This is the true meaning of Christmas and its gift giving, to loving give the gift of our heart, to the One, Jesus who first gives us the gift of His.

As we continue in our great Celebration of Christmas, we come to today’s feast. Today we celebrate the feast of Epiphany. Epiphany, the day the three wise men came from a far to Bethlehem to adore the newborn King. Epiphany, which means manifestation, was the day that through the Wisemen, Christ was made Manifest to all the world, not just to the Jews, but the gentiles as well.

We know the Wisemen or Magi were probably astrologers, philosophers or maybe even Magicians before they were converted to the Christ Child. Their gifts are symbols to tell-reveal to the whole world both who this newborn Child really is and what is His mission. But the gifts also reveal to us who we are and what we are to do before this newborn king as well, that is how we are to act and what we, you and me, are to offer to Him.

With regards to who Jesus is; the Gold they offered signifies their tribute to Him as King of all kings. The incense shows us their faith that this seemingly ordinary child was indeed the true God Himself in the flesh, and thus worthy of our worship and adoration...incense is only offered to God. And the Myrrh, which was used to embalm dead bodies reveals to us Jesus' mission. It reveals to us that now God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity has become Man. Jesus, the God-Man born into this world not to live but to die, so that each of us might have life as beloved sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father; this is His mission.

And so in faith, the Magi come to adore the God King become man, who was before them in silence and poverty as a little child. In silence and poverty as well, they not only kneel down in adoration but they prostrate, on their faces in adoration before their King and their God. They offer God in Person their finest gifts. But these exterior gifts were “manifestations” if you will, of a much greater gift, the gift of their hearts, the gift of all that they had, and all that they were, the complete offering of themselves in love.

The three Wisemen are led to their God by a star. We discover that the star of the epiphany over the crib is Bethlehem is an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the star of the east who always points the way to Christmas, to Christ’s Mass; and so, to the true presence there of God still in the flesh in the Holy Eucharist. In this we can say Mary Christ Mass.

Here, at Holy Mass, at Christ’s Mass, in the modern stable of the Church we, as sons and daughters of the Most High, are to imitate the Wisemen and come before the newborn king reborn in the flesh on the crib of the altar of sacrifice though the miracle of Transubstantion. And so the actions of the Wisemen reveal to us as well, what we are to do before the newborn King born a new on the sacred altar at every sacrifice of the Mass and always present in the tabernacle for us to come and adore.

Before the Eucharistic newborn King, we just like the Wisemen, are to adore the newborn King in great reverence, poverty and silence. We too should kneel; and dare I say, even prostrate before the Lord our God. And there with great faith, we too are to bring our finest gifts before the God-King but not just gold, incense, and Myrrh.

In our case, the gold we are to give to the Person of Jesus is the treasure of all of our heart, all of our love offered to Jesus' Sacred Heart which is made truly present in the flesh and alive and beating for love of us in the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist is the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Incense we are to offer is the sweat fragrance of our good works, of our little acts of love done each day to show our Love of God and those acts done to others for love of God...all that we think, say and do for love of God first, and then for love of neighbor for love of God. Of course, the best way to offer the incense of our daily good works is to offer them, to Jesus through Mary.

And what of the Myrrh? The myrrh is the very sacrifice of our will, of our life, of our complete self, on this altar of sacrifice in loving response to the God who sacrifices Himself anew for us; to intend to live from this day on, more perfectly within the Holy Will of God.

But the sacrifice of our gifts, of ourselves isn’t the end. When we leave our gifts before Jesus newly born on the altar, He, never being outdone in generosity or love, repays the sacrifice of our gift of self with something not even the Wisemen were able to experience. Jesus leaves the crib and offers us the True Gift of Christmas, the gift Himself in the flesh, body, blood, soul and divinity…His complete gift of self in Holy Communion.

And through our Holy Communion with Him, He will possess our hearts and consume us in His love, staying within us through His Spirit even after we return home. But he can only remain within our hearts, if we leave all our earthly treasures behind and open our hearts, offer our hearts as the true gifts of Christmas to the Christ Child, just as did the three Wisemen, which is why they were wise.

This is the true meaning of Christmas and its gift giving, to loving give the gift of our heart, to the One, Jesus who first gives us the gift of His.

As result as our encounter at Holy Mass, with His true presence, with His once and for all sacrifice for us, and with our Communion with the God-King, newly born at every Holy Mass, how can we not allow ourselves to be changed by Jesus when we receive Him? We are told that after the three kings experienced Jesus they left and return to their country by another way. This "other way signifies" that once we have an encounter with the incarnate God in the Eucharist we too must leave by another way…that is we must leave this Church changed by the encounter, we must leave the old behind and begin to live anew in Christ and with Christ.

Now that we have been lead to Him and found Him, we must, absolutely must allow ourselves to be changed by this real encounter with the Christ Child, truly, personally and physically present in the Holy Eucharist. We must live another way than we have in the past. By our lives we ourselves must now manifest, reveal Jesus to the world around us—Our lives must be an epiphany of Christ and His love to others.

But before we can be transformed into the living Image of Jesus in order to manifest Him to our world, so steeped in the darkness of sin, we must offer God true worship—not just correct exterior worship as important and necessary as this is, but even more importantly correct interior worship. In other words, the Wisemen’s gifts were not just an exterior worship of God in the flesh before them. Their gifts corresponded with their interior worship which was the offering of their hearts, their complete selves to God, present in the flesh in the Christ Child. So to with us at Holy Mass. We can not just offer Jesus exterior worship, we must do this yes, and very well, but more importantly, our exterior must correspond with our interior worship, the offering of the gift of our hearts, all that we have and are for love of Jesus…this is adoration and true worship of God and this is what the gift of the Wisemen ultimately signify.

We like the Wisemen need to turn to the Star of the East, Mary, Our Blessed Mother, and ask her to help deepen our own faith, hope and love for the Christ Child-God in still present in the flesh on earth in the Holy Eucharist. The Mother of God is present at every Holy Mass in order to help us to adore her Son. By offering our hearts to Him through her hands, she will present them to her Child as if they were her own. He hands will be the living paten on which we place our heart to offer them to Jesus. She will them help us to trust in Jesus and cut any strings which prevent us from giving them totally to Him, in strings which are holding our hearts to this earth preventing us from becoming One with God. Jesus will accept our hearts from Her, She will obtain for us the grace to live out our self-offering in our daily lives, so that we can bring Christ to others and so lead them to union with God as well.

Holy Mary, stella Maris, stella orientis—Holy Mary, star of the sea, star of the east pray for us, lead us safely to Jesus; to Jesus born anew on our Altars and who awaits night and day, and so many times alone, for adorers to come and adore Him in all the tabernacles of the world, so that He can fill them with His Divine Love, with the gift of His very self, He who is love itself. Dear Mother, help us to become those true adorers for whom the Father is searching, those who will adore Him in Spirit and in Truth, that is, in the truth of the Person of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and through the power of the Holy Spirit, and live that true adoration of God out in our daily lives, doing all we do for love of God and love of neighbor for love of God manifesting and bringing the light, love and mercy of Jesus, bringing Jesus Himself to the world. Amen.

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.

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.

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

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.

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. —

our world raises and falls dependent on our faith in the Physical Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. And our life, and our family life, rises and falls dependent upon our own personal faith in the physical Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. In fact, the events, spoken about in today’s Gospel will come about from a lack of faith in the Holy Eucharist as the true and living God among us in the flesh.

Luke 21. First Sunday in Advent. November 29th, 2015

This weekend we begin the first week of advent. Advent is a privilege time of preparation in the Church, and in the hearts of her faithful members. Advent is actually, a penitential season; it is like a mini lent. In this time of advent, we should ask God to purify our hearts of our sinfulness and selfishness and fill them more fully with His Divine Grace. Advent should be a wake up call, a call for deeper repentance, a time for turning away more fully from our sins and our fears, leaving our anxieties behind and turning back in love more fully toward Christ and deeper trust in him. Advent for this reason is a time of great joy and great hope, great hope that God in His Divine mercy never abandons us, but is always ready to come to us again and again provide we turn to Him in repentance of our sins and sinfulness.

So if advent is a time of great hope, why is Jesus speaking about the terrible events in today’s Gospel-“…earths nations in agony…men dying of fear as they await the menaces of the world, and even the powers of heaven being shaken.” It would seems these words, far from increasing hope in Jesus’ coming, would fill anyone listening to them--including us, with great fear and great anxiety. Isn’t Jesus coming suppose to be about great joy and peace, but here instead, it seems it is about fear and anxiety. How is one supposed to get into the Christmas spirit after all this? Let’s look closer into this passage and its meaning for us today.

In today's Gospel, Jesus is pointing out to his disciples that when they see these terrible events he speaks about, they are not to become anxious or worried but are to raise their heads because their salvation is near at hand. Jesus is basically saying to them, “Keep your eyes focused on me, the one thing that matters and you will not become anxious or fearful for I will give you strength. Only those who fail to look up at me and keep their eyes on me will fall into despair and anxiety in the coming events, which will be caused not Me, but by men turning aways from Me.” Jesus is warning the disciples, saying “if you fail to pray to me and keep close to me, you will not have the strength to avoid the sinfulness of the world, and the destruction that will eventually follow as a result.”

Now how about us today? Jesus’ words to his disciples are just as valid for us, today, as it was for them. Our world is filled with much that takes our focus away from the most important thing, Jesus Christ and our salvation. In fact, maybe more so than in the times of the disciples. We all have so many cares in our lives, especially in these holiday seasons.

For instance, we had to work and worry to try to make Thanksgiving turn out perfect. And if that wasn’t enough anxiety, now we have to get ready for Christmas, which takes even more work and creates more anxiety. Any one who spent any time shopping this weekend knows there is a lot of tension out there, especially for those who were at the stores at 5:30 Friday morning. Now why shopping for the holiday or working to make sure the holidays turn or perfect, isn’t wrong in and of itself, should this be our main or only focus? Is this really keeping our heads up, and concentrating on what’s is most important?

All of this, including the craziness in our world day, the uncertainty of the economy and the ever looming possibility of another terrorist attack, this is all enough to cause anyone a lot of anxiety and out right fear. Some of you may be facing great personal difficulties, like a loss of a job or an illness with yourself or some one close. So in light of all of this, how can advent be at time of hope for us, a time for deeper trust in God?

Well, Advent can only be a time of hope if we take Jesus’ advice in today’s Gospel and put our advent preparations before all else, working harder at putting things back into proper order in order to make our relationship with Christ more first and foremost, so keeping our eyes fixed on Him. This begins by Making our Advent truly a time of by repentance, a time of staying more awake and keeping our heads up and focused more intently on Christ and on His Holy Catholic Church.
How do we do these things practically Speaking?

Well first we can make use of the frequent times of confessions during this advent season. If you haven’t been to confession for a while, I guarantee you life is filled with anxiety needlessly. Come to confession this advent season and your anxiety and fear will be lessened and you will find the peace your looking for. In confession you will also find the strength and grace needed to renew you prayer life in which you will receive the strength to handle the cares in you life.

And from Confession, we can spend quality time with Jesus truly present in the tabernacle. Faith in His true presence in the Holy Eucharist is the antidote to despair and the source of our Hope. In fact, our world raises and falls dependent on our faith in the Physical Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. And our life, and our family life, rises and falls dependent upon our own personal faith in the physical Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. In fact, the events, spoken about in today’s Gospel will come about from a lack of faith in the Holy Eucharist as the true and living God among us in the flesh.

And finally, practically speaking, if we are not already doing so, we can make recourse to the beautiful sacramentals of the Holy Rosary and the Brown Scapular. These sacramentals when used and worn with faith provide us with the grace to be more open to the Sacraments. They in a special way ask our the Virgin Mary, Our mother, not only to protect us, but to help us to give our cares, our hearts, our everything, with great trust totally to Jesus through her. And so, the Rosary and the Scapular especially help us to participate fully and actively at the Holy Mass so we can interiorly place our heart more fully on the paten as an loving offering to the Father in union with the offering of Jesus on the altar for our salvation-this is how as today’s psalm says, “we lift up our soul to the Lord.”

If we use this time of Advent as a grace time of preparation, I promise we will have a peace that the world cannot give, peace that can only be found by keeping our eyes on Jesus Christ, the one thing that truly matters. This Advent is truly a privilege time of hope, a time that the Church reminds us, that only by keeping our eyes on Christ can we avoid despair as our world falls around us. Advent reminds us that Jesus Christ is truly Emmanuel-God with us, and fear and anxiety are useless. God will give us the grace to keep our heads up and look at Christ if we but turn our hearts to Him, and His Church and Her Sacraments, more fully this Advent season. In the end, even though our world may fall around us, Christ will never abandoned us if we love Him and place our trust in Him, He will give us true hope and that incredible peace that only he can give.

Let us together ask our Blessed Mother to help us to prepare our hearts this advent and to keep our eyes always focused on her Son, no matter what the world throws at us. Let us ask her to help us, beginning at this Holy Mass, for the grace to make this advent the best on of our lives, one of putting Jesus Christ and our relationship with him first in lives, in order that he may come into the crib of our hearts just as he came into that crib in the stable of Bethlehem 2000yrs ago. Our Lady of the New Advent pray for us. Amen. God bless you.

For those who don't heed Advent's call to conversion before the sudden unforeseen end arrives, sadly, the advent of their lives will end in a life never truly lived, a live ending with dread, ending with the death of hope.

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. November 15th, 2015

Today is really the last “regular” Sunday of the liturgical year, as next week we will conclude the Church’s liturgical year with the Solemnity of Christ the King and then we begin Advent. The First Sunday in Advent is the official beginning of the Church’s New Year.

Advent itself, is meant to be a time of hopeful and joyful preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ first coming into the world at Christmas. However, when we begin advent in just a few weeks, you will notice that all of the Gospels, like today’s, far from joyful, take on an almost ominous theme, or one might even say, a gloomy frightening theme. This seems out of place, if you thing about it, I mean if in Advent we are preparing for such a joyful Feast as Christmas why the apparent gloom and doom. I think the answer to this questions lies in the fact that Advent isn’t meant to be just a preparation for Christmas and the celebration of Christ’s first coming, but it is much more. At a deeper level, it is really meant to be a preparation for Jesus’ coming again at the end of the world or the end of our lives which ever comes first. So explains the end of the world theme in our readings today and until Christmas.

In reality then, the end of the Church’s year also signifies the end of the world and the looking forward to Jesus second coming. So in these last weeks, before Advent, the Church already begins to emphasize the coming of Jesus in Glory, and the End Times. This reminds us that just as the Church’s year comes to a close, so too will our life someday come to a close.

And so, as we begin Advent, a time of preparation, reflection, hope and anticipation for the coming of the Messiah at Christmas, we should ask ourselves if we have fully used the “advent of our life” as a preparation for the coming of Jesus at the close of our own life--are we really ready to meet Him if He should come for us sooner than we expect? And not only that, Do we actually look forward to the end of this life with hopeful joyful expectation, the hopeful joyful expectation of little pure child waiting for Christmas and Jesus’ birth-His first coming? Or do we instead dread the end with fear?

The message of today’s Gospel, as well as the message of the coming season of advent, is that fear doesn’t have to have the Last word when we hear, contemplate and think about the end-even our end. In the book of Daniel, from which is taken our first reading, we are told that St. Michael, who is like unto God, will be sent to protect—and so hope is given,- “the wise will shine brightly,” we are told. In the Gospel, Jesus says, “I will gather the elect from the four winds.” Salvation will come. Jesus will come and Divine Mercy will be victorious over all sin and suffering, even over death itself.

Jesus has overcome our deepest fears. He has come to give us His mercy by taking away our sins and freeing us from fear for love. The wise then, are those who repent more fully of their sins and turn to God in total trust and all out love. This reveal to us that ultimately, it is our sin that causes us to be afraid, to be afraid of the coming tribulation, to be afraid of dead and judgment and ultimately even to be afraid of God. The Message of advent then, whether it be, the liturgical time before Christmas or the advent of our lives, is that God has come to save us by through His Divine Mercy, which comes to us through repentance and the forgiveness of our sins; so let us not be afraid. But for our part, in order to receive his mercy and so receive this hope, we must repent more fully, confess our sins more completely and with the help of God's grace amend our life; that is, change ourselves for the better.

Pope Francis on Friday reminded us that it is repentance that is the key to God’s Mercy (Pope Francis address to the Guardini foundation, Rome Friday Nov. 13th, 2015) In fact, during this advent, Pope Francis will begin a whole year dedicated the message of God’s Divine Mercy beginning on Dec. 8th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and ending at the beginning of Advent next year. Now is truly the time of God’s Mercy…and so now is the acceptable time of repentance (turning away from sin) and deeper conversion (turning toward God).

This Advent is really then a time of a decisive decision, a time of great action, a time for radical change. Are we going to continue to worry, hiding from God by hiding from the reality of our sinfulness and so stay in the grip of fear, the fear of what the future might bring? Or, are we going to repent more deeply and receive God's mercy and forgiveness by making a good and sincere confession and so live in the freedom of God's sons and daughters, free from the fear of what the future will hold, free to trust Jesus completely.

For those who don't heed Advent's call to conversion before the sudden unforeseen end arrives, sadly, the advent of their lives will end in a life never truly lived, a live ending with dread, ending with the death of hope. However, for those that heed this hopeful call before the end times, the advent of their lives will end in the fulfillment of hope-- the joy of the eternal Christmas of heaven and the ending love it brings, union with God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, along with Mary and Joseph and with all God’s friends—the angels and the saints.

This is the great message of hope that this last “Ordinary” Sunday of the Liturgical year and its readings brings to us. It is particularly relevant in our current situation, which seems like the beginning of the end (it is not…but it is the end of an era in the world). This time of distress in this life is short; and so, those who are faithful should not grieve over the hardships of this present time, for a life of blessedness awaits them.

Let us then repent with our whole heart, in order to save ourselves and to find life. Let us glorify the Father of Truth, who sent the Savior, and through Him revealed to us the truth and the heavenly life--to Him be glory throughout all ages, forever and ever. So that “When, as Pope Francis also recently said, “when we think about the end, the end of our life, the end of the world, every one of us will have our end; when we think about the end, with all our sins, with all our history, let’s think of the feast we will be given gratuitously and let’s raise our heads. Therefore, let there be not depression but hope.” (Morning Meditation
St. Martha Guest House. 27 November 2014.)

At the end of Holy Mass as we pray together that wonderful prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, let us do so that he would protect us and our family in the future tribulation. Hail Mary, Mother of our Hope, Pray for us, St. Joseph, Terror of Demons, come to our aid. Jesus I trust in you.