only have more violence and more war…for “Abortion is truly the greatest threat to world peace in our world today.” (Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta).
Recently our Holy Father in his Message for World Day of Peace said, “Peacemakers are those who love, defend and promote life in its fullness,” The pope noted that “serious harm to justice and peace” comes from denying the true principles of respect for life and promotion of the “natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.”
Pope Benedict XVI, boldly stressed that pro-lifers are the ‘true peacemakers’ and that those who would support abortion promote a “false peace.”
The path to the attainment of the common good and to peace is above all that of respect for human life in all its many aspects, beginning with its conception, through its development and up to its natural end. True peacemakers, then, are those who love, defend and promote human life in all its dimensions, personal, communitarian and transcendent. Life in its fullness is the height of peace. Anyone who loves peace cannot tolerate attacks and crimes against life.
Those who insufficiently value human life and, in consequence, support among other things the liberalization of abortion, perhaps do not realize that in this way they are proposing the pursuit of a false peace. The flight from responsibility, which degrades human persons, and even more so the killing of a defenseless and innocent being, will never be able to produce happiness or peace. Indeed how could one claim to bring about peace, the integral development of peoples or even the protection of the environment without defending the life of those who are weakest, beginning with the unborn. Every offence against life, especially at its beginning, inevitably causes irreparable damage to development, peace and the environment. Neither is it just to introduce surreptitiously into legislation false rights or freedoms which, on the basis of a reductive and relativistic view of human beings and the clever use of ambiguous expressions aimed at promoting a supposed right to abortion and euthanasia, pose a threat to the fundamental right to life."
Along with principle of respect for life, the Holy Father spoke of the “need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union; such attempts actually harm and help to destabilize marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society.”
He noted that these principles are “not truths of faith,” but “inscribed in human nature itself, accessible to reason and thus common to all humanity.” Efforts to promote them, he said, “are all the more necessary the more these principles are denied or misunderstood, since this constitutes an offence against the truth of the human person, with serious harm to justice and peace.”
Other requirements for world peace mentioned by Pope Benedict include:
- “the dismantling of the dictatorship of relativism and of the supposition of a completely autonomous morality which precludes acknowledgement of the ineluctable natural moral law inscribed by God upon the conscience of every man and woman.”
-“for legal systems and the administration of justice to recognize the right to invoke the principle of conscientious objection in the face of laws or government measures that offend against human dignity, such as abortion and euthanasia.”
-“the right of individuals and communities to religious freedom.”
On the last point, the pope lamented the lack of religious freedom, even in Western nations.
“Sadly, even in countries of long-standing Christian tradition, instances of religious intolerance are becoming more numerous, especially in relation to Christianity and those who simply wear identifying signs of their religion,” he stated.
He urged that “at this stage in history, it is becoming increasingly important to promote” religious freedom “not only from the negative point of view, as freedom from – for example, obligations or limitations involving the freedom to choose one’s religion – but also from the positive point of view, in its various expressions, as freedom for – for example, bearing witness to one’s religion, making its teachings known, engaging in activities in the educational, benevolent and charitable fields which permit the practice of religious precepts, and existing and acting as social bodies structured in accordance with the proper doctrinal principles and institutional ends of each.”
It is important to note, that there is still hope for our nation, our society, our families and our world. I ended the discussion yesterday with the kind lady by telling her we can’t lose hope. But hope begins as always in the individual heart, our heart. For hope has a name and is with us now…It is Jesus Christ the Christ Child truly present with us daily both in Spirit and in the Flesh in the Holy Eucharist. This Advent reminds us that Christ has come, but he is coming again, not just at the end of the world but He is coming soon in His Holy Spirit to this world of injustice and sin; but He first wants to possess more fully our hearts.
In His Divine Mercy the Father as set a limit to how far evil can go. That limit is here; it is the final hour of God Mercy before the hour of His divine justice comes. It is not to late for us to become greater instruments of God Mercy so that the Holy Spirit through grace will purify our world. If we, not those out there, but we here present do not allow our Lord to come into our hearts more fully and completely then the Holy Spirit will purify the world by fire. By grace or by fire, either way, the purification of our world is coming and along with it the great era of peace that was promised by our Lady of Fatima, but it is up to us how it will come about.
The message of hope in this year of faith is that in faith, “we begin by speaking with Jesus in prayer, listening to what he tells us in the Gospels and looking for him in those in need (Pope Benedict tweet) (and performing works of mercy toward them). “Our hope is based on the truth that, “we as believers are never alone. God is the solid rock upon which we build our lives and His love is always faithful.” (Pope Benedict tweet) Daily, “we must offer everything we do to Lord, ask His help in all the circumstances of daily life and remember that He is always with us.” (Pope Benedict tweet)
We can change our world into a world of peace and justice and love; it is not to late; there is still hope. Let us allow the little Christ Child to change the world by first changing us more and more into his own image and likeness; let us do this by consecrating ourselves to Jesus through our lady, giving Him everything through her, and offering Him daily, all our daily spiritual and material duties no matter how small and insignificant so that she can magnify them and make them an acceptable offering to our Lord. Let us in other words, offer Jesus ourselves and all that we are, have and do, all for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, all for the Immaculate heart of Mary, all in union with St. Joseph. Amen.
In light of the tragic events this week it seems very hard to rejoice this weekend. We are indeed a country in morning. We pray for the families of those who lost their little children in the Elementary shootings in Connecticut as well as for the families of the adults that were killed as well.
For many, their hope has been shaken by the unspeakable horrors of small children being massacred by a deranged individual. After all, it is children who give us hope in this world…they are the hope of the future and we just lost 20 precious little ones. But this advent we are reminded of another little child, a child who is our hope personified. He is Emmanuel God with us…God with us even in the darkest darkness of this world, even in the midst of unspeakable horror and unspeakable sorrow.
Yesterday, I was speaking to a very nice lady. We began to speak about the tragic events that unfolded in Connecticut. I said unabashedly, that the cause of this evil was not the lack of gun control; stricter gun laws will not help us even though we will hear this as never before in the coming weeks and months. In fact more gun control will only take away our rights as law abiding Americans to protect and defend ourselves and our families; especially father’s right to protect and defend his family from evil men or even from evil governments. I told this very nice lady that the source of this evil is from the lack of peace in this world coming from the grave injustice of abortion and other crimes against life such as artificial contraception and homosexual acts and so-call Homosexual marriage.
When a country allows the killing of millions upon millions of little children in the womb, it is only a step before the killing of children outside the womb begins to increase. We see this happening more and more from little children being kidnapped and sold into prostitution in other countries, to children being abducted, then molested and killed and their lifeless bodies dumped into the woods, such as just happened to two beautiful girls in Iowa. Evil begets more evil. If we kill little children in the womb and ripped them limb-by-limb out of their mother, what’s to stop other evil from being done to children outside of the womb?
In my conversation I also pointed out how many times I hear married couples say that they are afraid and so don’t even want to bring children into this world. They say the world is such in such a terrible state that they question whether it would even be right to bring children into such a dark time. But this is the very problem; the problem is, is that we don’t have enough children. We have aborted millions and prevent millions of others from even coming into existence through artificial contraception and overall un-openness to new human life, to new human persons. And we are as a country, accepting more and more homosexual acts and “marriage” which are nothing by life-less acts which in no way can bring new life, new children, new persons, new hope into the world.
Children again are our hope; we need more children a lot more children, not less. And we need holy marriages, which rear these children and teach them the truth about God so that they can love him and adore him in this life and be happy with Him forever in the next. Thank God we have 15 mothers pregnant right now here at the parish—15 new lights of hope about to come into our world. Praise God there is hope!!! Indecently, there is a even greater crisis right now than a crisis of vocations to the priesthood; it’s a crisis of holy marriages which beget children some of who later become our priests and religious and our holy husband and wives who produce more children to adore God with their lives.
In this advent time and during Christmas we hear over and over the words of the angels to the little shepherds out in the field…Peace on earth good will to men. However the problem is, is this is not what the angel said…no, he said instead, “Peace on earth to men of good will.” That is peace on earth only comes to men of good will who promote true justice. And true justice begins with accepting the truth especially the truth about the Human Person made in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by the precious blood of the Christ Child.
And so true Justice comes about by always accepting, defending and protecting the littlest and most venerable among us…and who is the most vulnerable if not little children in the womb who can’t escape from the butchers tools of unspeakable evil. Not a gun mind you, but a suction machine, chemicals, a force grip and a scalpel. Guns don’t kill people, any more than suction machines and scalpels kill people—only people kill people.
If we want an end to the violence we are currently experiencing in our country and our world, if we want peace, then we must in justice defend life, born and unborn, young or old, sick or healthy, mentally or physically disabled or not disabled, embryonic or completely developed human persons. We must do everything we can to protect the life of all human persons from natural conception to natural death, or we will never have peace…never! We will only have more violence and more war…for “Abortion is truly the greatest threat to world peace in our world today.” (Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta).
Recently our Holy Father in his Message for World Day of Peace said, “Peacemakers are those who love, defend and promote life in its fullness,” The pope noted that “serious harm to justice and peace” comes from denying the true principles of respect for life and promotion of the “natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.”
Pope Benedict XVI, boldly stressed that pro-lifers are the ‘true peacemakers’ and that those who would support abortion promote a “false peace.”
The path to the attainment of the common good and to peace is above all that of respect for human life in all its many aspects, beginning with its conception, through its development and up to its natural end. True peacemakers, then, are those who love, defend and promote human life in all its dimensions, personal, communitarian and transcendent. Life in its fullness is the height of peace. Anyone who loves peace cannot tolerate attacks and crimes against life.
Those who insufficiently value human life and, in consequence, support among other things the liberalization of abortion, perhaps do not realize that in this way they are proposing the pursuit of a false peace. The flight from responsibility, which degrades human persons, and even more so the killing of a defenseless and innocent being, will never be able to produce happiness or peace. Indeed how could one claim to bring about peace, the integral development of peoples or even the protection of the environment without defending the life of those who are weakest, beginning with the unborn. Every offence against life, especially at its beginning, inevitably causes irreparable damage to development, peace and the environment. Neither is it just to introduce surreptitiously into legislation false rights or freedoms which, on the basis of a reductive and relativistic view of human beings and the clever use of ambiguous expressions aimed at promoting a supposed right to abortion and euthanasia, pose a threat to the fundamental right to life."
Along with principle of respect for life, the Holy Father spoke of the “need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union; such attempts actually harm and help to destabilize marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society.”
He noted that these principles are “not truths of faith,” but “inscribed in human nature itself, accessible to reason and thus common to all humanity.” Efforts to promote them, he said, “are all the more necessary the more these principles are denied or misunderstood, since this constitutes an offence against the truth of the human person, with serious harm to justice and peace.”
Other requirements for world peace mentioned by Pope Benedict include:
- “the dismantling of the dictatorship of relativism and of the supposition of a completely autonomous morality which precludes acknowledgement of the ineluctable natural moral law inscribed by God upon the conscience of every man and woman.”
-“for legal systems and the administration of justice to recognize the right to invoke the principle of conscientious objection in the face of laws or government measures that offend against human dignity, such as abortion and euthanasia.”
-“the right of individuals and communities to religious freedom.”
On the last point, the pope lamented the lack of religious freedom, even in Western nations.
“Sadly, even in countries of long-standing Christian tradition, instances of religious intolerance are becoming more numerous, especially in relation to Christianity and those who simply wear identifying signs of their religion,” he stated.
He urged that “at this stage in history, it is becoming increasingly important to promote” religious freedom “not only from the negative point of view, as freedom from – for example, obligations or limitations involving the freedom to choose one’s religion – but also from the positive point of view, in its various expressions, as freedom for – for example, bearing witness to one’s religion, making its teachings known, engaging in activities in the educational, benevolent and charitable fields which permit the practice of religious precepts, and existing and acting as social bodies structured in accordance with the proper doctrinal principles and institutional ends of each.”
It is important to note, that there is still hope for our nation, our society, our families and our world. I ended the discussion yesterday with the kind lady by telling her we can’t lose hope. But hope begins as always in the individual heart, our heart. For hope has a name and is with us now…It is Jesus Christ the Christ Child truly present with us daily both in Spirit and in the Flesh in the Holy Eucharist. This Advent reminds us that Christ has come, but he is coming again, not just at the end of the world but He is coming soon in His Holy Spirit to this world of injustice and sin; but He first wants to possess more fully our hearts.
In His Divine Mercy the Father as set a limit to how far evil can go. That limit is here; it is the final hour of God Mercy before the hour of His divine justice comes. It is not to late for us to become greater instruments of God Mercy so that the Holy Spirit through grace will purify our world. If we, not those out there, but we here present do not allow our Lord to come into our hearts more fully and completely then the Holy Spirit will purify the world by fire. By grace or by fire, either way, the purification of our world is coming and along with it the great era of peace that was promised by our Lady of Fatima, but it is up to us how it will come about.
The message of hope in this year of faith is that in faith, “we begin by speaking with Jesus in prayer, listening to what he tells us in the Gospels and looking for him in those in need (Pope Benedict tweet) (and performing works of mercy toward them). “Our hope is based on the truth that, “we as believers are never alone. God is the solid rock upon which we build our lives and His love is always faithful.” (Pope Benedict tweet) Daily, “we must offer everything we do to Lord, ask His help in all the circumstances of daily life and remember that He is always with us.” (Pope Benedict tweet)
We can change our world into a world of peace and justice and love; it is not to late; there is still hope. Let us allow the little Christ Child to change the world by first changing us more and more into his own image and likeness; let us do this by consecrating ourselves to Jesus through our lady, giving Him everything through her, and offering Him daily, all our daily spiritual and material duties no matter how small and insignificant so that she can magnify them and make them an acceptable offering to our Lord. Let us in other words, offer Jesus ourselves and all that we are, have and do, all for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, all for the Immaculate heart of Mary, all in union with St. Joseph. Amen.
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Advent is then a privilege time of grace and mercy to recognize that the greatest threat to the world, is not some great worldly power, not some evil empire or even evil terrorist; it is not the failing economy or threats to the environment; no, the greatest threat to the world is the People of God’s own infidelity to the Lord; that is, our own individual infidelity to the Lord and His Holy Will, and to His Holy Church and to her teachings.
Today we continue in our Advent Hope. And we pray that our Lord would quickly come and save the nations, including our own. We ask our Heavenly Father this Advent to stir up our hearts that we would ourselves prepare the way for the Lord, first in our own hearts and then in our parishes, our families, our community, our nation and our world.
A few years ago I read a serious of books on the Life of Christ by the Pope Emeritus, Benedict the 16th. In one of the series of three books, I don’t remember which one, the Pope quotes a famous Modern Jewish Scholar. This Scholar very honestly gives his own personal reasons for rejecting Jesus, as the Messiah whose first coming was foretold throughout the Old Testament. This scholar points out that the prophecies which tell of the coming of the Christ speak about what the world will be like after he comes. It will, according to the prophecies be a time of great peace among the inhabitants of the world…one just as to think of the great prophecy of Isaiah which speaks of the lion and the lamb laying down together.
Pope Benedict praises this Jewish scholar for both his honesty and his candor, not to mention his scholarship. The pope admits that given the situation of the world in our present day, it seems that this Jewish scholar does indeed have a point. But yet, the Pope mentions that Jesus does fulfill all of the prophecies and that there is a major difference between the time before Jesus came to earth and the time after.
The pope says that even though on the surface it doesn’t seem that the world is much different after Jesus, in reality it is entirely different. And this difference lies in the fact that now that Jesus Christ, the true messiah, has truly come, was born, lived, suffered and died and most importantly that He has truly resurrected from the dead, the world now has something it did not have before, now the world has hope. In Jesus, the world has hope, before His coming it had no hope. And so, the world has Hope not just in the fact that there is more than just this present world of suffering, pain and sorrow, of death, but that in Jesus the world has been redeemed, saved. Now it is possible in Jesus that this world can become a better place, that people can change, and most importantly, that souls can be saved from unending death.
This is the real hope that Advent brings, that in Jesus, in His birth, in His life and in His death, we can look forward to and begin already in this valley of tears, a share in the victory that is Jesus,’ A victory over sin, and so a victory over suffering and death..In this world we will have tribulation, yes, but be of good cheer, of good hope Jesus has truly overcome the world…Now we have hope in this world, and our Hope has a name, it is Jesus Himself.
In Jesus and only in Him can we defeat the evil in this world, only in Him can we defeat the true cause of that evil, and that is sin, which is ultimately man’s rejection of the Creator and God’s plan for man. Evil ultimately stems from Man not adoring with his whole heart, soul, mind and will, the Good God who created man and man’s world. Evil in the world is not God’s doing, but man, and any triumph of evil stems from man not entrusting himself to His loving Creator and obeying God’s commandments, especially the first which is to love, to adore the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”
Advent is then a privilege time of grace and mercy to recognize that the greatest threat to the world, is not some great worldly power, not some evil empire or even evil terrorist; it is not the failing economy or threats to the environment; no, the greatest threat to the world is the People of God’s own infidelity to the Lord; that is, our own individual infidelity to the Lord and His Holy Will, and to His Holy Church and to her teachings. God has fixed this! But now that fix has to be accepted by individual hearts, hearts open to God’s grace and mercy in order to be converted and so saved. The world has been redeemed by the redemption must be applied to each soul by the souls own free choice, to it’s openness shown by its repentance of sin.
Again, this is why Advent is time of repentance, a time of turning away from sin and time of turning back to God who loves each one of us so much; it is time to confess our sins, to amend our lives to the better in order to make way for the defenseless babe who was born into a cold evil world some two thousand years ago, but a babe who was the only begotten Son of the True and Living God sent into this world, not to condemn it but to save it from its sins, and to save it from its own destruction.
I would like to share with a quote from St. John Paul II the day after the horrific events on September 11th. 2001. It not only speaks of Hope, but it is also very appropriate considering the horrific events in San Bernardino California this past week:
Yesterday was a dark day in the history of humanity, a terrible affront to human dignity. After receiving the news, I followed with intense concern the developing situation, with heartfelt prayers to the Lord. How is it possible to commit acts of such savage cruelty? The human heart has depths from which schemes of unheard-of ferocity sometimes emerge, capable of destroying in a moment the normal daily life of a people. But faith comes to our aid at these times when words seem to fail. Christ’s word is the only one that can give a response to the questions which trouble our spirit. Even if the forces of darkness appear to prevail, those who believe in God know that evil and death do not have the final say. Christian hope is based on this truth; at this time our prayerful trust draws strength from it. (St. John Paul II, General Audience. Wednesday 12 September 2001)
In a few days, this Tuesday December 8th, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the womb of her mother Saint Anne. It is a Holy Day of obligation binding on all Catholics in the United States; and this year, it begins a whole year dedicated to God’s greatest attribute, His Divine Mercy…It is truly a “Year of Mercy!”
Faith reveals to us the Immaculate Conception is a pledge of and so the hope of salvation for every human creature. It is interesting that in years past, for the Holy Mass offered on the Vigil of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the priest did not wear white as he did and still does on the day of the feast. On the vigil the priest actually wore purple. Purple signifies hope and the Blessed Virgin Mary is the cause of our Hope.
Faith reminds us that by virtue of the unique privilege of the Blessed Virgin Mary she is our steadfast support in our arduous struggle against sin and its consequences. In her Immaculate Conception she has become for us the very channel of the grace we need to love Christ and His Holy Church more fully and completely. She will, if we are loyal to her and love, she will obtain for us the grace to be loyal to, to defend and even to die for love of Christ and His Holy Church and for love of our parish family, thus showing our loyalty our love for Christ even to the point of shedding our blood for Him.
In Mary, with Mary and through Mary, Christ hastens to come to us more intimately, in order that He may live in us, through us and with us. She is the one who will help us prepare the way for the Lord in our personal lives, in our parish family, in our families and in our world. And through her, we who were not born immaculate, can be purified and made immaculate, as we hasten to meet Him. who has come, who comes and who will come again, Jesus our only hope. Through our praying of the rosary and our wearing of the brown Scapular as a sign of our consecration to her, she will help us give our hearts totally to God in order to defeat the present threats against us, and so usher in the greatest time of peace that the world has ever seen (As promised at Fatima. It will be the second greatest miracle since the resurrection).
Holy Mary, Mother of the New advent, pray for us, pray for our families, pray for our beloved country. —
A few years ago I read a serious of books on the Life of Christ by the Pope Emeritus, Benedict the 16th. In one of the series of three books, I don’t remember which one, the Pope quotes a famous Modern Jewish Scholar. This Scholar very honestly gives his own personal reasons for rejecting Jesus, as the Messiah whose first coming was foretold throughout the Old Testament. This scholar points out that the prophecies which tell of the coming of the Christ speak about what the world will be like after he comes. It will, according to the prophecies be a time of great peace among the inhabitants of the world…one just as to think of the great prophecy of Isaiah which speaks of the lion and the lamb laying down together.
Pope Benedict praises this Jewish scholar for both his honesty and his candor, not to mention his scholarship. The pope admits that given the situation of the world in our present day, it seems that this Jewish scholar does indeed have a point. But yet, the Pope mentions that Jesus does fulfill all of the prophecies and that there is a major difference between the time before Jesus came to earth and the time after.
The pope says that even though on the surface it doesn’t seem that the world is much different after Jesus, in reality it is entirely different. And this difference lies in the fact that now that Jesus Christ, the true messiah, has truly come, was born, lived, suffered and died and most importantly that He has truly resurrected from the dead, the world now has something it did not have before, now the world has hope. In Jesus, the world has hope, before His coming it had no hope. And so, the world has Hope not just in the fact that there is more than just this present world of suffering, pain and sorrow, of death, but that in Jesus the world has been redeemed, saved. Now it is possible in Jesus that this world can become a better place, that people can change, and most importantly, that souls can be saved from unending death.
This is the real hope that Advent brings, that in Jesus, in His birth, in His life and in His death, we can look forward to and begin already in this valley of tears, a share in the victory that is Jesus,’ A victory over sin, and so a victory over suffering and death..In this world we will have tribulation, yes, but be of good cheer, of good hope Jesus has truly overcome the world…Now we have hope in this world, and our Hope has a name, it is Jesus Himself.
In Jesus and only in Him can we defeat the evil in this world, only in Him can we defeat the true cause of that evil, and that is sin, which is ultimately man’s rejection of the Creator and God’s plan for man. Evil ultimately stems from Man not adoring with his whole heart, soul, mind and will, the Good God who created man and man’s world. Evil in the world is not God’s doing, but man, and any triumph of evil stems from man not entrusting himself to His loving Creator and obeying God’s commandments, especially the first which is to love, to adore the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”
Advent is then a privilege time of grace and mercy to recognize that the greatest threat to the world, is not some great worldly power, not some evil empire or even evil terrorist; it is not the failing economy or threats to the environment; no, the greatest threat to the world is the People of God’s own infidelity to the Lord; that is, our own individual infidelity to the Lord and His Holy Will, and to His Holy Church and to her teachings. God has fixed this! But now that fix has to be accepted by individual hearts, hearts open to God’s grace and mercy in order to be converted and so saved. The world has been redeemed by the redemption must be applied to each soul by the souls own free choice, to it’s openness shown by its repentance of sin.
Again, this is why Advent is time of repentance, a time of turning away from sin and time of turning back to God who loves each one of us so much; it is time to confess our sins, to amend our lives to the better in order to make way for the defenseless babe who was born into a cold evil world some two thousand years ago, but a babe who was the only begotten Son of the True and Living God sent into this world, not to condemn it but to save it from its sins, and to save it from its own destruction.
I would like to share with a quote from St. John Paul II the day after the horrific events on September 11th. 2001. It not only speaks of Hope, but it is also very appropriate considering the horrific events in San Bernardino California this past week:
Yesterday was a dark day in the history of humanity, a terrible affront to human dignity. After receiving the news, I followed with intense concern the developing situation, with heartfelt prayers to the Lord. How is it possible to commit acts of such savage cruelty? The human heart has depths from which schemes of unheard-of ferocity sometimes emerge, capable of destroying in a moment the normal daily life of a people. But faith comes to our aid at these times when words seem to fail. Christ’s word is the only one that can give a response to the questions which trouble our spirit. Even if the forces of darkness appear to prevail, those who believe in God know that evil and death do not have the final say. Christian hope is based on this truth; at this time our prayerful trust draws strength from it. (St. John Paul II, General Audience. Wednesday 12 September 2001)
In a few days, this Tuesday December 8th, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the womb of her mother Saint Anne. It is a Holy Day of obligation binding on all Catholics in the United States; and this year, it begins a whole year dedicated to God’s greatest attribute, His Divine Mercy…It is truly a “Year of Mercy!”
Faith reveals to us the Immaculate Conception is a pledge of and so the hope of salvation for every human creature. It is interesting that in years past, for the Holy Mass offered on the Vigil of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the priest did not wear white as he did and still does on the day of the feast. On the vigil the priest actually wore purple. Purple signifies hope and the Blessed Virgin Mary is the cause of our Hope.
Faith reminds us that by virtue of the unique privilege of the Blessed Virgin Mary she is our steadfast support in our arduous struggle against sin and its consequences. In her Immaculate Conception she has become for us the very channel of the grace we need to love Christ and His Holy Church more fully and completely. She will, if we are loyal to her and love, she will obtain for us the grace to be loyal to, to defend and even to die for love of Christ and His Holy Church and for love of our parish family, thus showing our loyalty our love for Christ even to the point of shedding our blood for Him.
In Mary, with Mary and through Mary, Christ hastens to come to us more intimately, in order that He may live in us, through us and with us. She is the one who will help us prepare the way for the Lord in our personal lives, in our parish family, in our families and in our world. And through her, we who were not born immaculate, can be purified and made immaculate, as we hasten to meet Him. who has come, who comes and who will come again, Jesus our only hope. Through our praying of the rosary and our wearing of the brown Scapular as a sign of our consecration to her, she will help us give our hearts totally to God in order to defeat the present threats against us, and so usher in the greatest time of peace that the world has ever seen (As promised at Fatima. It will be the second greatest miracle since the resurrection).
Holy Mary, Mother of the New advent, pray for us, pray for our families, pray for our beloved country. —
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